'Top Line' -- Wheels Coming Off Obama Agenda?

July 09, 2009 2:43 PM

It's been a rough week for the Obama administration agenda -- with health care stalled in an ugly congressional back-and-forth, and the White House on the defensive about the impact of the stimulus bill.

Today on ABCNews.com's "Top Line," Rick Klein and Jonathan Karl chatted with Politico.com's Mike Allen about whether the Obama White House is concerned.

"They're not worried the wheels are coming off," Allen told us. "There is inarguable erosion in those numbers both with the independents and a couple states -- Virginia and Ohio. You know, they knew that there was always a sugar high; they knew that these numbers were always artificial and they knew that 76 percent [approval]  just doesn't last when you're doing hard things."

"But the problem is this erosion is being focused on just as the time when the Congress is being asked to make very, very, very difficult decisions."

Allen also provided some insight into the Democrats' strategy for getting health care reform through Congress: "They're having six listening sessions, which are basically therapy for House members to come, talk to the leaders and the chairmen about their problems, their needs, their desires, their demands so that they can make changes in this House bill on the front end before it comes out . . . . They're trying to use these sessions to make changes now so that there will be a smoother path later. So you don't have the . . . hilarious spectacle you had with the climate bill where people were literally asking Santa for things."

We also chatted about the latest tussle between House Democrats and the CIA, debate over the stimulus bill, and Gov. Sarah Palin. Watch the interview with Mike Allen HERE and HERE.

(Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, was scheduled to be on today's program but was a late scratch because of votes in the House. We'll reschedule him for one day soon.)