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Obama Addresses Wakefield High School; Health Care Challenges; Mounting Problems in Afghanistan; Obama's Back-To-School Message
Aired September 08, 2009 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, time for your midday reset. I'm Tony Harris in the CNN NEWSROOM. It is noon in Arlington, Virginia, where President Obama is about to address students at Wakefield High. School kids all around the nation will watch live.
It is noon on Capitol Hill, where Congress is getting back to the same challenge it had when it left health insurance reform.
It is 9:00 a.m. in San Francisco, where work crews headed off a nightmarish morning commute. They got the Bay Bridge fixed and reopened today.
Let's get started!
You've heard the controversy, and the criticism. In just about a minute or so, you will hear the actual message. We will bring you President Obama's speech to schoolchildren live, as soon as it begins. Our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, joining us live with a bit of a preview. And, Suzanne, what do we know about what's going on right now with that Virginia high school?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tony, they're getting ready to listen to the president. He just wrapped up what was kind of a Q-and-A with ninth graders at Wakefield High School. Just to give you a sense of some of the questions they asked the president. One, a very personal -- what he would be like if his father was present. His father had abandoned him when he was two years old. President very candid about this, saying his father was a smart but arrogant man and he had his own issues. He believes -- his mom said if his father were around, they'd have gotten into some arguments.
But he said he made more mistakes, that even with the support of his mom, he had to raise himself but it made him stronger over time. He was asked about his goals before college, and in his words, he said he was a bit of a goof-off. And then he talked a little about the fact that he did find his way. Those are the kind of things, Tony, we'll be hearing from the speech.
This from the excerpts from the copy of the speech, rather, that has been put out ahead of time. He's going to talk about the times he missed about having his father in his life, when he felt lonely. He says he didn't fit in. He said he wasn't always focused as he should have been. There were things he wasn't proud of and he got in trouble when he should have and that his life could have easily taken a turn for the worse. But then he goes on to talk about the fact that he learned from his mistakes, from his failures and eventually he found his way, and he took responsibility for his actions and turned his life around and he felt he had the kind of support he needed, but not a lot of support at times.
That's the message he's trying to get across to school kids today, is to take responsibility, to make themselves proud, their parents proud, their country proud. Not to be afraid to ask for help or to even fail from time to time, to turn things around. And that is essentially -- that's essentially the crux of the speech, Tony.
HARRIS: Well, Suzanne, let's do this. Let's put that split up, Suzanne and Arne Duncan, the education secretary, who is warming up the crowd just ahead of the senior class president there at Wakefield, who will introduce the president. And, Suzanne, now that the text has been released, as I look at Arne Duncan, you know, it occurs to me and certainly to you, that it is part of the ruckus surrounding the speech had to do with a lesson plan that came out of the Department of Education, correct?
MALVEAUX: That's right. It was a suggestion by the Department of Education that school kids write an essay to themselves about how they could help the president. There were some people, some Republicans, who took issue with that.
One in particular, Jim Greer of the Florida Republican -- Republican group there. Who felt that that was in some way a political act, that it was, in his words, indoctrinating the children. And we have since talked to Jim gGeer, who has taken a look at the president's speech, and does not agree in his previous statements that he made earlier that this was socialist ideology. There is no such thing in this speech.
He said he's going to send his four kids to school to take a listen to this speech. That is definitely a reversal from before. It was the lesson plans that some people took issue with, and the White House seeing perhaps it was a problem for some folks, they pulled that suggested lesson plan and suggested that students write a letter to themselves about to fulfill their own short-term and long-term goals. They felt they had put the controversy to rest, and this is basically a rather innocuous speech.
HARRIS: Right. All right, our White House correspondent, Suzanne Malveaux, for us. Suzanne, appreciate it. Thank you.
We'll keep this shot up of Tim Spicer. He's the senior class president at Wakefield High School, and he is about to introduce the president of the United States. Can you imagine what a moment this is for this young man?
A little background as we get close to that particular moment. A little background on the school hosting the president's message to students today. Wakefield High School has a diverse student body. The 2008 enrollment was 47 percent Hispanic, 27 percent black, 14 percent white, and 11 percent Asian. The school has a projected enrollment this year of 1,363 students. It had an on-time graduation rate of more than 63 percent last year.
Not all schools will be tuning in to the president's back-to- school message today. Some districts in the Virginia area won't air the speech. Others will allow teachers to show it only if they've notified parents in advance.
Let's go back now to Tim Spicer introducing the president of the United States. What a moment for this young man.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
TIM SPICER, SENIOR CLASS PRESIDENT AT WAKEFIELD HIGH SCHOOL: ... Yes, we can. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the president of the United States of America, Barack Obama.
(MUSIC PLAYING, "HAIL TO THE CHIEF")
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, everybody.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody.
All right, everybody go ahead and have a seat.
How's everybody doing today?
(APPLAUSE)
How about Tim Spicer?
(APPLAUSE)
I am here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we've got students tuning in from all across America, from kindergarten through 12th grade. And I am just so glad that all could join us today.
And I want to thank Wakefield for being such an outstanding host. Give yourselves a big round of applause.
(APPLAUSE)
I know that for many of you today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten or starting middle or high schoolit's your first day in a new school, so it's understandable if you're a little nervous.
I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go.
(APPLAUSE)
And no matter what grade you're in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could've stayed in bed just a little longer this morning. I know that feeling.
When I was young, my family lived overseas. I live in Indonesia for a few years. And my mother, she didn't have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. But she thought it was important for me to keep up with American education.
So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday. But because she had to go to work, the only time she could do it was at 4:30 in the morning.
Now, as you might imagine, I wasn't too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I'd fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I'd complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and she'd say, "This is no picnic for me either, Buster."
(LAUGHTER)
So I know that some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I'm here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I'm here because I want to talk with you about your education and what's expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now, I've given a lot of speeches about education, and I've talked about responsibility a lot.
OBAMA: I've talked about teachers' responsibility for inspiring students and pushing you to learn.
I've talked about your parents' responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and you get your homework done, and don't spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with the X-box.
I've talked a lot about your government's responsibility for setting high standards, and supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren't working where students aren't getting the opportunities that they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world, and none of it will make a difference -- none of it will matter -- unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities: unless you show up to those schools, unless you pay attention to those teachers, unless you listen to your parents and grandparents and other adults and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide. Maybe you could be a great writer; maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in the newspaper. But you might not know it until you write that English paper -- that English class that's assigned to you.
Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor; maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or the new medicine or vaccine. But you might not know it until you do your project for your science class.
Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice. But you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it.
You want to be a doctor or a teacher or a police officer, you want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military, you're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers.
You cannot drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to train for it and work for it and learn for it.
And this isn't just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. The future of America depends on you.
What you're learning in school today will determine whether we asa nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You'll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies, and protect our environment.
You'll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free.
You'll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies, that'll create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents and your skills and your intellect so you can help us old folks solve our most difficult problems.
If you don't do that, if you quit on school, you're not just quitting on yourself, you're quitting on your country.
Now, I know it's not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your school work. I get it. I know what it's like.
My father left my family when I was 2 years old, and I was raised by a single mom who had to work and had struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn't always able to give us the things that other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life.
There were times when I was lonely and I felt like I didn't fit in.
So I wasn't always as focused as I should have been on school, and I did some things that I'm not proud of, and I got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was -- I was lucky. I got a lot of second chances and I had the opportunity to go to college and law school and follow my dreams.
My wife, our first lady, Michelle Obama -- she has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn't have a lot of money. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
But some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where youdon't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home -- none of that is an excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude in school. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher or cutting class or dropping out of school.
There is no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn't have to determine where you'll end up. No one's written your destiny for you. Because here in America, you write your own destiny, you make your own future.
That's what young people like you are doing every day, all across America; young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas.
Jazmin didn't speak English when she first started school. Neither of her parents have gone to college. But she worked hard, earned good grades and got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to becoming Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I'm thinking about Andoni Schultz from Los Altos, California, who's fought brain cancer since he was 3. He's had to endure all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory so it took him much longer -- hundreds of extra hours - to do his school work, but he never fell behind. He's headed to college this fall.
And then there's Shantell Steve from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods in the city, she managed to get a job at alocal health care center, start a program to keep young people out ofgangs, and she's on track to graduate high school with honors and goon to college.
And Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren't any different from any of you. They face challenges in their lives just like you do. In some cases, they've got it a lot worse off than many of you. But they refuse to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their lives, for their education and set goals for themselves, and I expect all of you to do the same.
That's why today I'm calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education and do everything you can to meet them.
Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending some time each day reading a book. Maybe you'll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity or volunteer in your community. Maybe you'll decide to standup for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all young people deserve a safe environment to study and learn.
Maybe you'll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn.
And along those lines, by the way, I hope all of you are washing your hands a lot and that you stay home from school when you don't feel well so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
But whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes you get that sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work; that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star.
Chances are, you're not going to be any of those things.
The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You won't click with every teacher that you have. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right at this minute. And you won't necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That's OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who've had the most failures.
J.K. Rowlings (sic), who wrote Harry Potter -- her first Harry Potter book was rejected 12 times before it was finally published.
Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team. He lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, "I have failed over and over and over again in my life, and that's why I succeed." These people succeeded because they understood that you can't let your failures define you; you have to let your failures teach you; you have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.
So if you get into trouble, that doesn't mean you're a troublemaker. It means you need to try harder to act right.
If you get a bad grade, that doesn't mean you're stupid. It just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one's born being good at all things. You become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice.
The same principle applies to your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right. You might have to read something a few times before you understand it. You definitely have to do a few drafts of a paper before it's good enough to hand in.
Don't be afraid to ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn't a sign of weakness, it's a sign of strength, because it shows you have the courage to admit when you don't know something and that, then, allows you to learn something new.
So find an adult that you trust -- a parent, a grandparent or a teacher, a coach or a counselor -- and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you're struggling, even when you're discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you, don't ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.
It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and they founded this nation - young people; students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon; students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today I want to ask all of you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in 20 or 50 or 100 years say about what all of you did for this country?
Now, your families, your teachers and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books and the equipment and the computers you need to learn.
But you've got to do your part, too. So I expect all of you toget serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you.
So, don't let us down. Don't let your family down, or your country down. Most of all, don't let yourself down. Make us all proud.
Thank you very much, everybody.
God bless you. God bless America.
(APPLAUSE)
Thank you. Thank you.
HARRIS: There you have it. The president, his message at Wakefield High School in Virginia. Pep talk to students there. President of the United States. We want to know what you think of the president's speech. You've heard it. Opportunity for you now to leave your comments on my blog.
Do you know what? We've got a couple comments here. Let me read a few. Folks who have been watching the speech and have sent them right away. Able to turn those around. This from Dawn, who says, "Don't see what the problem is with having our children hear the president of the United States speak. We voted him into office as a nation. As long as we have a democracy, where we can choose our president, I don't see why people are so upset. It is not like we are in North Korea with a dictator at the reins."
Lavet writes, "It's a sad day in America when a president's speech to kids has to be screened before being released, and then after being previewed, our kids are still denied this talk."
Where did I put the other one here? Oh, "This knowledge, because of your hatred, we know the underlying reason for this opposition against the president's speech. We just dared to say it." OK. This one from Pascal. "Here in Canada, we respect our prime minister. We would never question him. If he would decide to speak to our kids, we'd trust him, even if we don't agree with all his policies."
Just a quick question to our team back in the control room. Anyone still in opposition to the speech who has blogged us so far? Nothing so far? Okay. We will continue to watch the blog, CNN.com/tony, if you'd like to get us your comments on the president's speech.
President Obama is trying to reach out to students. I'm going to talk to a school leader who has a tremendous track record in that area and ask him how the president did. We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Hey, this just in. We want to roll this for you. Just before the pep rally, the pep talk to students at Wakefield High School, the president held this kind of informal, roundtable discussion with students. We just wanted to play this for you and have you listen in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: ... whatever it is I feel like picking up. I can't go take a walk without shutting down a whole bunch of roads and really inconveniencing a lot of people.
And so in terms of my own personal life, I think the biggest change is that I'm inside what's called the bubble, you know? I can't just do things on the spur of the moment, and that's actually the toughest thing about being president. Because, you know, you want to just be able to interact with people normally, right? And these days, either people are waving and really happy to see me or they're booing me saying, you know -- but nobody just kind of interacts with you in a normal way.
The good thing about being president is I've got this really nice home office called the Oval Office, and it means that I don't have a commute. Basically I walk downstairs. I'm in my office. I'm working. And then I can leave to get home in time to have dinner with my family. So, I'm spending a lot more time with my kids now and my wife now and having dinner with them every night. That's a lot better than it was before when I was traveling a lot and commuting back and forth between D.C. and Chicago. So, that's really good.
Now, obviously the other way my life has changed is just I have so much more responsibility, but that part -- that part of the job I really enjoy. I mean, I really like meeting smart people who are passionate, you know, about their work, trying to figure out how do we get the schools better, how do we, you know, provide health care for people who don't have it. The policy work of thinking through, you know, how can we make changes in the country that will give people more opportunity, better jobs, better education, that stuff is what I spend most of my day doing, and that's really interesting. I really enjoy it.
All right. Who else? Right here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All right. There you have the president of the United States and the education secretary, Arne Duncan. These are the moments just before the pep talk, which concluded, oh, about three, four, five minutes ago.
This was just a sort of informal, roundtable discussion with the president and the education secretary, with the president reflecting on his job, what it's like. He says he's got a pretty cool office that doesn't require a commute. His likes and what his day and days are typically like. So, the president and the education secretary, Arne Duncan, there.
President Obama holding a health care strategy session with Democratic congressional leaders this afternoon. Aides say the president will be very forceful about reform when he addresses Congress tomorrow night. We may have gotten a bit of a preview when he gave a fiery, campaign-style speech at a Labor Day rally. The president had a question for his health care critics.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: What are you going to do? What's your answer? What's your solution? And you know what, they don't have one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Congress is back from vacation, and a group of key senators is huddling on health care. The Gang of Six trying to fashion a compromise bill in the Senate finance committee. One of those senators noted the president's new tone, Republican Charles Grassley, on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: I've been working the last three or four months with Senator Baucus, one-on-one, and then later with the group of six to come up with a bipartisan plan, and it seems to me that the bipartisan approach is the best.
And if you look at the president during his campaign, he wanted to be post-partisan, and it seems to me like those statements yesterday were very partisan, contrary to what he promised in the last campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, Congress is back after a break punctuated by the ruckus over health care reform. Little appears to have changed since lawmakers left town in July. If anything, the atmosphere seems more bitter and maybe a bit more divisive. Is that possible?
CNN's Brianna Keilar is on Capitol Hill. And Politico Executive Director Jim Vandehei is across the Potomac in Arlington, Virginia.
Good to have both of you with us.
And, Brianna, let's start with you. Bring us up to speed, if you will, on what lawmakers are working on today. That gang of six that we're talking about.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're keeping an eye on a meeting that is set to happen here in a couple hours, Tony, between the so-called gang of six -- three Democrats, three Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee -- who have been working towards a bipartisan agreement. They don't have one yet, but there is a proposal on the table put there by Senator Max Baucus, the top Democrat, the chairman of this committee.
The key element of it, of course, not a public option. It is a health care cooperative. A non-profit health co-op. And I spoke with Senator Grassley this morning. He said he's hopeful that this group can strike a bipartisan deal before the president's speech tomorrow night. He said it's a really tight time line, makes him a little uncomfortable, but he's hopeful they can strike a deal.
I have to tell you, of course, Tony, it's still up in the air if they're really going to be able to achieve that.
HARRIS: Yes. All right. Let's bring in Jim Vandehei.
Jim, what does that proposal mean for the president and the president's speech tomorrow? Does it, in essence, say to the president, look, this idea of a public option taken off the table, it's a nonstarter. It's not going anywhere. And, furthermore, don't think about writing your own bill because that's probably not going to go anyway either. What does this proposal mean?
JIM VANDEHEI, CO-FOUNDER, "POLITICO": It makes it a heck of a lot harder for him to put the finishing touches on that speech. My understanding, he's going through another draft right now and they don't know what to do because they don't know if Baucus and Grassley can actually get a deal. And in all likelihood we won't know that by tomorrow. He would really like to have a bipartisan deal, even if a bipartisan deal is defined by having one or two or three of all the Republicans supporting it. They don't think that they're going to get that, but as long as there's hope, they think that's the easiest way out for him.
As far as the public option, I think he's going to continue to say what he's been saying. That he personally supports it but that he's not going to let reform die over it. I think that's going to infuriate both the left and the right. The right's going to say, look, this is just part of a government takeover. The left's going to say, why can't we fight harder.
We've got a great piece that we just posted by Ben Smith. Steve Gillibrand was one of the top officials in the Obama administration, he's now criticizing the Obama administration and the president himself, saying that he really wishes that they would fight harder and that they would cling more to the principles they talked about in the campaign. And I think that just illustrates the frustration that there is on the left. The president is in a very tough situation because the right's not happy, the left's not happy and the center is sort of happy one day and not happy the next.
HARRIS: Jim, fighting harder, what does that really mean practically? Does that really mean, in essence, go it alone if necessary? Do the deal, just the Democrats behind this, all the way, hopefully getting Olympia Snowe on board?
VANDEHEI: Yes, absolutely. And not even -- I think there's a lot of liberals that say, I don't care if we get a single Republican. Listen, we've got power. We won the election. The election was a mandate. We have it. Let's use it. You don't get power like this often in Washington where you have control of the House, Senate and the White House. Let's ram it through. Let's have a public option. Let's do health care the way that we want to do it. The problem with that is, is that they're not just getting objections from Republicans, they're getting it from centrist Democrats who got an earful when they went home. So if they can't get Ben Nelson and if they can't get the blue dogs, and the blue dogs are the centrists -- are conservative Democrats in the House, they can't get it through with their own party. And that's why the president finds himself in this pickle. And I don't care how good that speech is, it's going to have -- it's not going to be enough to get this thing done right away. It's going to take weeks and weeks and weeks of working its way through an very ugly legislative process to see if a compromise is possible.
HARRIS: And, Brianna, that bring me back to you, this idea of a compromise. Is a compromise even possible here? Look, you've been reading the tea leaves. You've been talking to everyone in the Finance Committee. You've take an look at this proposal from the chairman of the Finance Committee, Max Baucus. Is a compromise even possible?
KEILAR: I think at this point you can't shut the door on it in the Senate Finance Committee. And you heard Chuck Grassley say that he's hopeful. There seems to be this coalescing, as there has been for some time, over this idea of a co-op. But the bigger issue is that Democrats and this group, this gang of six in the Senate, are really at odds with Democrats in the House. You heard Jim talk about that huge gulf that the president has to straddle.
You know, there are some liberal Democrats in the House that are really digging in and saying, I'm not voting for health care overhaul unless it has a public option. And something that really struck us as very interesting this morning, Tony, Mike Ross, congressman from Arkansas, we went to his town hall meetings. He says that he will not vote for a health care overhaul bill if it has a public option. And this is really interesting because he actually struck a deal to allow a bill to move out of committee that included a public option. He actually struck a deal to allow to it move forward in committee. It included a public option.
And so you can just see now people are really staking out their claims. But more than anything, in between those two positions, there are a lot of Democrats who want to know, what do I need to hold on to, what can I let go of? And they're really looking to President Obama for guidance on that.
HARRIS: Hey, Jim Vandehei, when you listen to this, you know, it seems that more or less the major stakeholders in this -- we're talking about doctors, we're talking about hospitals, we're talking about insurance companies -- are on board with the idea that health reform is necessary. You put this into the political arena and I'm wondering, where are we in this entire process? If this is a 100- meter race, where are we? Sixty meters to the finish line? Seventy meters? Where are we?
VANDEHEI: It depends if there is a finish line. I mean, I think if you're going to get a deal, you're going to get it in the next eight to 10 weeks. Is it possible to have a compromise? Absolutely. Why? Because the president himself is very willing to compromise. I don't think he -- I think he cares about the broad parameters. I don't think he cares about the details. He just wants a bill.
I'll save your viewers a little bit of time as they sort of sift through this. There's not going to be a public option in this bill. There are not the votes in the House and Senate to get it through. The president knows it. Rahm Emanuel knows it. And that's why they're trying to find a compromise. It might be a trigger. It might be co-op. But this is a -- this public option, which we keep talking about, there just -- there isn't the will. You know, Brianna was just talking about this. Like Mike Ross comes back. A bunch of people came back and these are Democrats saying, I don't want a public option because the public has said no to this.
So what does a final bill look like? There is a broad area of consensus on making sure that health care is portable (ph), that you don't lose it because you have a severe illness. That you figure out a way to cut costs and you at least use Medicaid and some other programs to take people who are uninsured and get them insurance. There is some consensus around those areas. So I think you could have the nucleus of a deal, but we're still a long ways from a deal. So is it 60 yards, 100 yards? I have no clue.
HARRIS: And your analysis, Jim, is that there is not going to be a public option.
VANDEHEI: No, there's not the votes right now.
HARRIS: Well, let me just...
VANDEHEI: That's why the White House is having a hard time. You talk to the White House officials. They tell us, off the record, that they know it. The votes aren't there. That liberals might love the idea, but they can't get moderate Democrats and they can't get a single Republican vote. Therefore, it takes 60 votes or you can go to reconciliation in the Senate, which is a messy, ugly process that is far more complicated than people I think realize and reconciliation allows you to do it with 50 votes instead of 60 votes. They don't want to do that. It's the last thing they want to resort to. It would make this town significantly more ugly than it already is and it's pretty damn ugly with the politics right now.
So, they're trying to figure out a compromise bill and they know at the very best the public option would be a trigger if insurance companies can not bring down those prices over a period of time. And we're not talking a year. We're probably talking several years that they would have to bring those prices down before that trigger would happen.
HARRIS: Whoa, Jim Vandehei, that's really strong.
Brianna, you just heard that. Any reaction to what Jim has just said?
KEILAR: Well, I think it -- you know, I think it's one of those things. He's say no public option and we've been saying for some time, Tony, that there just really isn't the will for it in the Senate unless they go -- he called it reconciliation. This budget maneuver in the Senate.
And there's a sense that if Democrats are going to go that way, and they keep sort of waving that around as a stick, if you will, but if they're going to go that way, there's this sense that they're going to get a lot less than they want. And there are a lot of Democrats who don't want to go that route.
So I think now the next step is, as you hear the administration saying that no public option is not a deal breaker for them, or signaling that at least, how do you bring some of those liberal Democrats on board, for instance in the House, who say they're not voting for a bill without a public option? You have to give them something. And so I think we're going to see is that insisting on market reforms really making insurance companies get in line, what are they going to be offered?
HARRIS: We are getting -- we are absolutely getting to the rub of this.
Jim Vandehei, appreciate it.
Brianna, as always, thank you.
Let's get to our top stories now.
President Obama wraps up his welcome back speech at a high school in Arlington, Virginia. The message -- be smart, stay in school. Some districts have chosen not to show the speech. Others have picked an alternate viewing time.
North of Los Angeles, unpredictable flames and wind are posing a challenge for firefighters. The 246-square-mile station fire is about 56 percent contained. Yesterday, firefighters had scrapped plans to set preventative backfires because of a new flare-up.
Milwaukee police believe they've caught the so-called North Side Strangler. Forty-nine-year-old Walter Ellis is suspected in the murders of nine women over the last 21 years. Most of them were prostitutes. Police say DNA evidence links Ellis to the crimes.
We will get another check of your top stories in about 20 minutes.
President Obama and his generals face a major obstacle in gaining support for their mission to bring stability to Afghanistan. Is there a solution to the growing problem.
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HARRIS: Four more U.S. troops killed today in Afghanistan. The military says they died during fighting in Kunar province near the border with Pakistan. That makes 13 American forces killed so far this month. Meanwhile, another attack today. A suicide bomber detonated near the military's entrance to the main airport in Kabul. Two people killed in that attack.
The U.S. war in Afghanistan is increasingly an uphill battle for support from the Afghan people. Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, reports on a string of recent incidents making a bad situation even worse.
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BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Swedish charity workers say U.S. soldiers and Afghan forces forcibly entered this hospital last week, breaking down doors, ordering patients out of their beds, and tying up staff. It was only later, they say, the troops told them they were looking for an insurgent leader.
ANDERS FANGE, DIRECTOR, SWEDISH COMMITTEE FOR AFGHANISTAN: They didn't find any insurgent in the hospital and they didn't hurt any -- any of the -- any of the staff. Still, this is a clear violation of internationally recognized principles and rules.
STARR: NATO is investigating but it couldn't come at a worse time for General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces. He's trying to convince Afghans that foreign troops will protect them against the Taliban. But for now, he's busy trying to explain NATO's actions. McChrystal personally inspected a site where a predawn air strike on two hijacked fuel trucks killed perhaps dozens of Afghan civilians. And he promised another investigation.
GEN STANLEY MCCHRYSTAL, U.S. NATO COMMANDER IN AFGHANISTAN: From what I have seen today and going to the hospital, it's clear to me that there were some civilians who were harmed at that site.
STARR: Afghans are already upset by civilian casualties caused by NATO. McChrystal may soon be asking for more troops to deal with the rising Taliban threat and then informing Afghans more foreign forces will be on their soil. Those familiar with McChrystal's thinking say perhaps his most urgent worry, the Afghan view that the ongoing counting of votes in the presidential election is riddled with fraud and Hamid Karzai may not win the people's support. Without it, it will be tough to ask others to invest in Afghanistan's future.
STEPHEN BIDDLE, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: We need, at the end of the day, to have a degree of support for the legitimate government of Afghanistan that at least exceeds the support for the Taliban.
STARR (on camera): One senior NATO official said part of the problem, McChrystal may find it tough to get NATO, or perhaps even the U.S. Congress, to agree to send more troops to Afghanistan if it's believed the current president, Hamid Karzai, has not formed a legitimate government.
Barbara Starr, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: And our Anderson Cooper takes you inside Afghanistan all this week live from the battle zone tonight. Don't miss this special "AC360" at 10:00 Eastern Time.
Before we get to break, I got to tell you, we're overwhelmed at the blog. It's a good problem to have. It really is. We've only been able to approve 100 of your comments so far, but we've got 2,000 -- 2,000, since the president's speech, his pep talk, to kids.
I want to read a couple to you.
Leslie writes, "Every president should speak and reverence should be given to the office."
Mike from Texas writes, "of course, Jim Greer," -- and Jim Greer is the head of the Republican Party, the GOP in Florida, who was outraged at the -- initially at the thought that the president was going to give this speech. Not sure about the lesson plan materials that were sent out ahead of the speech. "Of course, Jim Greer has had a change of heart because he put his foot in his mouth, causing panic across the country."
We will try to get to more of these responses. We are not able to keep up with all of your responses. So far 2,000. And we're doing the best we can. It's a great problem to have. Send more, why don't you? Cnn.com/tony. We're back in a moment.
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HARRIS: Inundated, I tell you. We just asked you to send us some stuff to the blog, your thoughts on the president's comments, his speech to school kids, and 2,000 -- 2,000 and counting. Can we get to 3,000 before the top of the hour?
Take a look at our Money page. The Money teams does a terrific job giving you the latest financial news and analysis. It is cnnmoney.com.
Quickly now, better than three hours into the trading day. Let's get you to the big board, the New York Stock Exchange. As you can see, the Dow in positive territory throughout the day, up 28 points. And the Nasdaq, at last check, up 11 points. We are following these numbers throughout the day with Susan Lisovicz from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. We're back in a moment.
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HARRIS: Over 2,000 responses to our blog question. What did you think of the president's pep talk to students? If we get to 3,000, I'm going to read each and every one of them tomorrow -- 2,400?
President Obama just wrapped up his back-to-school pep talk to students around the country, but the debate over the speech was also a lesson in controversy, really. Joining us now from Hartford, Connecticut, to talk about the speech, CNN education contributor Steve Perry. He is also principal and founder of Capitol Preparatory Magnet School.
Steve, good to see you.
What did you think of the president's speech? No, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you thought of the speech. Why did you run the speech today when, as you know, so many districts were vexed over this? Why did you run it?
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: Because it was the president of the United States. You know, when I talked to the kids, I asked them, so what do you think about this? They said, well, it's the president, wouldn't we? The teachers organized this themselves. They created an Internet feed so that we could see it in the school.
What this actually shows -- the speech was relatively innocuous. But what this shows, this debate shows is how petty adults can be and what happens when the adults get their pettiness involved in something very important like education. We can look around the country and you can see state after state in which 60, 70 percent of children are not graduating -- I mean are graduating from high school. In a state like Connecticut, where 80 percent of our children are graduating from high school. Here in Hartford, Connecticut, less than 35 percent will graduate from high school.
HARRIS: Yes, Steve, any opposition from any of your parents to your decision to run the speech tonight?
PERRY: Come on, this is a joke. We need to focus on real issues. There's not one single parent who called us and said anything about . . .
HARRIS: Steve, Steve, Steve, I still have to ask the question, Steve.
PERRY: The point is that none of our parents disagreed. And I would image most of the parents across the country have even forgotten that he was supposed to speak today. The president gave essentially the same type of speech that would happen if you had an account come in. He gave one of those rah-rah speech and said, hey, kids, stay in school and wash your hands is another one of the things that he said.
HARRIS: OK. OK, I got you. And the student reaction, share some of that with us.
PERRY: The students were really excited about it. They thought it was cool that the president was taking the time out to talk to them. They wanted to know what it was that he thought that they should do this year. The kids get it. The kids understand that here's a president who's taken a time out to communicate the needs that he feels of the nation to them. They felt like it was very important.
I mean, this is not the first time that a president has spoken to children. I remember there was a vice president who had a little trouble with spelling the word "potato" and I think that was in a classroom as well. Listen, let's focus on the big picture here. We need to focus on the fact that too many of our children are not graduating from high school. And if the president's taking 18 minutes out of his very busy schedule will get some more kids to graduate from high school, then, for God's sake, let's let the man talk.
HARRIS: Hey, what is your message? We heard the president's message. But, you know, you're one of the reform leaders in education, recognized around the country in this area. What is your message to your students this year?
PERRY: My message is very clear. Nobody but you's going to be responsible for your education. You can go to the best school or the worst school in the country, but you have to work your behind off to get everything you have. On the same token, though, we have to have a real reform discussion. We have to begin to discuss what is necessary to give children a fighting chance at a good education. We look at our country and we'll see in places like Japan, 240 school days a year. Throughout the United States of America, 180. No reason -- it's clear why out of 25 top nations in math, our 15-year-olds are 28th.
HARRIS: Terrific. CNN education contributor Steve Perry.
Steve, appreciate it. Thanks for your time.
PERRY: Thank you so much, Tony.
HARRIS: My pleasure. My pleasure.
We are pushing forward now with the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips after a break.
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