Update: National Healthcare is NEXT on the Obama List of Things Todo

FIRST THOUGHTS.

*** The SCOTUS Shortlist?

According to a couple of sources in the know, there appears to be a working short list of about six names for President Obama's Supreme Court pick.

The co-frontrunners (in no particular order):
Diane Wood of the 7th Circuit,
Solicitor General Elena Kagan,
Sonia Sotomayor of the 2nd Circuit,
Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm,
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and
Merrick Garland of the DC Circuit Court of Appeals.

Obviously, folks can slice this list all they want: Five are women; one's Hispanic; one's male; and all are in their late 40s or early 50s, except two (Wood, 58, and Garland, 56).

Keep an eye on Napolitano. For this pick, it would be surprising if Obama named someone he didn't either know well or trust personally. Wood, Kagan, and Napolitano all fit this bill (Wood taught at the University of Chicago with Obama, and Kagan and Napolitano already have top slots in the administration). As for Napolitano, remember that she endorsed Obama early on (despite Emily's List pressure to do otherwise). And from people familiar with the president's thinking, he's been as impressed with Napolitano as anyone in his cabinet. They click. That matters...

*** Developing Conventional Wisdom: In the next few weeks, the battle lines for the remainder of the president's domestic agenda will become clearer.

What are we going to see?

The White House biggest challenge will be bringing together Democrats -- from the party's left and right. The Republican Party, in fact, may end up largely irrelevant in the debates over health care, energy, and maybe event the Supreme Court. To put it another way, any political pain Obama will feel in the next few months will most likely come from Democrats. Shoot, even the interrogation issue is a problem on the left, not right. Single-payer health care is getting pushed hard on the left; cap and trade's potential shelving will upset committed Gore-ish enviros; and liberals want Obama to appoint a liberal equivalent of a Scalia to the Supreme Court, which probably won't happen.

*** Harry And Louise Aboard The O-Train? As it turns out, today's White House focus is on health care and reducing health costs.

At 11:30 am ET, Obama will meet at the White House with representatives from America's biggest industry groups (including those who helped block health-care reform in the 1990s), who will propose cutting up to $2 trillion in health-care costs over the next 10 years. And at 12:30 pm, Obama will deliver remarks about the meeting. "We cannot continue down the same dangerous road we've been traveling for so many years, with costs that are out of control, because reform is not a luxury that can be postponed, but a necessity that cannot wait," the president will say, according to excerpts from his speech that the White House released yesterday.

"It is a recognition that the fictional television couple, Harry and Louise, who became the iconic faces of those who opposed health care reform in the '90s, desperately need health care reform in 2009. And so does America."


First Read with NBC News Political Director Chuck Todd, every weekday on MSNBC-TV at 9 a.m. ET.
For more: The latest edition of First Read is available now athttp://www.FirstRead.MSNBC.com !