How Does Gridlock Look from Outside the Beltway?

As the debt-ceiling deadline looms, House Speaker John Boehner has been challenged by his own Republican majority. After re-working his plan for spending cuts and reducing the deficit, he held a news conference early this afternoon, telling reporters, "When the House takes action today, the US Senate will have no more excuse for inaction." A few hours before that, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said of the Boehner plan, "There is no question that this bill is a political act that has no life beyond its current existence in the House." Have Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill and at the White House lost touch with the American people?  Does the President look like a weak leader? Do Republicans look like they’re out to get him?  Do voters worried about their 401(k)’s wish a plague on both houses? We talk with reporters and other observers in different parts of the country.