I went into President Obama’s Wednesday night national address with very high expectations. After watching the White House essentially sit back and watch the health care debate run away from them, I anticipated an effort by the president to start changing the debate. What I watched Wednesday night was exactly what I expected and was hoping for.
Obama’s address was both decisively strong and aggressively determined. I wrote last month about the differences between Candidate Obama, who seemed to always have the appropriate response at the appropriate time while his opponents ran around with their collective hair ablaze, and President Obama, who seemed to allow his administration’s collective hair to burn. I felt the Obama White House had not been aggressive and vocal enough with their argument in favor of health insurance reform. Well, on Wednesday, Candidate Obama must have had some words with President Obama, because both Obamas showed up for the address. We saw the passionate, rhetorically-superb campaign-trail Obama together with the calm, reasoned I’m-president-now Obama.
From the I-know-how-to-fire-up-a-crowd Candidate Obama:
Well, the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. (Applause.) Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care. Now is the time to deliver on health care.
His address reminded me somewhat of his acceptance speech last summer in Denver: excellent rhetoric coupled with details and specifics. Anyone (read: me) who argued the president was too timid in his pitch for reform was silenced on Wednesday.
Obama skillfully positioned himself as a reasoned centrist. He made comments about and gestures toward the left and the right and talked about how his plan borrowed ideas from both (including two past rivals: Hillary Clinton and John McCain) and that it wasn’t, in fact, an enormous plot to “destroy” the system we have now:
Since health care represents one-sixth of our economy, I believe it makes more sense to build on what works and fix what doesn’t, rather than try to build an entirely new system from scratch.
This is what he outlined:
The plan I’m announcing tonight would meet three basic goals. It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance for those who don’t. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government.
In the address, the president touched on a critical hurdle to reform: convincing those with coverage that reform is necessary:
But the problem that plagues the health care system is not just a problem for the uninsured. Those who do have insurance have never had less security and stability than they do today. More and more Americans worry that if you move, lose your job, or change your job, you’ll lose your health insurance too. More and more Americans pay their premiums, only to discover that their insurance company has dropped their coverage when they get sick, or won’t pay the full cost of care. It happens every day.
In his address, the president also fought-back against the unfounded lies being told about reform plans in perhaps his strongest language yet on the matter:
Some of people’s concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but by prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Now, such a charge would be laughable if it weren’t so cynical and irresponsible. It is a lie, plain and simple.
In calling members of Congress to action, Obama said this:
I understand how difficult this health care debate has been. I know that many in this country are deeply skeptical that government is looking out for them. I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.
But that is not what the moment calls for. That’s not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it. I still believe we can act even when it’s hard. (Applause.) I still believe I still believe that we can act when it’s hard. I still believe we can replace acrimony with civility, and gridlock with progress. I still believe we can do great things, and that here and now we will meet history’s test.
Because that’s who we are. That is our calling. That is our character.
Finally, he expanded on what I have always thought was the most important reason for reform: the moral case. The president invoked a letter he received posthumously from Senator Ted Kennedy:
“What we face,” he wrote, “is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country.” […]
That large-heartedness that concern and regard for the plight of others-is not a partisan feeling. It’s not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character-our ability to stand in other people’s shoes; a recognition that we are all in this together, and when fortune turns against one of us, others are there to lend a helping hand; a belief that in this country, hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play; and an acknowledgment that sometimes government has to step in to help deliver on that promise.
Obama gave strong and assertive speech Wednesday night, one that surely invigorated a stagnant and discouraged base. Now the hard work begins: making reform a reality.
(Photo: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
