CNN 2009-07-20

Good morning, everybody. I'm Betty Nguyen. Here's a quick check on what is happening today.

Yeah, sixteen people killed when a helicopter crashed in southern Afghanistan. It's according to NATO, five others were hurt, no word on those five conditions. It happened during a takeoff at a Kandahar airfield 1. NATO says the helicopter wasn't a military helicopter. Also that all of the dead are civilians 2, no word on the cause just yet. But NATO says this was not a result of any enemy fire.

"This is really difficult because this is the third, er, helicopter or plane accident in just two days because also today we are getting from the U. S military that a U. S military helicopter made an emergency landing in the eastern province of Kunar in Afghanistan. And yesterday we had an F-15E Strike Eagle crashed into the ground in central Afghanistan, both two members on board killed. Now when we asked spokesmen 4 both for NATO and the US military "what are the causes of these crashes? ", they all insist none of these 3 incidents involved hostile fire.

What a week it was for health care and healthcare reform. It was almost weird 5 unless we have some ways to John . We had an emergency press conference on Friday about the President, now we have a press conference coming to us. . . I shouldn't say press conference; he spoke 3 on Friday. Press conference is coming up on Wednesday, Just the way he is reacting to what happened last week; does this, is it clear that there's a reason for alarm at the White House?

Yes there is a reason for alarm. That's a great way to put. But the President does not add an event in his schedule unless there's a political reason to do so. On Friday afternoon, the President came out and what did he say? He said everybody calm down. Why did he do that? Because the health care debate went off the rails this past week. Because the Congressional Budget Office says, guess what? This costs more than you think and it doesn't bring down the long-term trajectory 6 of rising health care costs. And that means the president's plan's in a little bit of trouble right now. Not time to panic but certainly the time to push the alarm button as you put it.  So the President came out on Friday. His weekly address this weekend is about health care. Now a prime time news conference. Look, the President's poll 7 numbers have come back down to earth. But he still has the most political capital in the American politics. And he is going to have to use some of it, Betty and TJ, to get his signature priority--right now health care reform--back on track.