Posted on 09/08/2009 2:53:47 PM PDT by tobyhill
Republicans want President Obama to hit the "reset" button on health care reform when he addresses Congress Wednesday night. But if the president's fiery speech to the AFL-CIO Monday is any gauge, he's planning to crank up the volume instead.
In doing so, the president will be upping the ante in the debate, effectively hinging progress on his own magnetism and talent for persuasion -- rather than the merit of the policy proposals he's left up to Congress since taking office.
The question in the coming weeks will be whether that magnetism will be enough to overcome public discontent and break the partisan gridlock in Washington.
Tapping the pomp of a joint session of Congress could be Obama's best shot.
"This is the kind of setting where Bush took us to war," said Jeremy Mayer, public policy professor at George Mason University. "This is the power of the White House at its greatest podium and its greatest bully pulpit. And if Obama can't do it, then I'm not sure who can."
Conservatives maintain that Obama needs to take a completely new approach, and yet-another-speech on the importance of immediate reform will do him little good.
"If he comes back tomorrow night and tries to ram through a massive bill, I suspect in the end it'll fail just as it failed in 1994," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told FOX News on Tuesday, referring to former President Bill Clinton's attempt to change the nation's health care model.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Yeah he’s real magnetic,not.
Obama’s magnetism wouldn’t attract a paper clip. He’s a spent force.
The hypnosis is even starting to wear thin.
I don’t know who’s having a worse year, Obama or the N.Y. Mets.
I’m a little nervous about the full-court press I’m seeing from the mainstream media. First, I see article after article about how great his speech was. Then, simultaneously, they all come out touting the speech that’s going to change the debate.
Makes me wonder if they don’t have their rigged “focus groups” and “instant polls” ready to roll tomorrow night.
So how come we are not attracted to his flux?
The MSM will go GAGA over the speech just like they did the Race Relations drivel where Granny was exposed as a closet Racist
I think most Americans minds are made up—even if Obama calms their fears on a few points like death panels and such, those opposed will still have an over-arching sense that they’d prefer to keep government out of their healthcare and that any change to the system is going to leave them with the short end of the stick.
Obama doesn’t need a single Rep vote to pass his program. He has to convince his fellow Dems Chicago-style to go along with the program. The idea that the Reps are obstructing ObamaCare is ludicrous. Why not just have Obama meet with the Dems behind close doors? The Reps are just props for this joint session of Congress. They could just have easily put cardboard figures in their seats.
The MSM will NOT let him fail PERIOD
Whether the public laps it up is the real question
I am not that hopeful that the voters can’t be BSed
He’s been storing the reds ends with the reds and blues ends with blues.
He’s now just a box of useless metal.
I suspect there will be a healthy rebound in the ratings for this speech.
High permeability, low retentivity.
I'd like to suggest that maybe an issue this big should advance on criteria a bit more substantial than a huckster's salesmanship. For instance, the proposal's viability. Or its desirability among its consumers. You know, trivial stuff like that.
Weighing against that is the fact that the American people don’t want a Diktator.
I see a little wry irony on the part of Fox.
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