After weeks of crazed Town Hall meetings, the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy who dedicated his career to health care for everyone, and the near collapse of an issue that could define his presidency, Barack Obama is now ready to raise the stakes to retake and redefine health care reform. Tonight, President Obama will speak before a joint session of congress as both advocates and opponents agree he must take charge of the health care issue if he is to succeed where Bill Clinton failed in 1994.
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In the weeks since Mr. Obama made health care his number one priority, chaos has ensued. The facts of health care reform have not been properly spelled out by the administration, causing false rumors such as “death panels” and “pulling the plug on Grandma” to spread like wildfire. Republican opponents of reform have made strides in defining the issue on their terms, successfully riling up the American populate in Town Hall forums while Democrats were left twisting in the wind without a proper and organized response. This is almost assuredly where a point man like former HHS nominee Tom Daschle or health care champion Ted Kennedy would have been extremely beneficial. But the President is fully committed to reforming health care, particularly now to honor the memory and legacy of Sen. Kennedy who would have certainly been front and center on the issue had he survived brain cancer. Aides say Mr. Obama will use his bully pulpit as President along with his prime time televised joint session before Congress to sort of “push the reset button” and rev up support for the issue. “This obviously is a make or break moment,” said Robert Reischauer, President of the non-partisan Urban Institute. “It’s time for him (Obama) to stand up and say, ‘There are no easy answers, and these are the choices I want you to make.’ ” Said moderate Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska: “It probably is time for the White House to give direction.”
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OKWASSUP! FULL COVERAGE OF MR. OBAMA’S SPEECH TOMORROW
For the past 2 years, I’ve watched Obama (studying his style, if you will). His approach to dealing with his Opponents seems to be a blending of Muhammad Ali’s “rope-a-dope”, Bill Clinton’s resilience and Obama’s own intellectual pragmatism and patience. IMO, the major flaw in his approach is this: Obama has difficulty with “TIMING"_knowing when to get off the ropes and take command of the situation by striking some punishingly EFFECTIVE blows (intellectually speaking) against his opponents whenever an opportunity presents itself. He tends to ride the ropes too long _allowing opponents to land too many “below-the-belt” body-blows on him BEFORE he comes to life and knocks the sh*t outta them (intellectually speaking).Reich-wingers, and their political and corporate masters, see him as just a “n*gger” who has defiled their “WHITE” House and they want him GONE yesterday!The health insurance industry has, to date, funded the so-called grass-roots opposition movement to… Read more »