It has been a long, arduous summer for Democrats pushing health care reform. Despite this summer's shouting campaign at town halls and President Obama’s falling approval rating – which recently dropped to 50% – the White House is expected to press on with more aggressive health care reform efforts. Politico.com reports that President Obama will lay out his specific demands for health care legislation as early as next week, when lawmakers return to Washington. Can Obama get a bill back on track to be passed this year? We speak with Politico reporter Alex Burns and Paul Starr, a senior health policy adviser in the Clinton White House and author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning book, The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The rise of a sovereign profession and the making of a vast industry.

The Republican National Committee begins its winter meeting today and by the end of the week they will have elected a new chairman. The race for the chairmanship has just started to heat up and there are no shortage of contenders for the job. Politico reporter Alex Burns joins us from Washington, D.C. for a look at the horse race. Or is that an elephant race?