Obama's Labor Day rallying cry: 'Time to act' on healthcare
Like Clark Kent stepping into a phone booth, President Obama discarded his mild-mannered alter ego on a Cincinnati stage Monday in an attempt to rally his Democratic base and turn the tide running against healthcare reform.
Gone was the professor-president who took care to explain the complexities of healthcare in such painstaking detail during recent months. In his place was the president-preacher, quite literally before his choir 鈥� at least politically speaking 鈥� a Labor Day picnic of the AFL-CIO.
It was a glimpse of the president that many Democrats had hoped they had elected in November 鈥� a forceful figure using his considerable rhetorical repertory and a clear political mandate to grasp the presidency in his fist.
Instead, many have grown disillusioned by a president who has 鈥� in their eyes 鈥� caved in to the right far too often, whether on gay rights, a in healthcare reform, or and liberal up-and-comer Van Jones under pressure from Republicans and Fox News commentator Glenn Beck.
In rolled up shirt sleeves and conspicuously without a tie, Obama was in campaign mode once more, seeking to regain some of that lost ground.
鈥淓very debate at some point comes to an end,鈥� he said in reference to the weeks of debate that have left healthcare reform in political limbo. 鈥淎t some point it鈥檚 time to act. Ohio, it鈥檚 time to act.鈥�
Obama would hope to carry the enthusiasm of Monday鈥檚 picnic onto the dais of Congress, where he will address a joint session Wednesday night.
Yet the Obama of compromise does not appear to be forgotten entirely.
On Sunday morning鈥檚 鈥溾�� 鈥� a forum much more likely to give insight into the mechanics of Washington dealmaking than a union rally 鈥� one of the president鈥檚 senior advisers offered much more tepid words.
While Obama thinks the option of a government-run program to compete with private healthcare insurers is 鈥渁 good tool,鈥� Axelrod said, 鈥渋t shouldn't define the whole healthcare debate, however.鈥�
Democrats in the House are inclined to disagree. Healthcare reform without the option of a government-run program is hardly worth doing 鈥� to the point that some say .
But new words have crept into the healthcare debate this summer. 鈥淐o-ops鈥� would allow people and businesses to band together to compete with private insurers 鈥� replacing the public option. Now, Washington is talking about a 鈥渢rigger鈥� mechanism. According to this idea, championed by Sen. Olympia Snowe (R) of Maine, a public option would only come into play only if private insurers fail to meet certain benchmarks for competition.
To staunch Democrats, these words are little better than political expletives. But Mr. Axelrod did not dismiss them Sunday.
Like the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, Obama and his advisers may decide to take an incremental approach to comprehensive reform 鈥� accepting the 80 percent of healthcare reform upon which Republicans and Democrats can agree and building on that.
Obama stressed this point Monday, saying: "We've never been this close. We've never had such broad agreement on what needs to be done."
He and Axelrod also gave a hint of how the administration intends to try to redirect the healthcare-reform debate in coming days. Both repeatedly used the words "security and stability" in connection with reform efforts.
Whether that indicates a dialing up or dialing down of expectations should become clear soon.
But with Democratic senators such as Ben Nelson and Amy Klobuchar that they were open to the trigger option, and Sen. Max Baucus that did not include a public option, Obama may feel there is only so much he can get 鈥� no matter how well he rallies the troops.
