As Congress recessed for the weekend, Politico says health care reform "teetered on the brink of collapse" as House and Senate leaders "struggled to coalesce around a strategy to rescue the plan, in the face of growing pessimism among lawmakers that the president's top priority can survive."
"The legislative landscape was filled with obstacles: House Democrats won't pass the Senate bill. Senate Democrats don't want to start from scratch just to appease the House. And the White House still isn't telling Congress how to fix the problem."
Ezra Klein: "Democrats have 59 votes in the Senate and almost 260 votes in the House. They brought their bill to the one-yard line before Scott Brown forced a fumble. Proving yourself unable to govern in that scenario is proving yourself unable to govern."