Q Just a quick follow-up on the President's role in this. He's spoken nearly every day of late, including that prime-time address you referred to. But his own party was a key block in shooting this down -- two-thirds of Republicans voted against it. Are the President's powers of persuasion, if you will, are they simply gone at this point?

MR. FRATTO: I think there has always been far too much made of any one President's powers of persuasion on an issue. We've had some really difficult debates and battles over legislation this year; we've won a lot of them, and we won a lot of them with that group that you're referring to.

This is, like I said, a very complicated issue. There are strong feelings on both sides about it. But what we are focused on is helping everyone to understand the problem and why the package of solutions that we're putting forward will be effective in addressing that problem. And that's what we're going to be focused on. We are not going to get in the business of pointing fingers at others on this.

Yes, Roger.

seen at 09:00, 30 September in Whitehouse Press Briefings. Email this to a friend.
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