On the Stupak revolt against the health-care bill:

On abortion, they [the Democrats] have a problem, because … it’s unclear it can be fixed on reconciliation. Kent Conrad, the chairman of the Budget Committee in the Senate, said it can’t be done in reconciliation, as did Steny Hoyer, number two in the House. It looks as if it’s not a fixable issue.

On whether 2010 will see a wave election as in 2006:

Well, if you look at 2006, the analogies…are, first of all, ethical scandals in the majority party. And, second, in ‘06, an intensely unpopular war leading to a bitter mood in the country, and today intensely unpopular health-care reform with a bitter angry oppositional mood in the country.
Yes, that is right, except for a couple of things. First of all, I don’t think you can quite compare the antipathy generated by an unpopular war with Americans dying — also a war that in ‘06 was going very, very badly — with an unpopular social reform….
When you think that your country has been taken — and some had believed through lies and deception — into a war in which Americans are dying and treasure is being spent, that really embitters the country. I think we had a bitter mood in ‘06 unlike any seen since the Vietnam days….
So I don’t think health-care reform compares.
The other issue is this: Obama himself maintains popularity, unlike Bush. And, secondly, the Democrats still enjoy a compliant press. It was an adulatory press in ‘09. The press was extremely hostile in ‘06. And that will help the Democrats.