ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Huge stakes tonight, the president's health care plan and the war here in Afghanistan.
It's morning at Patrol Base Jaker here in southern Afghanistan, the Marines here fighting a crucial war at a pivotal moment, while their commander in chief only a few minutes ago fighting his historic overall of health care, both efforts costing hundreds of billions of dollars, both costing lives.
One is here with us. What the Marines are doing here seems to be working in this area in Helmand Province. Taliban activity is down. But I have got to tell you, wherever we go, tension is very, very high.
We went on patrol today. There were no attacks. But, moments after we passed, a roadside bomb went off. No trouble in the village we visited. Then, once we left, Taliban fighters paid a visit. It feels like a standoff, with millions of Afghans waiting to see who blinks first, who stays, who goes.
Tonight: what it looks like, what it feels like through the eyes of Marines, day in, day out, very difficult conditions for them, constant danger. Yet, the troops at this patrol base will tell you they feel they are accomplishing something.
Michael Ware is in Kandahar for us, where that standoff, that waiting game is deadly serious. And Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with an elite army chopper team, medics who fly low and fast under hostile fire to save lives.
But, as we mentioned, tonight, in Washington, President Obama went into -- went to battle for his vision of health care reform. For the first time, he really took ownership of it. He called it his plan, a plan he says will not increase the deficit, and he says would actually save money over the years.
We're checking out the facts, though, tonight with the best political team on television, keeping the president and the opposition honest. We will also get your reaction with a CNN instant poll.
But, first, an extended sample of the president's health care address tonight to the joint session of Congress. Listen.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn't, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
OBAMA: The time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed.
OBAMA: Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do.
OBAMA: Now's the time to deliver on health care.
OBAMA: Now's the time to deliver on health care.
The plan I'm announcing tonight would meet three basic goals.
It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance for those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.
An additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange.
OBAMA: Add it all up, and the plan I'm proposing will cost around $900 billion over 10 years, less than we have spent on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars...
OBAMA: ... and less than the tax cuts for the wealthiest few Americans that Congress passed at the beginning of the previous administration.
OBAMA: It's a plan that incorporates ideas from many of the people in this room tonight -- Democrats and Republicans. And I will continue to seek common ground in the weeks ahead.
But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than to improve it.
OBAMA: I won't stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are.
If you misrepresent what's in this plan, we will call you out. And I will not...
OBAMA: And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time, not now.
COOPER: That was the president today.
The GOP responds shortly, polling results as well, people who watched the address on whether they liked it or not, whether they think it will help or hurt the debate, and perhaps most crucially, did viewers actually come away understanding what President Obama's vision of health care reform is?
We ask, did President Obama clearly state his health care goals? In our survey of people who watched tonight, 72 percent said yes. Twenty-six percent said no.
With that, I want to turn things over to best political team on television and John King -- John.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, back to you in Afghanistan in just a moment.
Let's bring in our panel here, Candy Crowley, Paul Begala, Ed Rollins, David Gergen.
Candy, let's start with those polling numbers. People say the president did a good job communicating with them. Do we have any indication that more Americans say, OK, I'm for his plan?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let me just sort of caveat this to death before we do it.
And that is that, first of all, these are just people who watched the speech. And we know that millions more will get little clips of it and listen to the punditry than actually watch the speech. It also skews heavily Democratic. We think that the Democratic sample in this flash poll is eight to 10 points higher than it is in the general population.
Having said that, the president did very well in this poll. When we asked, what is your reaction to the president's speech, 56 percent very positive, somewhat positive 21 percent, negative 21 percent. So, that is -- you know, that is a great showing, obviously.
Interesting, also, that he picked up support here for his plan. And we all know that this is -- you know, can waver. But, before this speech, about 53 percent of Americans were in favor of this, after the speech, 67 percent. And, as you pointed out earlier, that's about what Bill Clinton had at the end of his speech on health care, and we all know where that went. And, also, I think we have to just understand that these are not -- that polls go up and down, particularly flash polls. This is an interesting look. Obviously, Democrats loved what they saw tonight.
KING: So, a reason to celebrate based on the numbers, but not overcelebrate.
David Gergen, you're in a room, 535 members of Congress, but who is he really talking to tonight?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He's talking outside the room, because he really has to bring public opinion back in his direction. It was moving in favorably for him. The tide receded. It started going the other way.
I think the question tonight was, was he able to reverse the tide? Clearly, Democrats, as Candy said, have been heartened. I know a lot of independents will be heartened.
But this, in the last minutes since the speech, everything we have heard on television, everybody is still back to their entrenched positions. Nobody is willing to sort of say -- open it up and say, let's think about this some more. Maybe the president opened my mind in a new way.
KING: And, so, Ed Rollins, he did embrace three or four Republican ideas. He said, this is from John McCain. This is an idea you Republicans have pushed a long time.
A serious effort at bipartisanship, and will he get results from it?
ED ROLLINS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: He will get no results from it. It was -- you know, it's nice rhetoric, and he can go out and can say, I'm trying to do things.
The bottom line here is, he promised a lot and said it's not going to cost anything. Everybody is going to have better health care, and it's not going to cost anything. Doctors, hospitals, everybody is going to be OK. If you're on Medicare, you're going to be OK. You know, we just got to be a little more efficient. We're going to have waste, fraud and abuse, which we have all written in speeches over the 40 years we have been around politics.
At the end of the day, he now has laid a marker down, which is it's revenue-neutral. It's now up to the insurance companies and others to go prove that it's not revenue-neutral.
KING: Some skepticism from Ed Rollins there. We will get Paul Begala's view after the break.
We will also talk more with everyone else here at the panel. And we will take your question. If you have a question about President Obama's health care plan, you can text it to us at AC360, or 22360.
But, first, let's check back in with Anderson at Marine Base -- Marine Patrol Base Jaker in Afghanistan -- Anderson.
COOPER: John, thanks very much.
Breaking news out of Afghanistan tonight -- a daring rescue of a "New York Times" reporter who had been kidnapped several days ago, a helicopter assault on the Taliban kidnappers who had taken him. One soldier was killed in that assault. We will have details tonight.
Also tonight, 360 M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta's life-saving tour of duty with the Army's DUSTOFF crew. These are elite medics who make every minute count for wounded troops.
Also, a day in the life here at Patrol Base Jaker, the heat, the dust, the danger, the sense of accomplishment -- all live from Afghanistan in a moment.
COOPER: We're back with two vital stories tonight: the growing war here in -- in Afghanistan. And it is a deteriorating war. In the last two months, more U.S. forces have died than at any previous time in the entire eight years of the conflict here in Afghanistan.
We're also covering President Obama's health care message to Congress. In addition to laying out his vision, he promised to call out those who spread falsehoods about the plan. Listen.
OBAMA: Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but by prominent politicians that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens.
Now, such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.
COOPER: Did the president change any minds? It doesn't sound like it changed many politicians' minds tonight, certainly.
Let's go back to John King in New York -- John.
KING: Anderson, thanks, and back to you in just a moment.
Paul Begala, let's come in on that point. Did he change any minds? Obviously, he reached out to Republicans, but the biggest part of this calculation is Democrats. House Democrats want the robust public option. Moderate Democrats say, sorry, votes are not there for it.
What business did the president do in his own party tonight?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's the most important thing.
I think he shored up his own party. Before this speech, the -- that erosion he had was not with Republicans. They didn't vote for him. It was with independents. And I think he worked hard to get them back. But, within that room, those Democrats -- you know, he has 57 Democrats in the Senate. Presumably, Massachusetts will replace Senator Kennedy, if the governor is given that power, with a Democrat. If not, they're likely to elect one. There's not a single Republican in the Congress from Massachusetts.
So, he's got to solidify his party. There was talk earlier last week that maybe Democrats should primary Barack Obama if he somehow commits the apostasy of compromising on the public option. I think you will hear a lot less of that now.
I mean, he revved up his party. That is his job, in part, but, at the same time, he reached out to the independents. It's a difficult trick. I think he pulled it off well.
KING: Not -- by far, not the most important moment of the speech, but a night like this is big drama, the president standing there, a joint address to Congress.
The president at one point said that death panel charge was a lie. He used the word lie. And then the president was talking about illegal immigrants and the controversy about whether they would be covered under the plan. And we heard a voice from the floor calling the president a liar. Let's listen.
OBAMA: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms -- the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... lie.
OBAMA: It's not true.
And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up: Under our plan...
KING: The words lie coming up from the floor of the House of Representatives. David, this is one of text -- one of the text 360 questions coming in all night, but here's one. Erik writes in: "Why did the Republican congressman yell out, 'You lie' during President Obama's speech in regards to covering illegal immigrants? Who is right?" is our text question. And then we can talk a little bit about the decorum of that.
GERGEN: It's been my understanding all along that it does not provide insurance for illegal immigrants.
It does provide insurance for people who are legally here who are not citizens, but not for illegal immigrants. And what we had tonight was, town hall comes to Capitol Hill, you know? And it's -- it's -- it was -- it's been interesting. Since the speech has been over, John McCain was on "LARRY KING" tonight, said it was disrespectful for that Republican member to speak -- to call out like that -- or speak out like that, and called for him to apologize.
KING: Called for him to apologize.
KING: Now let's play a clip from Congressman Charles Boustany, who delivered the Republican response.
REP. CHARLES BOUSTANY JR. (R), LOUISIANA: The president had a chance tonight to take the government-run health care off the table. Unfortunately, he didn't do it.
We can do better with a targeted approach that tackles the biggest problems.
KING: Now, Ed, the Republicans are saying the president failed their test because he didn't take the public option off the table. You couldn't have expected the Democratic president to do that.
ROLLINS: No.
ROLLINS: Listen...
KING: He may do that in private negotiations. He wasn't going to do it there.
ROLLINS: The bottom line is, you have got to go out and argue the facts on the public option. The Republicans haven't done that. They just say, we're against it.
And what the facts are is they're going to -- in the bill, Senate -- in the House bill, you add $2 billion of federal money to set this thing up. It's going to -- can't pay anymore than 5 percent of -- more than what Medicare pays, which is 20 percent less than insurance companies pay. It will be cheaper insurance. But, in the end, it will do in hospitals and -- and doctors. And Republicans have to make that case.
KING: He said at the beginning it's time to stop partisanship. Let's have a bipartisanship conversation about this.
But it was a pretty partisan speech.
BEGALA: It was tripartisan. He went to the Republicans.
BEGALA: It was.
BEGALA: He went to Republicans. He praised John McCain. He praised Orrin Hatch. He praised Chuck Grassley. Ain't one of them going to vote for this plan, not even come close.
But he did it. He threw this sop to the Republicans, this myth that, somehow, medical malpractice is driving up insurance. And he said, well, we will have test cases.
We have had one in my home state of Texas. And health care costs in Texas are increasing faster than the national average. But that's -- that's what he's doing to appeal to Republicans.
He revved up the Democrats, as I talked about before. Independents, who in the elections of 2010, are going to determine who controls the Congress, he gave them those insurance reforms. (INAUDIBLE) liberal group Democracy Corps, you're familiar with -- our buddy Carville helps to run it with Stan Greenberg.
KING: Boy, you're promoing him tonight big-time.
BEGALA: Well, I want to give them credit.
They -- they -- they tested this notion that the president talked about, about recision, people who pay their premiums, but get dumped, like the woman who got dumped for having breast cancer because she had had acne. It was off the charts. And even higher, even with Republicans, was repealing this god-awful preexisting-condition rule, where insurance companies can turn you down for the sin of having been sick in the past.
ROLLINS: Well, all of those are outrageous, but, at the end of the day, insurance companies are about risk. I'm not a defender of insurance companies, don't have any clients that are insurance companies. But the rates are going to go up if you basically include all these people who have preexisting...
GERGEN: It was -- it was hard to see -- it was hard to see where the cutting of costs in health care was going to come in this speech. It just was impossible to find.
KING: Well, let's check in. We will check in. And we're asking text questions. We're hearing from out panel.
And Tom Foreman is monitoring reaction online -- Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they had a White House online discussion during this speech. And it was heated, and, just like our poll, tilted somewhat toward people who already support the president. They took part more. And they largely focused on this key issue.
Lesli from New York put it this way: "Please, please, please keep the public option. Do not listen to the lunatic fringe and the gutless wonders of Congress."
Tim from Georgia put it in terms of political consequences: "No public option, no second term."
And some supporters took Democrats to task for the trouble this plan is facing. Ken from New York: "Take a cue from Bush. He would have passed this thing in a week. Democrats have no guts, no backbone."
Those who oppose the plan primarily said they don't believe the president can pay for it.
Dave in Oklahoma said, "I hope he gives an estimate of how many jobs will be lost and how many small businesses close due to the cost."
Curtis from Kansas said, "The Congressional Budget Office disagrees with the president's assessment of the cost."
In the end, there was plenty of talk about Nazis and socialism. There was precious little talk of any kind of middle ground on this or any way that they might reach that middle ground between what the left says it can't do without and what the right says it cannot abide -- John.
KING: That is all rather feisty online.
We will continue this conversation in the days and weeks ahead, but, for now, we have got to back to Anderson Cooper in Afghanistan -- Anderson.
COOPER: John, we're going to have more on the dramatic rescue of a "New York Times" reporter kidnapped by the Taliban. One soldier was killed in that. We will have details ahead.
We will also take you out on patrol with the Marines. We saw IEDs today, small-arms fire. The Taliban is still out there, still trying to kill Marines whenever they can, laying those IEDs.
And, later, Dr. Sanjay Gupta aboard the world's fastest ambulance with the army's DUSTOFF crew, and the latest on that little boy Malik (ph) who was badly injured a couple days ago.
We will be right back.
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