Obama's 2007 Yes-We-Can Moment in 2009

August was a rough month for President Barack Obama and his health insurance reform agenda. Like 2007, when few thought Obama could become president, much of America began to doubt his ability to enact health insurance reform. For a month, the media has focused on the cacophony of tea baggers, birthers, and truthers across the country, ignoring the millions of Americans quietly organizing and working in support of Obama and his health insurance reform agenda -- much like the media ignored those quietly organizing Iowa two years ago.

This week, Obama is back on his game. Monday, Obama gave a rousing speech in Cincinnati at the AFL-CIO Labor Day Picnic. He broadcast an inspiring speech on Tuesday to our nation's schoolchildren. Tonight, Obama will deliver a historic address to Congress laying out his plans for health insurance reform.

Like the run-up to the 2007 primary campaigns, the growth of the Obama organization went almost without notice in the run-up to the 2009 health care battles. The low-key style of grassroots, community organizing by Obama for America in 2007 and Organizing for America in 2009 does not lend itself to big media stories. But in 2007, this organization of ordinary people triumphed over the bigger names (Hillary) and bigger stories (Hillary) of the media.

Throughout 2007, few believed Obama could become the president of the United States. He was not taken seriously by the media or his fellow candidates until he won the Iowa caucus. Suddenly, Obama garnered a wave of support across the country. Supporters were fired up. They believed it was possible.

Then, when the results were announced in New Hampshire, Obama's newfound supporters wavered. In the moments before his famous New Hampshire "Yes We Can" speech, the murmur across America said, "No, he can't."

Throughout August 2009, Obama and his supporters have been stuck in the New-Hampshire-results moment. Throughout the month-long Congressional recess, America has been bombarded with images of angry health insurance reform opponents screaming into our televisions. Once again, the murmur across America was one of doubt, "No, he can't."

Like 2007, though, the media firestorm may not be an indicator of who will win the health insurance reform battles. The quiet, uneventful organization of tens of thousands of ordinary Americans has been happening right under the media's noses, almost without notice.

It was the night of the New Hampshire primary, when hopes were dashed, that Obama gave one of his most inspirational speeches. When Obama made America believe he could win. When he said, "When we have faced down impossible odds. When we've been told we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try. Or that we can't. Generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of our people. Yes we can. Yes we can. Yes we can."

Organizing for America (OFA) is the lifelong dream of Obama. It is his 50 state strategy come to life -- not for one election but for a generation of advocacy. OFA began slowly. The organization was gutted and lay dormant between Election Day (November 4, 2008) and inauguration (January 20, 2009). Finally, it began with two staffers: Mitch Stewart, National Director, and Jeremy Bird, Deputy National Director.

Just two people to recruit and train staff for all 50 states. Each state started with a month-long Listening Tour in which newly hired staff members traveled the state just listening to the needs and wants of activists and supporters across the state. Then, the newly hired, travel-weary staff put together a customized organizing plan for their state. For every OFA staffer I've talked with, it has been a long, difficult process.

The ramp up of OFA went almost without notice in the media. Last week, touring Ohio and Pennsylvania as an embedded reporter on Organizing for America's Health Insurance Reform Now: Let's Get It Done bus tour, I asked my readers to send questions for the leadership of Organizing for America. Almost every email asked the same question, "Why am I only hearing people yelling and screaming against the president? Why isn't Organizing for America doing more to fight for what we voted for on November 4, 2008?"

More than 12,000 people turned out for the Health Insurance Reform Now: Let's Get It Done bus tour events. When I asked "What brings you out today?" the answer was almost always a variation of, 'I am tired of the yelling and screaming on my television set.' Attendee after attendee said they wanted to add a voice of reason to the din.

OFA has been only in the backs of the minds of the media. But while the cameras were trained on a handful of tea baggers, birthers, and truthers screaming from parking lots across America in August, OFA held thousands of events, made tens of thousands of phone calls, and knocked on thousands of doors in all 50 states. The bus tour is continuing on, in Atlanta today, then through red states like Texas and swing states like Nevada.

I don't know what the president will say tonight. In moments like these, moments like New Hampshire, when the world doubted his ability to make things happen, he has been bold. Tonight, I believe the president will channel his New Hampshire yes-we-can moment and remind America of what he said then, "Nothing can stand in the way of the power of the voices of millions of voices calling for change. We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics. They will only grow louder and more dissonant in the months and weeks to come. We've been asked to pause for a reality check. We've been warned against offering people 'false hope' .... The reason we began this improbable journey is because it's not just about what I will do as President. It is also about what you, the people who love this country, the citizens of the United States of America, can do to change it."

Follow Dawn Teo on Twitter: www.twitter.com/dawnteo

Comments

[CTtransplant]

NO trigger!!! NO co-ops!!! And NO waiting five years !!!

Never ever ever give up!!! Folks, do not forget the marches on September 13th!!! http://marchforhealthcare.com/events/

If not now, when? If not us, who?

Kennedy was one of our greatest champions of health care reform. He carried the torch for a long time...and now it is up to us to continue to carry it!

Our elected officials in Congress receive health care mostly paid for by us tax payers, yet many are trying to make it impossible for us to purchase an affordable plan of our own :

While many of us are struggling to afford medical insurance/medical bills.
While Congress people try to stop healthcare reform.
While Congress people accept large contributions from lobbyists to prevent health care reform.

Please sign these petitions - and by all means, spread the word! Thank you!

http://www.petitiononline.com/PubOp676/petition.html
http://www.democrats.com/honor-ted-kennedy?cid=ZGVtczQ0MTA5OGRlbXM=
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5649/t/4922/content.jsp?content_KEY=2763&tag=hk1_typ-e1

[WillTell]

Regarding the President's address on health care:
"Let me say this about that" J.F.K.
Congratulations President Obama! Your outline of what you propose could not have been made more clear, and can only help everyone in America. To those that still oppose this progressive approach I can only say. " Oh ye of little faith", and I'll add "little charity".

To Rush, Beck and the like who only care about their ratings, I say, "You are nothing compared to the President of the United States" who's only true goal is for the betterment, and to do right for all the American people.

[reneejay]

You know reading some of these post i wonder did you all think Prez. Obama was a miracle worker?He don't write the laws You may want things past all you want, but when you know you are not going to get it you compromise.Know you might not like it but it is what is.Give the man credit for trying, its not him its the congress and the senate that dont want to vote for public option Dems included.I am a dem.and i will still support him .A repub after what they have done over 8 years i don't think so .

[willpen]

While everyone is using this article as an excuse to do more complaining, I want to thank Dawn Teo for reminding me what it was that I loved so much about Barack Obama. I will hold my opinion to myself until the day that I walk into a voting booth in 2012. Then and only then will I make my decision that President Obama did what he set out to do. Rome was not built in a day no less than nine months.

[BradMaurer]

willpen - Your use of the saying "Rome was not built in a day" works on more than one level here. While it applies well, as you use it, to Obama's presidency, the saying also applies to healthcare reform specifically. What's useful to remember is that, in at least one industrialized country that now provides universal care (Canada), the single-payer system now in use did not come about overnight, in one giant reform effort. The system started out in the provinces, much like the proposal now (I believe it's in the House) that would allow states to set up their own single-payer systems if they wish. Only later, when it was clear that single-payer was superior to private systems, did Canada adopt a national system. Obama has many more goals and 3 more years to achieve them, and a public insurance option could go a long way towards Obama's stated preference, a national, universal single-payer system.

[billyboil]

no single payer = no reform.
america will remain the only western country without universal health care.
what a country - 20,000 die each year thru' no medical care, and you americans don't care.
land of the greedy, home of the dumb.

[bdaved]

That's not a particularly well-informed opinion. Single-payer systems are not the norm in universal health-coverage systems, and even Australia doesn't have a pure and simple single-payer system.

[Diana]

"For a month, the media has focused on the cacophony of tea baggers, birthers, and truthers across the country, ignoring the millions of Americans quietly organizing and working in support of Obama and his health insurance reform agenda..."

------------

What they also ignored was the tens of millions of Americans who want single-payer or a serious public option and have been horrified at Obama's chumminess with the health insurance/­pharmaceut­ical lobbies.

[DocTwain]

Obama himself has become Mr. "No You Can't." He took single payer off the table before the negotiations even began, cut a corrupt backroom deal with PhRMA behind the People's backs... when he says "we" he seems to mean "Goldman Sachs, Wackenhut, Exxon, AHIP, and PhRMA...."

[Diana]

You said it!

[1088]

One Rep who worked with President Obama in Chicago was on Randi Rhodes today, she said, never underestimate this man, for as one moment he can tell you he has made mistakes, the other person within him, has a strong steel that get things done, without any drama. We have seen this last year with Hillary losing. So, keep underestimate him and see what you get!

[Diana]

Well, we've seen him 'get it done' when it comes to getting himself elected to the highest office in the land. Everything else--from health care to lack of regulations on wall street to lack of enforcement of human rights to non-reinstitution of habeas corpus to ... i don't know, pretty much everything people voted him in office to do--he has studiously and purposedly avoided.

I never underestimated him. Just thought he would, as a smart man and constitutional scholar, at the very least reverse some of the cheney/bush nonsense and bring us back to a sembelence of democracy. Stuff like that.

[Kiku]

These screaming town halls are not the reality out there, although it is the reality reported. Far more people are coming out for HCR that those opposing it, and far more events, by the thousands. It just isn't getting reported by the media, owned by corporations that profit from the health care industry like GE. The media is trying to create their own reality.

Dawn and other journalists are reporting on this. The anger of the opposition is real, but the extent of it is not.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/health/policy/09assess.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

[Mike Kilpatrick]

I do have to give Obama credit for teaching a whole new generation of Americans why voting doesn't matter.

[tb92]

Do you really believe that things would not be worse if McCain and Palin were running the country? Do you think the economy would be better if all we did was cut taxes to the rich? Do you believe that we would even be discussing health care reform? No, we haven't been given everything we want. But anyone who remembers the Bush years knows that it CAN be worse.

[Diana]

So sad to read such an apologist, someone who is so blinded by the fantasy of obama that she/he can't see what's really going on here.

Obama's no middle-of-­the-roader­, whose compromises yield something beneficial, something for the common good. Obama has, over and over, shown himself to be every bit the corportist John McCain is.

At least with a republican in office, there's a coherent block of opposition. The genius of the republicans putting the 'democrat' Obama in office is that it neutralizes the opposition. Also, the DELIBERATE ramping up of extremism on the right...both of those combine to make for a democratic party that spends all it's time defending Obama against insane, vapid attacks from the right and precious little time paying attention to what he's actually doing. Genius, I tell you, pure genius.

[lorla]

OFA is having watch perties for the speech tonight. All of the homes close to me are booked to capacity. Indeed they are here, but the presence of OFA is not felt even near to where it should be in light of such an important bill for both Obama and for the people. Obama should have invited local mayors and representatives to be a voice for him on state and city levels. We are not sure where his true voice lies.
If OFA was in full force, I dare to say we could have been knocking on the door to Single Payer.

[Alanlak]

Obama barred the door to single-payer from the outset. I myself went to an OFA meeting on health care. The young lady who conducted the meeting seemed confused and unsure as to just what the purpose of the meeting was. The literature we were handed stated it was about supporting Obama's position on health care (whatever that was, since it seemed to change from day to day). The lady said it was about collecting opinions to send up the ranks to the policy makers on what we all wanted for health care. A lot of us were vociferous in sponsoring single-payer.

I got the impression in the end that Obama was not interested in any feedback which wasn't compatible with the direction he was already going in: appeasing the drug and health insurance companies. If OFA is not in full force these days, it is probably because a number of its members have dropped off the bandwagon of a President who refuses to stand firm for a strong public option.

[Diana]

Very well said

[NoDrama]

If congress controlled plumbing, we'd still have outhouses, but universal health care was written into the Iraqi constitution - with OUR help!

What's wrong with this picture? Why are we even debating?

[DocTwain]

Well said!

[genmalia]

So true! Great article Dawn! Just like Americans needed a fundamental change in direction for our great country, we need fundamental change in healthcare. And it can't wait - this is the story of NOW!