Post Politics Hour

Federal Eye blogger Ed O'Keefe took your questions about who is up and who is down in the world of politics and the latest news out of Washington.

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Ed O'Keefe: Sorry for the late start folks, let's get started.

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Des Peres, MO: morning, Ed. What good do you think Pres. Obama did himself yesterday by talking to the AMA. Does it give him credibility to face his likeliest opponents? Did he score any points? Did he do any actual, substantive persuading? Thanks

Ed O'Keefe: It'll take a few days to really figure out if he made any substantive change or changed opinions in the audience, but is appearance is certainly consistent with his desire to take his message to potentially unfavorable or less-than favorable audiences.

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New York, NY: How strange is it that many of the same people who are now expressing their solidarity and support for the Iranian people (McCain, Podhoretz, Kristol, etc.) are the same ones who have publicly endorsed plans to bomb the country and kill many of those same Iranians. At some point, though, don't those advocating for a military action against Iran need to face up to this fundamental contradiction: Bombing that country would, in addition to generating many casualties, significantly strengthen the hand of the hardliners, poison public opinion against the West, and stifle reform efforts?

Ed O'Keefe: I think you're confusing those lawmakers'/leaders' statements: They've had issues with Iranian leadership and their nuclear developments. To my recollection they've never spoken out against the Iranian people as a whole.

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Arlington, Va.: So ABC is giving the President a prime-time special, but not allowing any opposition viewpoints. Often the claims of the mainstream media's liberal biased are dismissed, but Bush never got anything close to this kind of treatment without any rebuttal. It's restricting an honest discussion and that is a very dangerous thing.

Ed O'Keefe: It didn't take long for a question on this to pop up!

The RNC has inquired with ABC News about its primetime special scheduled for next week with President Obama. It's an hour-long discussion about the health care reform debate.

"In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda," RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay wrote to ABC News President David Westin.

"ABC News is looking for the most thoughtful and diverse voices on this issue," Westin wrote in response to McKay. "ABC News alone will select those who will be in the audience asking questions of the president. Like any programs we broadcast, ABC News will have complete editorial control. To suggest otherwise is quite unfair to both our journalists and our audience."

Read both letters

here.

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Rockville, Md.: Does the President have his votes for health care reform or not? And if so, why all the discussion. How about the "blue...?"

Ed O'Keefe: He still lacks the votes because everyone still lacks a plan that lawmakers will vote on. There is general consensus that something needs to happen, that change is needed, but everyone seems to disagree on the methods, costs, etc.

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New York, NY: Who in the federal government is worrying about what is happening in the various states as chaos reigns in NY and CA is, well, being told to Drop Dead?

Ed O'Keefe: "Concern has grown inside the White House in recent weeks as California's fiscal condition has worsened, leading to high-level administration meetings. But federal officials are worried that a bailout of California would set off a cascade of demands from other states," The Post's David Cho, Brady Dennis and Karl Vick report today.

As far as the political circus in my hometown of Albany, surely White House political aides are keeping an eye on it, but they're not bloodly likely to intervene.

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To Arlington: You gotta ignore those Drudge sirens on that ABC News story. They're only there to get the right-wingers het up about meaningless nonsense like this. Face facts: Lots of interviews occur at the White House. On lots of topics. Always have -- through both Republican and Democratic administrations. Why is this any different?

Ed O'Keefe: Exactly.

And remember: NBC got its big "all-access" tour of the White House last week, after CBS got its series of "60 Minutes" interviews with Obama at the start of the administration. White House press operations have traditionally rotated high-profile broadcast opportunities among the top networks and other news organizations, this is nothing new.

And ABC should earn credit for hosting these types of forums: They did it with President Bush I during the Gulf War, with President Clinton on the health care issue and had one of Bush II's final television interviews before he left office. I'll be watching next week, especially to see how well ABC handles its opportunity to present tough questions to Obama on the issue.

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Pittsburgh: David Letterman has now apologized repeatedly in public for his Palin-daughter/A-Rod joke. Yet some supporters of Sarah Palin are still calling for his firing. Don't they realize there's a risk of an anti-Palin backlash, in that Letterman will start to appear to be the more sympathetic protagonist who's the target of a highly personal pro-Palin vendetta?

Ed O'Keefe: Woah, slow down impatient one:

Letterman's apology occurred less than 12 hours ago! I'm sure most folks weren't awake to see it (Letterman's average ratings certainly reflect this... but I'm a devout Letterman fan.)

So give those anti-Palin folks some time to learn what he did and said last night. If they keep it up, then yes, maybe there will be some backlash.

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South Riding, VA: What will the long term effects of Obama's actions this year be? We have seen the federal government spend billions and billions of dollars. Two of the big three auto makers have gone into bankruptcy. Plans are being put into place to dramatically change how the health care system works. A short term focus may say that all of the actions are necessary to restart the economy, but with the federal government, there is always a catch or unexpected consequence that becomes clear after a few years. I am afraid that we are changing the rules of business too quickly and moving into uncharted territory. I don't think we should just accept the status quo, but also don't think that we should be rushing to change everything at once without really understanding where we are and the impact the change will have in the long term.

Ed O'Keefe: "What will the long term effects of Obama's actions this year be?"

If I knew I'd be in Vegas placing bets.

Next question?

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Fremont, California: I guess, "Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" has scrolled off your memory...

Ed O'Keefe: Nope, not at all.

McCain and his folks admitted it was a joke and yes -- MoveOn later used the comments in an ad suggesting McCain would be as "reckless" as President Bush.

But remember what else McCain said that day: "I totally support the President when he says we will not allow Iran to destroy Israel."

That seems consistent with U.S. policy, right?

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Anonymous: What does the CBO report on the Democrats' first health care reform bill do to the chances for reform? It seems pretty damaging.

Ed O'Keefe: It certainly complicates matters and throws another set of numbers into the debate. Someone asked earlier about how many votes Obama has for health care reform, I answered we don't know yet. This is one good reason why.

More on this from colleague Ezra Klein: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/06/did_the_congressional_budget_o.html

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Old Blue in Exile: Isn't California "Too Big To Fail"?

Ed O'Keefe: It might be, we'll see.

I'm putting my bid in now on the Golden Gate Bridge. Who wants in?

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New York, NY: "I think you're confusing those lawmakers'/leaders' statements: They've had issues with Iranian leadership and their nuclear developments. To my recollection they've never spoken out against the Iranian people as a whole" So the U.S. has magic bombs that can target the Iranian leadership and leave the Iranian people unharmed?

Ed O'Keefe: Of course not. Their comments against Iranian leadership is like when politicians criticized military involvement in Iraq but always added the caveat that they supported the troops.

Or, like when an American travels overseas and has someone tell them that they hate their leader, but love the people, and their Diet Coke and McDonalds.

You get the idea.

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Washington, DC: All I have to do to convince myself that ABC's yielding the floor to the Obama administration on health care -- sans any opposing or even skeptical voices -- is wrong is think what the hue and cry would have been if Fox News had allowed the Bush administration to do the same thing on Iraq and WMDs back in the day.

Shame on ABC and Westin for doing this, and shame on the rest of the media for looking the other way.

Ed O'Keefe: I would save your "shame" comments until after next week's program. Sure ABC has some obvious interest in picking up good ratings with a primetime special amid a summer TV schedule littered with repeats and "reality" shows.

I know plenty of hard-working, fair-minded people who work at ABC News, and I'm confident they'll produce a fair, balanced, accurate accounting of the situation and conduct a tough interview with the president.

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Anonymous: What will it take to win moderates like Ben Nelson, Evan Bayh, and the Maine girls for health care? A lot of the objections seem to be about the cost and the rising deficit, but increased taxes seem to be a non-starter and legitimate spending cuts (and not just claims about ending waste, fraud and abuse) are hard to come by with so much of it tied up in entitlements.

Ed O'Keefe: Anonymous, you've got it about right. The big concerns will boil down to costs and it'll be hard to hold not only moderate Republicans and Democrats, but also Democrats up for reelection in moderate states next year.

For more on the senators to watch during the health care debate, read Chris Cillizza's fantastic forecast here: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/morning-fix/061609-morning-fix.html

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re: Anonymous: The Maine Senators might come around if they weren't referred to as "Maine Girls".

Just a thought.

Ed O'Keefe: Very good point.

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NYC: What's the latest with the minnesota Senate race?

Ed O'Keefe: Grrrrr....

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Ed O'Keefe: Folks, that's it for today. Lots of good questions on a very healthy news day... Plenty of things developing on the foreign and domestic fronts of all sorts.

Check my blog,

The Federal Eye

, for the latest on the inspector general fired last week by President Obama and a new internal review of the VA's handling of medical equipment at some of its hospitals.

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