David Durenberger: “I have been sort of smiling all weekend about the events of the last 2 weeks. I must say it was sort of slow in the…”

“I have been sort of smiling all weekend about the events of the last 2 weeks. I must say it was sort of slow in the health care reform business during December and January because there were not many politicians around this place, but once we all got back together again the media started focusing on what we said about health care reform or what we said about each other. It became sort of an interesting 2 weeks. But I must say I think the assessment from the so-called media pros about who is ahead or who is winning and that sort of thing sort of misses the mark. If I can guess at what I have been sensing here about the weekend, they said the first week of this new term belonged to the President because in a strong State of the Union Message, he touched the people of the country on the issue of health care reform and got the whole thing back on track. But then in the second week, with sort of the politics of vilification and one specific plan other than the President's plan, they said, well, now he is weak.”