No, really. That's what Steve Thomma at the McClatchy-Tribune News Service suggests in his preview of Obama's upcoming primetime address this week before Congress.

Forget the fact that the Dow is down to nearly a decade low and host lost almost 50 percent of its value in the last six months. Or that jobs are being shed at an historic rate and there's even talk of nationalizing our banks. That's not what really matters to the Beltway press corps.

None of that trumps the all-important issue of whether Obama can successfully court Republicans:

[Obama] faces three key questions about how he'll use the moment. First, will he reach out to the Republicans who have felt free to scorn him, or match his popularity against theirs and try to slap them back?

Can you spell d-i-s-c-o-n-n-e-c-t?