defensive? >> when you talk to top democrats in private some with others on tration, capitol hill and elsewhere thk the presidentas not taking the fight directly to republicans for some time. last week what did he do? went out and really beat up on john boehner. pushed thi s idea of a choins between republicans and democrats. talked about it before. you saw a fired up president last went in cleveland. friday, pundits ying you didn't say anything new pt the news conference. he did suc tceed in framing thi as, don't hold the middle class host aage. that you need to at least move rward on those tax cuts. 48 hours later john boehner's on cbs's "face the nation" shifting his position. it's clear that they're not there yet in tes of holding control of congress but the first time found something seizing on the middle class aspect, put republicans on their heels. maybe temp rare -- terare-tempo