"The President has a big megaphone, and he intends to use that megaphone,"(David Axelrod) .
(news.yahoo.-Time).This is what Barack Obama does. Back him into a corner, get the press all wee-weed up, send his polls ratings plummeting and the aging basketball player responds again and again with the same move: he delivers a major speech. And why not? It keeps working. It's the thing that first introduced him to the nation, at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. It is what extricated him from the Jeremiah Wright mess during the campaign. It has become the central method of his foreign policy push, in Prague, Cairo, Moscow and Accra.
It's also been the method of choice in his push for health-care reform. In just the last two months, he has held six health-care town halls and a prime-time news conference. But public support for his plans has been declining through the summer. So the answer, he believes, is one more speech, Wednesday night in front of a joint session of Congress.
So Obama will take his case for health-care reform directly to the American people - again - and compete head-to-head with the 8 p.m. season premiere of America's Next Top Model. The speech is less a recalibration of his health-care effort than a restatement of purpose. Aides caution that he will neither demand a so-called public-health-insurance option nor abandon his desire to see one achieved. He will not give up his quest for a bipartisan compromise in the Senate, nor will he vow to abandon the possible use of parliamentary procedures that would allow Democrats to pass major portions of reform with just 51 Senate votes.
He will make clear, as he has before, that the time for action is now. On Monday, at a fiery Labor Day rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, Obama offered a sneak peek. "Debate is good, because we have to get this right," he told the crowd. "But in every debate there comes a time to decide, a time to act. And Ohio, that time is now."
Obama's mission, when he takes the podium in the House, flanked by his Vice President and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will be less about forcing the hand of Congress than re-energizing public support for reform, something that is essential for members of Congress to feel they have the cover to vote yes.
It's the kind of message Obama has delivered many times before - as a state legislator from Chicago, as an embattled presidential candidate and as a victorious newly elected President. The question this time is: Will sweeping oratory still carry the day?.
It's also been the method of choice in his push for health-care reform. In just the last two months, he has held six health-care town halls and a prime-time news conference. But public support for his plans has been declining through the summer. So the answer, he believes, is one more speech, Wednesday night in front of a joint session of Congress.
So Obama will take his case for health-care reform directly to the American people - again - and compete head-to-head with the 8 p.m. season premiere of America's Next Top Model. The speech is less a recalibration of his health-care effort than a restatement of purpose. Aides caution that he will neither demand a so-called public-health-insurance option nor abandon his desire to see one achieved. He will not give up his quest for a bipartisan compromise in the Senate, nor will he vow to abandon the possible use of parliamentary procedures that would allow Democrats to pass major portions of reform with just 51 Senate votes.
He will make clear, as he has before, that the time for action is now. On Monday, at a fiery Labor Day rally in Cincinnati, Ohio, Obama offered a sneak peek. "Debate is good, because we have to get this right," he told the crowd. "But in every debate there comes a time to decide, a time to act. And Ohio, that time is now."
Obama's mission, when he takes the podium in the House, flanked by his Vice President and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will be less about forcing the hand of Congress than re-energizing public support for reform, something that is essential for members of Congress to feel they have the cover to vote yes.
It's the kind of message Obama has delivered many times before - as a state legislator from Chicago, as an embattled presidential candidate and as a victorious newly elected President. The question this time is: Will sweeping oratory still carry the day?.
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