CentristNet

President Barack Obama's White House Puts the Odds of House Passage of Obamacare at Even Money

Coming on the heels of the Massa Disaster and the Saigon analogy this morning, the NYT breaks another interesting comment from the White House this morning’s profile of Rahm Emanuel, essentially admitting that its an even-money bet as to whether Obama can force the House to pass Obamacare:

As Emanuel put it the morning of the Massachusetts election, the final judgments will depend on the final results. If the president and his chief of staff manage to salvage their ambitious campaign to overhaul health care in the next few weeks — a proposition the White House privately put at 51 percent as the month began, according to an official — then, as Emanuel said, they will be seen as smart all over again. But that 49 percent chance of failure could devastate Obama’s presidency, weaken Democrats heading into the fall midterm elections and trigger an even fiercer, more debilitating round of finger-pointing inside the administration.

The recent series of stories about Rahm has apparently angered Obama, according to the Times, which Politico notes spurred a Rahm apology:

Baker, who interviewed most of Emanuel’s inner circle, discovers that President Obama was, indeed, irked by a spate of stories defending Emanuel, including a recent Dana Milbank column that suggested the president would have been wiser to heed his underling’s advice on strategic decisions.

And Rahm seems to have apologized.

“As for Obama, ‘he’s irritated by the stories,’ a top aide told me, and Emanuel has ‘expressed regret’ to the president,’ Baker writes.

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Technorati Tags: 49%, 51%, Ambitious Campaign, Analogy, Apology, Barack Obama, Bet, Chief Of Staff, Confidence, Dana Milbank, Democrats, Disaster, Elections, Failure, Health Care, Inner Circle, Judgments, Massachusetts Election, Nyt, obamacare, Odds, Presidency, President Baker, rahm, Rahm Emanuel, Saigon, Salvage, Spate, Strategic Decisions, Underling, White House

Tags: 49%, 51%, Ambitious Campaign, Analogy, Apology, Barack Obama, Bet, Chief Of Staff, Confidence, Dana Milbank, Democrats, Disaster, Elections, Failure, Health Care, Inner Circle, Judgments, Massachusetts Election, Nyt, obamacare, Odds, Presidency, President Baker, rahm, Rahm Emanuel, Saigon, Salvage, Spate, Strategic Decisions, Underling, White House

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 2:27 pm and is filed under Daily Content. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.