Health Care Debate - Race Against Obama's Polling Numbers

Who’s got something new to say?

Surely not members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, not four days into hearings that have provided neither light nor heat. Certainly not Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who’s doing her job in not saying much of anything (since it’s no longer even news -- or even relevant -- that she’s underwhelmed in her debut).

And maybe not Democrats on health care, who are marching deeper into legislative weeds, and have the scratches to show for it.

Timelines may not be settled, but this is a race against political clocks: the August recess and the election cycle are making the own pace. (The 2009 cycle is already upon us, with President Obama campaigning with Gov. John Corzine, D-N.J., and Vice President Joe Biden appeared with gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds, D-Va., on Thursday.)

More broadly, health care reform is shaping up as a race against President Obama’s poll numbers: If he can’t get something done when he’s at 60 percent-plus, will he be able to coax Congress into action at 50? 45?

Among the many problems at this stage of hard choices: The stakeholders -- those who claimed those seats at the table -- are starting to ask for their checks. And the president can’t offer up a bipartisan group -- or even a united party -- to coax them to stay for another few rounds.

“New fault lines are opening up everywhere you look,” Time’s Karen Tumulty writes. “It's all a sign that the season for hard decisions has arrived. . . . If the President wants to accelerate the process, he may have to abandon his original hands-off strategy and start getting more deeply involved.”

Into the danger zone: “A party-line Senate committee vote on legislation to remake the nation’s health care system underscored the absence of political consensus on what would be the biggest changes in social policy in more than 40 years,” Robert Pear and David M. Herszenhorn report in The New York Times. “But the partisan split signified potential trouble ahead. Republicans on the panel, who voted unanimously against the measure, described the idea of a new public insurance option as a deal-breaker.” - ABC News Story