The power of the President of the United States was in evidence on Monday after a White House news conference in which Barack Obama made clear that he's ready to wheel and deal his way to an agreement on the budget and debt limit, as he dominated news coming out of Washington, D.C.
"It’s not going to get easier," Mr. Obama said of efforts to cut a deal, as he urged Republicans to agree to some increases in tax revenues as part of a debt limit deal.
"It’s going to get harder. So we might as well do it now -- pull off the Band-Aid; eat our peas," the President said to chuckles in the White House Briefing Room.
I got to gauge the reaction to both the Obama remarks and the later news conference by House Speaker John Boehner while waiting for an airplane in Kansas City, Missouri, a battleground state that narrowly went for John McCain back in 2008.
Let's just say it was nothing like the reaction I saw in the Atlanta airport in February of 2007, when news broke that Anna Nicole Smith had died.
That day, people were thirty deep around the television to hear the latest news.
On Monday in Kansas City, most people seemed to be worried about other things than the political theater coming out of Washington about the deadline for action on the debt, which the Obama Administration says is three weeks from today.
I spent much of the previous week in Kansas, and there weren't too many folks beating down the doors to talk politics there either; instead, it was all Casey Anthony, all the time.
Does that mean what's happening in the halls of Congress is not important? Of course not.
But it should serve as a reminder that most Americans still aren't overly focused on the details of this debate, which so far have been sorely lacking, as both sides do their best to cast the other as completely intransigent.
Today, lamwakers will gather with the President for a third straight day of meetings at the White House; this morning, House Republicans will meet behind closed doors to get an update from their leadership.
One thing we've definitely seen in recent days has been a more aggressive public argument by President Obama, as the White House tries to get out their message more effectively.
That can be a winning strategy, especially when many in American aren't paying super-close attention.
"We're going to meet every single day until we get this thing resolved," Mr. Obama said on Monday.
We'll see in the days ahead if the Power of the Bully Pulpit changes the dynamic at all in this fierce political battle.
