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Washington (CNN) – White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Sunday that Democrats are within striking distance of passing a health care reform bill notwithstanding Democrats’ loss of their filibuster-proof supermajority in the Senate.
“We’re still inside the five-yard line,” Gibbs said Sunday on State of the Union when asked to assess Democrats’ progress on health care reform, the domestic agenda item that was President Obama’s top priority last year along with getting the struggling economy back on track.
Gibbs was reacting to an earlier assessment on the same subject provided by another top Obama aide before Sen.-elect Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, pulled off an upset win earlier this month in a special election to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts.
“We’re way deep in the red zone,” White House senior adviser David Axelrod told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King late last year on State of the Union. “We’re right on the one-yard line,” Axelrod added.
Despite the setback in Massachusetts, Gibbs said Sunday that a bill could still be passed. FULL POST
CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley is the new anchor of State of the Union, the network announced Sunday. (Photo Credit: CNN)
Washington (CNN) - Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley will anchor CNN's Sunday political program, the network announced on State of the Union.
Related video: 'I am excited,' Crowley says
(CNN) – Senator-elect Scott Brown, R-Massachusetts, has turned to political veteran Gail Gitcho to oversee his communications operation.
Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley earlier this month for the right to serve the remaining three years of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s, D-Massachusetts, term.
Gitcho, currently press secretary at the Republican National Committee, has ties to the Massachusetts GOP. She worked on former Gov. Mitt Romney’s 2008 bid for the Republican presidential nomination. She also worked on Sen. John McCain’s, R-Arizona, 2008 presidential campaign and for Rep. Clay Shaw, R-Florida, on Capitol Hill.