The Nation‘s Chris Hayes appears on The Rachel Maddow show to respond to President Obama’s healthcare speech. In particular, Hayes analyzes the way Democrats responded to right-wing attacks during the August congressional research. He notes that the response to the “death panel” rumor was slow in part because it was so outrageous that Democrats assumed no one would actually believe it–and if polls are to be believed, no one outside those already opposed to healthcare reform really did believe it. Hayes points out that public opinion data on healthcare reform remains essentially unchanged, and Maddow notes that “Beltway common stinky wisdom” is not actually the same as the ideas going around in the rest of the country. The mainstream media might report it as fact, but that doesn’t mean it actually is fact.

—Sarah Jaffe

Check out more great Nation videos on our YouTube channel.