Democrats Feel Pain on Obamacare
WHITFIELD: President Obama apologized for the rocky rollout of Obamacare this week saying, quote, "It's on me." But he said he knows all Democrats feel the blow.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is no doubt that our failure to roll out the ACA smoothly has put a burden on Democrats, whether they're running or not. Because they stood up and supported this effort through thick and thin.</s>WHITFIELD: Yesterday, 39 house Democrats crossed party lines to vote for a Republican proposal. It would let people keep their insurance plans through 2014 even if they don't match the Obamacare requirements. And, of course, it doesn't have much of a chance in the senate. And the President says if it does make it to his desk, he will veto it. But the big question remains, can the president recover. I'm joined now by political commentators Will Cane, Marc Lamont Hill and CNN senior political analyst David Gergen. Good to see all of you gentlemen. Ok. So David, you first, you know. How damaging is it for President to have some Democrats revolting? Can he recover?</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's devastating but it may not be fatal. We've seen other presidents in the past, Ronald Reagan notably in his second term had Iran Contra. He recovered from it because he had an extraordinarily good team working on damage control. Bill Clinton had Monica Lewinsky, got impeached but he came back and had several balanced budgets in a row and got other things done, he got welfare reform done and other things. So you can come back. But it's a long road. It's uphill and it's something very precious has been lost for President Obama now.</s>WHITFIELD: What's that? That whole credibility thing, trust?</s>GERGEN: Yes, the trust. Trust is a precious, precious asset for a president. Even if people disagree with you, as long as they think you're telling it to them straight, then they're more likely to go along with you or at least say ok, it's ok. If you really want to do this, I don't like it but I'll do it. But if they think they've been bamboozled, and that's what Americans feel today, then they get really angry and it's really hard to regain that trust.</s>WHITFIELD: And so Will do you agree with that? You know, devastating but not necessarily fatal. Do you think that people in general, are they blaming the President or are they blaming the President and those around him who helped craft this health plan?</s>WILL CAIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I can't agree with that, Fredricka, for one big assumption we're baking into the question. First of all, I think it's amazing, by the way, to hear David compare this, by the way, to Iran Contra or Monica Lewinsky. The difference is in this situation, why I have to take exception to an assumption and the question is that we're not done with this crisis yet. You can't recover from something that is not yet over. The President has used the analogy of fumbling the football. It's wrong and it's the wrong analogy. A better one is investing. Warren Buffett described compound interest as the eighth wonder of the world. It means your investment compounds upon itself and gets larger. We have here in the ACA, in Obamacare, a compounding problem. You know, the Web site compounds into this problem of people getting kicked off their plan. They're not directly connected but the fixes then compound another problem and that is skyrocketing premiums and a higher risk pool. And we'll do the same thing a year from now when you have the employer mandate. This isn't over. It will continue to be a problem for President Obama.</s>WHITFIELD: Marc, do you agree?</s>MARC LAMONT-HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree partly. I mean part of this certainly isn't over particularly if we see legislative solutions or responses to this crisis which sot of pushed Obamacare further and further into the margins by incentivizing young insurance holders to stay with their private or small group plans, yes.</s>CAIN: Exactly.</s>HILL: Obamacare is going to be cut off at the knees. That's going to be dangerous. That part's not over. But the part that David talked about is essentially over. And that's the trust piece of this. When I say it's over, I mean that's a finite period of time. The President has an opportunity to recover from that. The Web site can be fixed. Even skyrocketing premiums can be addressed. But the fundamental question of did the President tell us something that simply wasn't true is something that's already happened and now he needs to get into damage control mode. My concern for the President is that he doesn't always play defense well.</s>WHITFIELD: And I guess the question is how does that happen? How does that happen? How would this president, how would this White House try to recover, retain, recapture that credibility that according to the polls is long lost now -- Marc?</s>HILL: You pick the football up -- you pick the football up and you keep running. I mean he's offered the mea culpas. He said this stops with me. He didn't throw anyone in his administration under the bus. All of those things are admirable. Now he must move forward and as David said, I mean balanced budgets help things out. You know, putting forth welfare reform helps things out if that's your position. He needs progressive policy that makes Americans satisfied.</s>WHITFIELD: Yes. I wonder, David, do people want him to throw somebody under the but? Is it Kathleen Sebelius? Is it somebody else, someone does have to be blamed besides the President. We've heard it a lot but the President says the buck stops with me. It's on me. Are people fatigued of hearing that? Do they want to see this President say you are accountable or this person is to blame and it's not just the buck stops here?</s>GERGEN: I'm not sure they want to fire somebody, but they sure as heck want the government in better hands. And they want some serious adults who are in charge of things who are accountable that they can look to with some sense of ok, we're in a much better place. Let me go back to the Reagan example. You know, he brought in a whole new team after Iran contra. He brought in Howard Baker as his chief of staff with Ken Duberstein as a deputy; brought in Colin Powell to be his national security advisor. He brought in a new lawyer for it who was well respected. In that case, the President understood -- it's not a question of firing people. It is a question of showing that the government, you can trust the government. He's got a fresh team. I think this president needs to bring in a couple of people, one who's got the managerial capacity and the technical knowledge you know, has done startups, the kinds of things, David Cutler, the economist who was an architect for the plan was recommending all along. And I think he needs someone who's really trusted by the congress. I believe Tom Daschle would be a good candidate.</s>WHITFIELD: All right let's leave it there. Will, I know you have a though on that. We're going to take a short break.</s>CAIN: I do. Ok.</s>WHITFIELD: On the other side, you can give us that thought on that. Will Cane, Marc Lamont Hill, David Gergen all back with me. We're going to talk about President Obama's second term. What is next? We know it hasn't been smooth sailing but what does this do to his legacy? More when we come back.