Hitting the Jackpot

When the White House announced last week that the President would be addressing a joint session of Congress on the health care issue, I suggested that the President was raising the stakes not just through the roof but to the stars beyond. Well, he hit the jackpot tonight. I have been listening closely to Presidential speeches for about 35 years now, have watched quite a few oldies but goodies from the past, have even contributed ideas to a fair share of speeches in the Clinton years, and I am sitting here thinking that was one of the very best Presidential speeches I have ever heard. JFK's inaugural and a couple of FDR's best are the only ones I can think of that moved me so much. More importantly, though, he did everything he needed to do:

• Lay out clearly what he strongly believes in
  
• Make a powerful argument for why we need to get this done
  
• Answer the phony scare tactics
  
• Fire up the people around the country who want to get this done to keep working to make it happen

On the public option, as I expected him to do given his long-term strategy, he kept his options open. No one should feel surprised that he did that given that he has been clear from the beginning that he is going to be open to negotiations with Senators like Olympia Snowe and Ben Nelson on the issue. But I was pleased that he made clear not only that he was for a public option, but gave a full-throated multi-paragraph defense of it. He did what public option advocates needed him to do, which was to make clear that he supported it.

I was also very happy that the President took the Republicans on quite forcefully. While continuing to offer his hand, he made clear he wasn't going to take their BS any longer without pushing back.

As one who has been unhappy about a fair amount of Obama's communications strategy on health care up until now, I came away from tonight's speech a very happy man. He took a very big gamble, but I think he will get a great pay-off from it. He stood and delivered. Now I just hope Congress will find it within itself to do the same.

Comments

[jhNY]

02:12 PM on 09/10/2009

The Speech notwithstanding, I remain very interested in the actual health care bill that crosses the president's desk. And while I'm happy to see Obama make a moral case for addressing the issue now, and for taking on and beating back many of the fasehoods that have propagated around it, I would have liked Obama to have presented his own bill, not more rhetoric that still hedges on specifics and essentials.

The legislative process for health care reform, with the chief executive marshalling allies and votes through intermediaries, is still mostly taking place beyond our sight for now, and what deals are made among members or between branches to insure passage or inclusion of certain provisions regarding coverage and costs are also unknown to us. In this case, 'How A Bill Becomes A Law' may be more like the running of a gauntlet, with a disfigured and battered little scroll slouching unrecognizably toward passage, still titled 'Health Care Reform", but otherwise resembling nothing of the kind. If there is no single payer, or even a robust public option, with much storm and noise our representatives in Congress and in the White House may yet again find a way to reward donors with a windfall of public money in the form of mandated insurance, with no cap on costs and no elimination of the industry practice of recission.

[crichloa]

03:30 PM on 09/10/2009

Obama would have be castigated if he actually created a bill. Secondly, I thought it was his responsibility to provide vision and guiding principles, not actually get into the weeds of writing the law.

He learned from the Clinton history that if you lead the charge you will become a causality. Instead, lay out the guiding principles, allow Congress and Senate debate the issue. Identify key concerns and summarize the debate.

This is what he has done for the past 6 months.

Just remember all of the non-healthcare related nonsense that we've heard during this period. Now imagine if he was the author of the bill what additional BS would have taken place.

[Ergon]

04:00 PM on 09/10/2009

Seconded. It was a great speech; I'm interested in the bill that gets passed.

[eddiesengola]

01:47 PM on 09/10/2009

Here is the list of the Senate Democrats listed as ""Don't know" on the Public Option :

Source : http://standwithdrdean.com/where_congress_stands?chamber=Senate&party=D&state=&hc_status=0&commit=Filter

Sen Max Baucus D MT Phone: [phone]
Sen Evan Bayh D IN Phone: [phone]
Sen Mark Begich D AK Phone: [phone]
Sen Robert Byrd D WV Phone: [phone]
Sen Thomas Carper D DE Phone: [phone]
Sen Kent Conrad D ND Phone: [phone]
Sen Mary Landrieu D LA Phone: [phone]
Sen Blanche Lincoln D AR Phone: [phone]
Sen Bill Nelson D FL Phone: [phone]
Sen Benjamin Nelson D NE Phone: [phone]
Sen Mark Pryor D AR Phone: [phone]
Sen Jon Tester D MT Phone: [phone]
Sen Mark Warner D VA Phone: [phone]
Sen Ron Wyden D OR Phone: [phone]

[DorianBrandon]

03:33 PM on 09/10/2009

I wonder how solid these "Dont know" Senators will be come their re-election in 2010?????

[CLASSWARWELOST]

06:00 PM on 09/10/2009

Ron Wyden is on this list . Perhaps he needs to go the same way the voters dealt with Gordon Smith.

[littleblackcat]

01:09 PM on 09/10/2009

Good luck on the Congress thing.

[Aurical]

12:37 PM on 09/10/2009

After most big political issues, I channel surf to see the response that FOX gives to things. If you only watched FOX, you would think that a 5th grade civics student wrote the speech. Just like in the debates where FOX said it was a clean republican sweep, (according to them McCain won both debates and Palin beat Biden), they are completely tone deaf and divorced from reality. They feign ignorarance on elementary issues and tell you that you did not just see what you just saw. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain".

[zipowitz]

03:13 PM on 09/10/2009

Yet I must say that none of the MSM covered key elements like, how is this really going to get paid for and they bought into O's explanation, or that illegals won't be included (yet the current bill says no but has nothing in it to enforce it). It's little things like that where you need other channels to get real information as opposed to MSM fawning all over him.

[crichloa]

03:36 PM on 09/10/2009

That is why it to good to get all perspectives. Sorry to say this but keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

The question for FOX:

Is there anything that you like about President Obama?

We like President Obama because he is half-white.

Is there anything that you don't like about President Obama?

We don't like President Obama because he is half-white.

The moderate Republicans need to find there voice.

[NoFooling]

10:38 AM on 09/10/2009

I certainly hope that if he compromises and removes the public option, that he also removes the billions of dollars of funding in the bill.

As Howard Dean said on Hardball, it would be a travesty to take the public option out and leave all that money in for the insurance companies to pilfer.

[Pinkie e]

10:37 AM on 09/10/2009

Not one dime...NOT ONE DIME I tell you .... will come from the national deficit to pay for this HC bill. It will all be funded by the savings we get from fraud and waste in the present system." That statement alone should be enough to scare the hell out of us. Will we hear any criticism from PBO's personal guard dog media..MSNBC CBS ABC NY Times etc. Of course not and that's even scarier !

[zipowitz]

10:48 AM on 09/10/2009

$900 Billion dollars worth. So everyone on this site should be p$#* off that the President admitted that at least 2 government programs, Medicaid and Medicare are FULL of waste and fraud to the tune of at least $50 -100 Billion a year! So why isn't there a panel in place TODAY, THIS MORNING that is going to tackle this regardless of how the health care reform unfolds. This is absolutely unacceptable yet he proposes that the government start another program that will certainly be full of waste and fraud.

[MichelleB]

11:28 AM on 09/10/2009

zipowitz, the two programs are full of was and fraud because the insurance companies are scamming the system, which is why we are calling for insurance reform and the implementation of public option.

[ChicagoBob]

11:53 AM on 09/10/2009

This is a huge part of the health 'reform' bill. The bill is your panel.

[pennypii]

11:21 AM on 09/10/2009

There is an amazing amount of waste in all medical care. If actually addressed, there is a lot of savings to be had. But I am not worried about the money we need for health care. I'm worried about the money for war. The money taken by the financial giants. The 8 billion in cash taken from the pallets they were flown in on in Iraq. The tax-cuts which have gutted our social services. Now, that could be called real money.

[tssent]

10:30 AM on 09/10/2009

Hi Gardner...
Until Obama made the comparison last night to automobile insurance
I didn't see the light.

I live in Texas, where 1 in every 4 motorists is uninsured.
So as Icommute to and from work everyday and look at the
literally dozens of cars ahead and behind me and to my left
and right at any time, it is most discomforting to realize that
at any given moment at least 3 of them are uninsured.

We have become a society that will try to get away with most
anything. Our collective conscience and our individual morals
have been largely deserted. We may not like to admit that,
but it's true. So what Obama is realizing and I admit has
awakened me to as well is that given the chance we will
game the system every bit as much as the pharmas and
insurance giants.

Now, there remains the larger arguement, that every other
free country in the world insures its people. We, the wealthiest
of all nations in that world, can't even agree on a public system
which is hardly free -- it just makes insurance affordable.

France, Germany, Italy, Canada, England and many dozens
of other countries maintain armies or navies or air forces,
or all of the above, and also manage to offer citizens
absolutely free health care.

What is it so different or special in the United States that we
can't do the same?

[Beca]

01:22 PM on 09/10/2009

The difference is that we function in the most extreme capitalist ic country in the world, which breed extremely greedy, self-serving, selfish citizens.

[littleblackcat]

01:26 PM on 09/10/2009

The difference is that the people of this country have not yet wakened up to the fact that we have the most corrupt government in the industrialized world. Everything the higher-ups do is for the benefit of the top 2%, who in their turn give huge chunks of the money deregulation has allowed them to accumulate to the politicians.
It is also PAST time the people stood up and demanded an ammendment to our Constitution that gives supreme court justices TERM LIMITS! That SOB roberts, awarded a plum job by the "leader" of the most corrupt administration this nation has ever known, is twisting arms to restructure the laws governing campaign contributions by CORPORATIONS! The rich will have ALL the say, ALL the time. And we have bush and his corporate buddies to thank for the absolute destruction of our nation.

[tssent]

10:16 AM on 09/10/2009

Rep Wilson's disgraceful outburst elevated President Obama
an immeasurable distance last night. Someone on the White
House staff has to find the way to prod Wilson to attend all functions
where Obama is scheduled to speak in the future and goad him into
making similar comments. One or two more of these and health
care passage will be a cake walk.

[Lyn91]

09:57 AM on 09/10/2009

He's got my vote.

[truthartbeauty]

09:20 AM on 09/10/2009

contrast the brilliance of our president with the hateful childish rudeness and ignorance of the GOP........pretty amazing. I did not see this comming. I knew the world was full of hateful ignorant horrible people and that decency and heroism were rare indeed but I had no idea my own country would be taken over by the worst elements of humanity. so this is what it has come to!

[Adren Jarrid]

01:49 PM on 09/10/2009

it takes so very little for the liberals to get excited about the chosen one. He just steps out and makes another vacuous speech and they all go the way of Chris Matthews.

[DorianBrandon]

03:37 PM on 09/10/2009

Get a brain and shortly thereafter a life.

[seawolf77]

01:55 PM on 09/10/2009

You said it. Never in my lifetime did I think I would see this day. Torture. Imperialism. Bailouts. Bubbles. Invasions. Surprise attacks. Arguing over the right to health care. HEALTH CARE. Stealing from the young and giving to the old in such a blatant fashion it takes your breath away. How can a conservative parent look their children in the face. I don't know. All I know is that thru history whenever fairness becomes extinct you get revolution and right now In America fairness is DEAD.

[Lee Andrew]

09:19 AM on 09/10/2009

Help Rob Miller defeat Joe Wilson in South Carolina

http://www.actblue.com/entity/fundraisers/19079

Pass it on.

[kurgin]

11:50 AM on 09/10/2009

Look at the money Rob miller has collected already, read the link

[rdiaz921]

12:49 PM on 09/10/2009

i guess Wilson never heard of the internet. LOL.

news - good or bad spreads like wildfire.

[klondiker]

08:18 AM on 09/10/2009

What? Did we watch the same speech? On the public option, I heard..."The public option is great. But, it doesn't matter to me whether we have it or not." This is most certainly NOT what advocates of the public option wanted to hear.

The final bit about Ted Kennedy's letter was spectacular though. Brilliant case for why reform is needed AND why the government has a role to play in it.

[Unforgivableblackness]

10:12 AM on 09/10/2009

I agree Klondiker. I guess Progressives are looking at through the glass half-full philosophy. But as you also mentioned they can still fight to have it included whether Obama is willing to or not.

[Diogenes08]

10:23 AM on 09/10/2009

Hate to disagree, but Obama plainly stated that there *will* be a public option for those that are not covered any other way. There will be premiums, as there should be, but no one will be left without insurance.

[DA12]

08:11 AM on 09/10/2009

Sorry Mike. I'm not with you on this one. Your optimism has blinded you. Progressives in Congress are going to have to force the President to include a public option by threatening to kill any bill without it. If they don't, true reform is dead.

[MeliMeli]

03:18 PM on 09/10/2009

Don' t get so hang up on the means, it's the end that matters, full,quality , affordable, secure coverage... that is what he's aiming for and will get passed. It's time u guys start thinking strategically, like our president.

[Rog49Thomas]

07:36 AM on 09/10/2009

The jackpot is when the bill is passed and what it contains.

[jan4insight]

02:40 AM on 09/10/2009

Mike, I totally agree with your article, and I want I always appreciate your perspective on political issues. Kudos!