Many of us progressives are anxious. President Obama advocated for a public option insurance plan in his OFA town hall Thursday, but didn't say the magic words many progressives have demanded: "I will veto any bill without a public option." The closest he's come is a statement that he won't sign a bill that doesn't include an insurance exchange and some way to "keep insurance companies honest."
The media and the blogosphere have spent months trying to read the tea leaves around a single question: Why won't President Obama draw a line in the sand on the public option?
The common answers swirl around the word indecision; he won't draw a line in the sand on the public option because he isn't fully committed to that part of the health care package. Maybe that's true. Or maybe President Obama simply isn't a "line in the sand" style leader.
More below the fold....
Parsing President Obama
Increasingly the media coverage of health care reform focuses not on what President Obama says, but what he hasn't said. He hasn't said "I will veto any bill without a public option." The media have taken that comment-not-made - an absence of evidence - and built from it a narrative of indecision.
But an absence of evidence is only significant if it is unexpected. There are many things the president hasn't said. For example, he hasn't said he'll sprout wings and fly to Tahiti. No one speculates about why he hasn't said that, because no one expects him to say it. It's an absence of evidence, but that absence is insignificant. The evidenciary significance of President Obama's comment-not-made - that he'll veto a health care bill without a public option - rests on an expectation that he would have said that if he meant that.
Is that expectation reasonable? Is this comment-not-made out of character with President Obama's personality and history?
Parsing President Bush
His verbal stumbles aside, it was easy to parse President Bush. If he thought it, he said it, and in no uncertain terms. He spoke in absolutes and ultimatums. He drew lines in the sand almost any time he spoke on any issue. So had President Bush advocated for health care reform and not drawn a line in the sand on a public option, it would be reasonable to conclude he wasn't committed to that.
This is the lexical formula many are using to parse President Obama. Sometimes pundits come right out and say it: "If this were President Bush, he'd have said..." The tacit premise: President Obama hasn't said what President Bush would have said, so he must be indecisive.
More often the formula is implicit: "President Obama needs to be strong on this issue." The tacit premise: Bush-like ultimatums are the litmus test of strength.
"I'm a big believer in persistence."
President Obama seems to focus on another kind of strength, as he said back in March. He's not about overt displays of steely resolve, ultimatums, or lines in the sand. During the primaries, many complained that Candidate Obama needed to "throw some punches" at his opponents, but he never did. During the general election campaign, many complained that Candidate Obama needed to "get tougher" with John McCain, but he never did. Despite the dire predictions, Candidate Obama became President Obama by staying cool, calm ... and persistent.
That cool, calm demeanor isn't a stratagem. It's not a gimmick he chose to distance himself from McCain's erratic, hair-on-fire style. It seems to be fundamental to President Obama's personality, his deeply-held view of leadership. Don't get angry. Don't bluster. Take the punches, and don't punch back just for the sake of punching back. Think first, then speak thoughtfully. Above all, be persistent.
President Obama has been a persistent advocate for the public option. He's explained what it will do: offer Americans a choice if they're not happy with or can't get private insurance, and force insurers to control premiums and be honest with their customers. He's also explained what it will not do: be a government takeover of the health care system, or force those who have and like their private insurance to change plans. He's also countered the paranoid lies spawned by industry insiders and spread through right-wing megaphones in Congress and the media.
What he hasn't done is what President Bush would have done: draw a line in the sand and threaten to veto any bill without a public option.
Does that comment-not-made mean he's "soft" on the public option?
Or does that comment-not-made simply mean he's not President Bush?
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Happy Saturday!