The fields are set and the brackets are being filled out. Thursday begins one of the truly great long weekends on the sports calendar each year, with the NCAA men's basketball tournament's first and second rounds. Meanwhile, it's perhaps a make-or-break week for health care legislation in Washington. Pity the Congressional and White House staffers who won't be able to watch the opening round games.

**The White House: The effort to pass his top domestic policy initiative has crowded in on President Obama's first major international trip of 2010. The White House is delaying the president's trip to Guam, Australia and Indonesia, originally scheduled to begin Thursday, so that he can be on hand through a potential final vote this weekend on health care reform legislation. The delayed trip represents yet another missed deadline from the administration -- officials wanted a vote before his originally-scheduled departure.

Obama continues the public sales effort today with a visit to the Cleveland area, his sixth visit to the battleground state of Ohio as president. Outside of the Beltway, he's visited only one state more times - New York. Also on his schedule this week: the traditional St. Patrick's Day visit by Ireland's prime minister, the Taoiseach, on Wednesday.

Vice President Biden, just back from a foreign trip of his own, will coincidentally also be in Ohio. He's there strictly on political business. First, a Cincinnati event with Rep. Steve Driehaus, and then a Cleveland stop on behalf of Gov. Ted Strickland. Also this week, Biden will be the featured speaker at the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner in Washington.

**Capitol Hill:: As Democratic leaders await scoring from the Congressional Budget Office on a health care reform "fix," the House Banking Committee begins marking up the "Reconciliation Act of 2010" today at 3 p.m. It will set off perhaps the most fruitful week for health care reform since Christmas Eve, when the Senate passed its version on a party-line vote. Elsewhere in the Capitol, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd will introduce the latest version of a financial regulation reform bill. It will be "detailed legislation for the most sweeping overhaul of financial regulations since the Great Depression, which Democrats want to pass before the fall elections," Los Angeles Times reports. The Senate will also hold a cloture vote tonight on the House amendments to the jobs bill.

**Politics: A slew of filing deadlines on tap for this week. Today is the deadline for candidates to get on the ballot in Montana and Maine - where the gubernatorial ballot is going to be particularly crowded on both sides as Democratic Gov. John Baldacci is term-limited. Major party candidates have until Friday to get on the ballot for races in Iowa, Idaho and Utah. Iowa features a competitive gubernatorial race and several potentially swing House races; Sen. Chuck Grassley (R) looks safe for now as he looks for a new term. In Idaho, the focus will be on the first district Congressional seat held now by Democrat Walt Minnick. And in Utah, the focus will be on a competitive Republican primary for U.S. Senate featuring incumbent Robert Bennett. There's also a special election for governor as Gary Herbert looks to hold onto the post he inherited when Jon Huntsman resigned to become ambassador to China. Peter Corroon, mayor of Salt Lake County, is the likely Democratic nominee. The next primary date is not until May 4, when Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina votes.

An interesting bit of political stumping takes place this week, as Jim DeMint and Marco Rubio do some joint fundraising -- in South Carolina. Mike Pence visits New Hampshire on Friday, another early primary state visit for him. Tim Pawlenty returns to the Granite State the following week.

**Poll Watch:
Obama Job Performance: Approve 49.1 / Disapprove 45.8 (+3.3)
Congress Job Performance: Approve 19.3 / Disapprove 75.7 (-56.4)
Generic Ballot Test: Republicans +0.6

**In Case You Missed It: On "Meet the Press" yesterday, House Majority Whip James Clyburn said Democrats "don't have [the votes] as of this morning" but that he's "confident" Democrats will successfully complete health care reform.

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--Mike Memoli and Kyle Trygstad