The health care overhaul effort may be sputtering in key Senate and House committees, but White House senior adviser David Axelrod told House Democrats today to focus how far Congress has already come — and on the potential for a “historic” breakthrough after the August recess to pass badly needed fixes to the health care system.

After a two-hour meeting with the House Democratic caucus, Axelrod played down the fights in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where the conservative Blue Dogs have forced changes to the bill and some liberal Democrats think their leaders have given away too much. Instead, he said the White House and congressional Democrats will be able to deliver the same message over the recess — uniting over the need to end insurance practices such as denying coverage for pre-existing conditions and limiting how much they’ll pay to cover serious illnesses.

“We’re very close to doing something historic that will give stability and security to people who have health insurance now as well as people who don’t,” Axelrod said. “And we need to go out and make an aggressive case over August. And we just talked that through.”

President Obama plans to huddle with his Cabinet and top advisers on Friday and Saturday to review lessons learned from his first six months in office. There's bound to be some gnashing of teeth over the pace of the health care overhaul, and also some satisfaction over signs the economy is staggering back.

But based on his remarks at Wednesday's town halls in Raleigh, N.C. and Bristol, Va., don't expect a major recalibration of the administration's message.

Obama continued to strenuously defend economic relief efforts launched in the aftermath of last fall's financial crisis and lay some blame at the feet of former President George W. Bush. And he eagerly portrayed himself as a responsible steward of taxpayers' money, to deflect persistent Republican charges that he's incapable of controlling federal spending.

Just weeks ago, President Obama characterized a public insurance option as an almost essential component of any health care overhaul and an important tool with which to discipline insurance companies. Nevermind that a government-sponsored alternative to private health plans was already emerging as a stumbling block to serious health care overhaul. The president, at a June 23 White House press conference, said an government-run plan that isn't profit-driven, provides quality care and keeps down administrative costs simply "makes sense."

"The notion that all these insurance companies who say they're giving consumers the best possible deal, if they can't compete against a public plan as one option, with consumers making the decision what's the best deal, that defies logic, which is why I think you've seen in the polling data overwhelming support for a public plan," Obama said.

Fast forward to today. With health care talks bogged down in the House and Senate, the administration appears more receptive to fallbacks to the government-run option, including a consumer-owned "co-op" health plan that's being discussed in the Senate Finance Committee. But aides don't appear to be in a rush to learn all the messy details.