ROBERT SIEGEL, host: Yesterday, when President Obama spoke to supporters about health care, he had his own comments about this tumultuous political moment.</s>President BARACK OBAMA: Theres something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: All wee-weed up. That unusual phrase set off much head scratching among reporters. Is all wee-weed up a Hawaiian thing? Is wee-weed up a Chicago thing? Well, at todays briefing, reporters put Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the spot.</s>Unidentified Woman: What is wee-weed up?</s>Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (Press Secretary): I dont know if I should do that from the podium.</s>Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (Press Secretary): Its a phrase I use, but...</s>Unidentified Woman: Im not (unintelligible) demonstration, I just...</s>Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (Press Secretary): That, well, I was going to have Bill do that.</s>Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (Press Secretary): Yes. Lets do this in a way that is family friendly.</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: And Gibbs defined getting wee-weed up as when people, and I quote, "get all nervous for no particular reason." Finally, he came around to this.</s>Mr. ROBERT GIBBS (Press Secretary): Bed wetting is - would be probably the more consumer-friendly term for...</s>ROBERT SIEGEL, host: For getting all wee-weed up. Thus ending what our correspondent Don Gonyea tells us is one of the strangest exchanges that he has witnessed at the White House in almost a decade.
President Obama spent time Thursday rallying his supporters for a health care overhaul. He compared the current pessimism over health care to the early days of last year's presidential campaign. In doing so, he used the term "wee-weed up" to describe the emotions in Washington in August and September. That unusual phrase set off a flurry of head-scratching in the press corps.