It's naive all of a sudden to say that the White House just realized that there's going to be a tough confirmation fight in the Senate. Of course there's pressure from both sides, but he's not going to cave to pressure from the left or the right.

I'm not sure there's a big win available. You've got to hit a bunch of singles.

The (Bush) campaign would prefer not to have a floor fight on anything. Because the more we talk about the things we want to talk about, the better.

The thing that has worried me for most of the year is that the economy is very good, but the majority of voters don't think so. Pocketbook issues matter for the ability to win elections in 2006.

[Political analysts tell First Read, however, that it probably doesn't matter how these potential oh-eighters position themselves on Katrina and its aftermath. Claremont McKenna College's Jack Pitney explains that it's always politically safe to blame bureaucracy. On the other hand, he says, those who don't can always do so in the future.] There's plenty of time to criticize. ... I think two years from now, nobody is going to remember what these people said.

I don't think he's lost any of his zeal for Social Security reform, ... The action has sort of shifted to the Hill now and the Ways and Means Committee so we'll have to kind of see what they can come up with.