Obama's Best Speech As President

(The New Republic)  Noam Scheiber is a senior editor at The New Republic.

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This was the best speech I've heard Barack Obama give as president--possibly the best since January of 2008.

Unlike his inaugural address, or even his convention speech, this one really soared and inspired by the end--a bit counterintuitively for a health care speech. I thought the invocation of Ted Kennedy was pitch perfect: not tacky or maudlin and certainly not partisan (hence the allusions to Kennedy's friends Orrin Hatch, John McCain and Chuck Grassley). Obama managed to depict Kennedy as a completely ecumenical figure ("Ted Kennedy's passion was born not of some rigid ideology, but of ... the experience of having two children stricken with cancer."). And then, by segueing from Kennedy into a pragmatic defense of liberalism ("hard work and responsibility should be rewarded by some measure of security and fair play"), he managed to depict liberalism as a completely ecumenical worldview. That, too, was right out of Obama's greatest campaign hits.

This was also as animated a speech as I've heard Obama give as president. On the campaign trail, he was great at talking over applause to reach a rhetorical crescendo. He did that nicely a couple times tonight, including during one of his take-away lines: "Well the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action."

A couple more quick thoughts:

1.) The distillation of the proposal itself was very solid: "It will provide more security and stability to those who have health insurance. It will provide insurance to those who don't. And it will slow the growth of health care costs for our families, our businesses, and our government. " Not quite bumper-sticker length, but as close as a Democratic health plan is going to come, I think.

2.) The rhetorical case for expanding health coverage involved a very deft bait-and-switch. In a nutshell: If you don't have health care, we'll help you get it by creating a new insurance exchange. This is how employees of large companies and members of Congress get insurance, and ordinary Americans should have the same opportunity. Which is to say, Obama started off with a semi-controversial substantive goal (health care for those who lack it), then shifted to an uncontroversial procedural goal (you should be able to get your health care delivered the same way Congress people do). In the course of making this shift, he elided the original question of whether we should cover the uninsured. Kudos to the speechwriter who came up with it. (Really.)

3.) The line about the Medicare trust fund was also very savvy. It reminded me of Clinton's "Save Social Security first" mantra from his 1998 State of the Union address (which, for those who don't remember, prevented Republicans from spending the surplus on tax cuts for the wealthy):
More than four decades ago, this nation stood up for the principle that after a lifetime of hard work, our seniors should not be left to struggle with a pile of medical bills in their later years. That is how Medicare was born.

And it remains a sacred trust that must be passed down from one generation to the next. That is why not a dollar of the Medicare trust fund will be used to pay for this plan [emphasis added].

Of course, unless I'm missing something, this promise is essentially meaningless--the trust fund begins running a deficit in 2017 according to the latest trustees' report. So the question isn't whether we'll raid the Medicare trust fund, but what else we're going to raid to shore up Medicare. But it's an evocative line--as if there's a big pile of cash locked in some value with seniors' names on it--that sounded pretty damn reassuring. Another nice speechwriting touch.



By Noam Scheiber:
Reprinted with permission from The New Republic.

[ursularemien]

President Barack Obama's is the best President in the world
His Health Care Reform, is a great change, and his speech was inspiring and make a difference in my life's, I agree 100% with him.
Thanks for all the good work.

[White_Duck]

I think his best is yet to come. That will be his Resignation Speech

[rational_1]

The author of this piece wrote "It reminded me of Clinton's Save Social Security first"

Ya, right. So, how's that been working out for the Feds? That's okay, I'm sure they'll do better with government-run healthcare. Trust in Barry, Harry and the wicked witch from the west. They won't let you down. ROTFL.

[cs4466]

National Health Care will pass, and it will be one more defeat in a long line of defeats of the poor bitter neocons.

Great job, Mr. President!!

[ClarkeGrissom]

All those who watched may have see the Repulican side of the aisle waving a sheaf of paper. That paper was the 64-page H.R 3400, Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2009, sponsored by Tom Price. This bill addresses the US healthcare issues immediately and sanely, read it. Unfortunately this bill is being blocked in committee by Nancy Pelosi and other liberal Dems because it doesn't contain anything about public option or advance their fascistic aims at controlling Americans.

[steeepe]

Yea, and you don't think the GOP platform is essentially fascist? The GOP merges evangelicism, corporatism, authoritarianism, and nationalism to come up with a nice stew of intolerance.

[1notrub11]

Thanks, Clarke.., I will. Send a copy to the POTUS, he at least should read something others in his party are ignoring, if he wants to stand true to his offer of bipartisan considerations and action.

[ClarkeGrissom]

Yeah, after 111 similar speeches he really 'nailed it'.

[msimamaji]

Obama's speech represents the courage, integrity, and strength of character that is totally lacking in the GOP, and I'll also add a lot of the comments I read on this blog, which make statements with no factual backing
The Republicans have every reason to fear Obama, especially the public option. Health insurance companies and big pharma represent a tremendous source of revenue.
For example I conducted some research on Joe Wilson based on data that I obtained from Center for Responsive Politics. Among the industries that contributed to Wilson's political campaigns, Health professionals took 1st place. Joe Wilson also gets hefty campaign contributions from lobbyists, for-profit hospitals and nursing homes, pharmaceuticals/health products, insurance companies, and securities and investments. If I conduct a sector analysis, the for-profit health sector is Wilson's biggest contributor. Individual corporations which contribute heavily to Wilson's political campaigns include American Hospital Association and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
The top 6 contributors for Charles Grassley include Blue Cross, 2nd place: Select Medical Group, 3rd place; and Amgen. Throughout Grassley's career he has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the industries health insurance industry, health products, and pharmaceuticals.
Mitch McConnell gets $ 2 million in political campaign contributions from the health sector. He gets $ 1 million from lobbyists. His top political donor is Kindred Health Care. Among the other top 20 campaign donors are Humana Inc, Blue Cross, and GalaxoSmithKline.
Do any of these guys ever tell you that whenever you purchase health insurance or fill a prescription, you are making an involuntary campaign contribution? I don't think so. This is a good reason for a public option.
In addition, you should notice how frequently Blue Cross appears in this data. Blue Cross also offers a Medicare Advantage Program which costs 30% more than regular Medicare and which is 100% subsidized by the government. What does Blue Cross do with this money? Does it provide health care for senior citizens, or does it buy new jets for GOP Congressmen? Does RNC Chairman Michael Steel steal from Medicare Advantage funds to buy himself a new suit or a yacht?
Who knows? Maybe it's time that the Department of Justice investigate Medicare advantage.

[burneb]

Pretty good speech, as expected. Probably Obama should have made it earlier, to clarify several major points that have been subjected to mis-interpretation or outright distortions by opponents of meaningful reforms.

Waiting for Congress to initiate and wrestle over proposals was obviously intended to avoid getting Congressmen into a snit over the WH "dictating" the terms, but the tradeoff has been a lot of myth, rumors, and disinformation to confuse Americans who seriously want the best solutions we can devise.

Generally it seemed as truthful as any speech on a complex topic subject to quibbling. There is no guarantee that some illegal aliens might not wangle some free care under the proposed legislation, but that happens a lot now, and none of the proposals authorizes it.

As a popular TV ad claims, there are no "guarantees" of various other things, but that is not how Congress words legislation. Instead they word bills to authorize certain things with some exclusions, and/or prohibit certain things with some exclusions. It is up to those who run the authorized programs to ensure that they are run according to the wording and intent of the legislation.

We are still left with big concerns about cost impacts, which NO ONE can honestly predict with accuracy. But it is clear that health care and coverage costs are going to keep shooting up under our current mess. Americans are paying enough for good care for everyone, we just aren't getting it. There are also a lot of hidden and seldom discussed costs to the present shortcomings.

[noloyalisti]

Great job Obama. And keep up the good work of demonstrating why the Republi CONS should all be swept out of office and should have no further say in the running of America.

Joe Wilson mad his tea baggers proud I guess but it showed just how wacked out these racist CONS are.

[kgbyrdgillis]

u must be a yankee- cause u sure are dreaming- he is the worst president & he goes rite along with clinton- they both need to move to Iraq or Iran- they are the only countries that like the both of them- & maybe u should go to