Pelosi gains leverage

While Harry Reid desperately tries to salvage his political career and his leadership position after his infamous "negro dialect" remarks during then Senator Obama's early presidential campaign; Nancy Pelosi sees an opening to get more out of what she wants in conference negotiations on Health Care.

After weeks of having been told the house (which narrowly passed a more liberal health care bill in November) would have to basically roll over for the more carefully deliberated and moderate Senate bill, she is now focused more on getting actual pieces of her own bill into the Senate version of health reform.

However, all of these deliberations could cause Democrats to blow self imposed deadline and not be finished with the bill by President Obama's State of The Union address, which is slated for early February.

This delaying move could be a dangerous strategy for The Democrats, and it may be embarrassing for Obama that his top domestic priority wasn't finished by his first state of the union. The president is supposed to be laying out his vision for the coming year and it could seem that he's still focused on "old business" while the country continues to reel from double digit unemployment and the government's stimulus efforts are seen as less effective and the president's own approval continues to drop.