There is encouraging news on health care today - Obama is finally campaigning for health care reform with the intensity that he should have done long ago. However, polls showing that the public is not as excited about health care reform, and the Republican's confidence in their ability to kill it, are signs that the President has made some misteps in the past. I hope he fixes them, but I fear that the White House has not learned its lesson.
The stakes are high - a good comprehensive health care bill is needed in its own right. Perhaps more importantly, Obama's presidency will be judged largely on getting a real health care reform bill passed. If Dems only pass a weak bill with no real reform - or worse, fail to pass a bill at all - Obama's presidency will be deeply harmed. Obama has promised reform, and failure to make meaningful progress with a strong majority in the House and 60 senators will make Obama look weak. That will slow down not only health care, but the rest of his agenda, which is why Repubs are do desperate to block progress.
I believe that the reason why public enthusiasm for health care reform has quieted has nothing to do with people changing their minds. Rather, there has not been a strong pro-health care message, and this has tempered people's excitement about the potential for reform. Obviously many people have stated arguments for reform, but the focused and coordinated Republican messages have been presented louder in the press. Why is this? I believe that it reflects Obama's strategy to invite industry into the health care discussion, but to push away liberals who strongly advocate for public health care. The liberal base, though, are exactly the people who trumpet the messages for a need for health care reform.
The Republicans ask why we should change "the world's best health care system," but Obama pushes away those who would point out that U.S. life expectancy, infant mortality, and survival rates for some disseases is far lower than the rest of the developed world. Republican's say that we should let the markets work, but Obama pushes away those who would point out that health care markets are full of adverse selection, and that it is well known in economics that markets with high amounts of adverse selection do not work at all. Republicans say that private insurers will go bankrupt if Obama's health care reform is passed, but Obama pushes away those that point out that this is because private insurers today provide lower quality health care than a public option would provide.
To be sure, Obama should be credited withhaving the guts to push hard for health care. And I think he is guided by a true desire for consensus to be reached on the topic. But as Kos and others have pointed out, Republicans have no desire to be partners to any of Obama's good plans. In that case, he should embrace the groups that will help sound out the messages that will get true health care reform - and environmental and financial refrom - enacted.
That's my perspective - I look forward to hearing yours.