[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/09/09/obama.down.art.jpg caption="President Obama will deliver a health care speech to a joint session of Congress Wednesday."]
If President Obama’s summer has been one of discontent, all those tough tag lines about his health care plan may have had something to do with it:
“Rationing”
“Death Panels”
“Kill Grandma”
“We Won’t Pay for Murder”
“Socialism”
“Government Takeover”
Taken together with those falling poll numbers and it’s enough for a president to say “ouch.”
Susan Molinari is a former congresswoman from New York who now lobbies for a firm that deals in health care matters. She says the president “has seen himself, if you will, the superman falling to Earth.”
Part of the president’s problem, says Molinari, is that he hasn’t found a way to convince Republicans that reform is really needed. When the president speaks to Congress and the nation about health care, “he really needs to rise above the partisan bickering,” says Molinari. He needs to “become the leader of the United States and talk about what are those things that he needs to see in the health care bill and urge the two parties, Republicans and Democrats, to get together and make it happen as quickly as possible.”
We sent a CNN producer out to the streets of the president’s hometown of Chicago to sample public opinion. Has the president done enough to answer criticisms of his health care plan? These responses were typical:
Lori: “No, I don’t. ... I would like to know a little bit more about his health care plan because he continues to say people are distorting what he has to say.”
Shelly: “I think there are a lot of inconsistencies in what he’s saying.”
And Anaoma: “I feel like he’s promising so much but hasn’t really acted on anything. ... Honestly, I feel like his critics have flustered him a little bit.”
On Monday, the president gave an impassioned defense of health care reform before a labor audience in Cincinnati:
“I see reform where we bring stability and security to folks who have insurance today. Where you never again have to worry about going without coverage — if you lose your job, change your job or get sick. Where there is a cap on your out-of-pocket expenses, so you don’t have to worry that a serious illness will break you and your family. Where you never again have to worry that you or someone you love will be denied coverage because of a preexisting condition.”
Good enough?
John Avlon, columnist for The Daily Beast, says that’s a start but that the president has to find a way to neutralize the extremes:
“The tail has been wagging the dog in this health care debate,” says Avlon. “I mean the conservatives have had disproportionate influence. And then belatedly the left has been trying to make their own noise. ... What he needs to do as President of the United States is to try to be a leader and try to define that common ground. Now that means exiling the extremes rhetorically.”
As for the big speech Wednesday night before a joint session of Congress:
“Obama gets energy from people,” says Avlon. “And that’s the tough crowd he needs to make this sell to. So giving a speech to Congress is a gutsy gamble. ... But it’s important and I think that’s going to help him rise to the occasion.”