Greg Valliere on President Bush's Political Standing
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT.  THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN ANCHOR: Shares of HMOs such as Cigna and Aetna will be in the spotlight today. Late Friday, the Democratic controlled Senate passed patients' rights legislation -- promising millions of Americans new health care protections. The legislation also includes provisions which would give patients the right to sue their HMOs. The Senate measure now moves to the House. President Bush is expected to work with House Republicans to limit the lawsuit provision. Here with more on the Washington beat is Greg Valliere, political economist at Charles Schwab Washington Research Group. And as we mentioned, Greg, this is a Democratic led measure but you think the Bush White House is going to back this, why?</s>GREG VALLIERE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST, CHARLES SCHWAB WASHINGTON RESEARCH GROUP: I think so, Susan, a very interesting stretch coming up in the next two or three months in Washington. Bush has had his first slump begin. His polling numbers are down, he's on the defensive not the offensive with Congress, and I think in order to get his momentum back, he's going to sign almost anything that lands on his desk whether it's education, patients' bill of rights, maybe even minimum wage. Probably a good story for him politically, but for the markets, for investors, there may be a concern that he might be moving away from his conservative philosophy.</s>LISOVICZ: Exactly, and is -- that's one of the reasons why we're seeing a slump in his popularity, it's a sense that he wouldn't be, perhaps, a centrist as he had indicated? This patients' bill of rights would certainly get him there.</s>VALLIERE: Yeah, he's going to - I think he's going to move back quite a bit to the center. The best thing for him would be if the economy came back, but I think politically he'll move away from the right wing for a while now.</s>LISOVICZ: All right, Greg Valliere, we'll be seeing you a little bit later on in the show. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com