It had to be a first in presidential rhetoric, the president of the United States referring to people in Washington being "wee-wee'd up" in August. He was referring to a trend in which he's been counted out before in August, and still found his way to the White House.

Today in the briefing room, press secretary Robert Gibbs explained just what that unique term means.

"I think wee-weed up is when people just get all nervous for no particular reason," Gibbs said, repeating Obama's view that this is an "August pundit pattern." He agreed with a reporter that "bed wetting" would probably be "the more consumer friendly" term.

Looking ahead, Gibbs said to expect the president to be out front in the health care debate when he returns from vacation, saying "we've made progress," in the past few weeks.

The press secretary also disputed the CNN branding that August was a "make or break month." "My hunch is that another cable network will make September an even more important month," he said. "I think that much is always made of where things are at a certain point in the process. The president's viewpoint, as he said in here, no to worry too much about the 24-hour news cycle and focus more on the overall process and the overall policy."

Gibbs continued to bat away questions about the precise status of legislative horsetrading, feigning a bit of ignorance about whether there are plans to "split" legislation to make passage easier for Democrats and saying the goal was still a bipartisan bill. But he did say that Obama would not just "print a banner and sign a bill just so somebody can say we reformed health care."