and down pretty consistently throughout. the good thing about when you re down is that usually you ve got nowhere to go but up. he s got nowhere to go but up. i wouldn t count him out. the right has been saying president obama and his health law are dead for weeks. months, years. but guess what. both are still here. today the national journal writes about president obama s resilience. can obama recover? he did already. joining me now is the reporter with that story, national journal political correspondent alex sikes wald and james peterson, professor at lehigh university. thank you for being here. alex, your piece is about the president recovering. tell us what you noticed. if i had a dollar for every time somebody said obama or
agenda. a broad-based approach evidenced by events over the weekend. on friday, the president and first lady met with activists engaged in a hunger strike on the national mall in pursuit of comprehensive immigration reform. a day later, it was a nod to the economy. the president promoting small business saturday by gift shopping at a local washington bookstore with the first daughters. and maybe it s the holiday season, but in an interview with abc s barbara walters on friday night, the president was downright optimistic, despite the fact despite facing the grinch-like poll numbers of his presidency. saying, quote, the good thing when you re down is usually you ve got nowhere to go but up. let s get right to our panel here in new york, msnbc political analyst, jonathan alder, and in washington, msnbc analyst and former rnc chairman, michael steele. and who is never grinchly, michael steele. no, never. in the spirit of the holiday season, i would like you to tell us, as we re 11 o
gone up and down pretty consistently throughout. the good thing about when you are down usually you have got nowhere to go but up. president seeing low approval ratings right now. caused many in his party to distance themselves. who is with n. worse shape the eyeing the presidency or those a lack of success right now. here to discuss this is fox news contributor and contributing editor and writer for the american conservative magazine jim pinkerton and bureau chief for talk radio news service ellen rattner. good to see both of you. thank you. jim, let s start with you. are these things mutually exclusive? clearly the fate of the democrats in 2014 is kind of disconnected from the president. i mean, back in 2010, the
done is that usually you ve got nowhere to go but up. he kind of laughed there, christina, if you will, kind of a funny answer. but does he have time? is he going to be able to politics ebbs and flows. we were talking not too long ago that, wow, the republicans are not going to be able to come back from this government shutdown. and then all of a sudden here we go off to obama care and this is all everybody s talking about. he has time. definitely. and there s a twofold issue here. the president s never going to face reelection again as president. but you do have the mid-term elections not far away. congressional democrats are wary, they don t necessarily want to run again on the affordable care act. that was a big element of the 2010 republican takeover of the house. but it s not that house republicans are surprisingly popular. that s why they re applying so much pressure to the administration and democrats on the health care issue.
minus arthel. i move on. growing trouble for president obama. his signature health care law creating a lot of backlash. his approval ratings are at record lows. listen to what he said during an interview with abc. i ve gone up and down pretty consistently throughout. the good thing about when you re down is usually you got nowhere to go but up. president kind of joking there with barbara walters. democrats also apparently taking a big hit. a new poll suggesting they are losing their midterm edge. dramatic turnaround from just a few weeks ago. republicans now holding the 49 to 47% edge. let s bring in our political panel. our fox news contributor and director of outreach freedom works. and julien epstein, attorney and democratic strategist. good to see both of you. so what can the dems do to distance themselves from the president and his current tainted reputation that goes up and down of course?