For Obama, Party Unity On Health Care Is Just a Start

From the Washington Post:

The substance [of Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last week] was pitched much more toward the center of the electorate, toward the independents who had soured on George W. Bush and were looking for a change in 2008, but who may be worried that the scope of what Obama has proposed is more than they bargained for. Even a superficial reading of the president's message suggests he is prepared to sell off many of the key elements of the House-shaped legislation.

White House officials are somewhat baffled by House Democrats continuing to push for legislation that includes a robust public insurance option when it's clear the Senate will not embrace such a provision. In their view, the public option was never debated in the campaign, was never the center of a national debate and appears to lack the votes regardless of what public opinion polls show about its popularity.

Obama . . . seems to have his eyes fixed more on the center of the electorate than on the party's base, and for good reason.

Democrats were handed the White House and their majorities in Congress by an electorate that had soured on Bush and the Republicans. Their first responsibility is to demonstrate an ability to govern, which is why the failure-is-not-an-option mantra has been repeated so often during the sometimes frustrating negotiations over health care. That is still the reason White House officials express optimism that Obama will sign a health-care bill this year.

But their second responsibility is to take seriously the concerns expressed by many of those who voted for Obama, but who now have doubts about his very ambitious agenda and its implications for the deficit and for the role of government in their lives. For many of these voters, the concern has become "too much, too fast."

Obama has defended what he has done with respect to the economy, financial institutions and the auto industry as the equivalent of wars of necessity. But health care and climate change were fights he has chosen to start, and they have given pause to many voters who may be sympathetic to Obama.

The president is not willing to postpone ambitious health-care reform, fearing that indefinite delay will mean permanent defeat. But in the message he has delivered in the past week, he seems aware he must address the concerns about his presidency that have caused his approval ratings to slip.

[Obama] must not just rally the Democrats. He must prod and nudge and push them toward agreement on legislation that, over time, wins acceptance and approval of independents still nervous about his presidency.