Politics Today: Obama Health Care Push Goes On
Politics Today is CBSNews.com's inside look at the key stories driving the day in Politics, written by CBS News Political Director Steve Chaggaris:
**Following last night's news conference, President Obama continues health care push in Cleveland...
**The president weighs in on Gates arrest, race...
His goal: to speak directly to Americans about the importance of passing health care reform.
That was also his aim last night during the news conference and in his opening remarks, he hit the target. However, if anyone was looking for details about what he wants to see in the bills coming out of Congress, he didn't provide them. (Listen to my analysis of the press conference from WTOP radio.)
"If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket," Mr. Obama said at the beginning of last night's news conference. "If we do not act, 14,000 Americans will continue to lose their health insurance every single day."
"Obama used his fourth prime-time news conference to directly address the anxiety many Americans feel about emerging plans to revamp health care, plans that are reaching a critical juncture in Congress," writes the Washington Post's Michael A. Fletcher. …
"Obama cast retooling the U.S. health-care system as crucial to the nation's economic success. Reform would help rein in the national deficit and rebuild the economy, he argued, in a way that would help middle-class workers, whose wages have stagnated in recent years largely because of spiraling health-care costs.
"Convincing Americans -- and by extension Congress -- of the value of reform is pivotal to the fate of Obama's broader domestic agenda. Defeat would be a substantial political setback, not unlike the one President Bill Clinton suffered in 1993, when his failure to remake the health-care system caused him to shrink his ambitions."
"But while he is under increasing pressure from leading Democrats to delve more deeply into the negotiations by taking positions on specific policy issues, he largely resisted doing so Wednesday night."
Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler, Greg Hitt and Jonathan Weisman, "Obama Backs Health Surtax"
Politico's Ben Smith described the president's performance last night this way: "The president's remarks on his chosen subject, health care, were cautious and choreographed, hemmed in on one side by the calculations of his professional wordsmiths, on the other by the delicacy of negotiations with two houses of Congress.
"He never detailed his own plan, or named a single victim of America's broken system, and he spoke largely in the abstractions of blue pills, red pills, and legislative processes. It's not easy to turn delivery system reform into a rallying cry for change, but at times, it was as if Obama wasn't even trying."
"While the President once again laid out his case for fixing the system to what he admitted was a skeptical public, he offered scant details as to how. 'If we do not control these costs, we will not be able to control our deficit,' he remarked. 'If we do not reform health care, your premiums and out-of-pocket costs will continue to skyrocket.'"
"During much of the hourlong news conference, Obama relied on jargon that Washington insiders embrace but that might leave the typical television viewer mystified," add the Los Angeles Times' Peter Nicholas, Christi Parsons, and Noam N. Levey.
"Discussing government spending, he mentioned 'the supplemental' -- referring to a war-funding bill. He used the word 'incentivize' several times."
"On the Senate side, progress slowed in the bipartisan talks convened by Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) when Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) withdrew from the negotiations. And Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) told the Hill newspaper that the measure would not reach the Senate floor until after Labor Day.
"In recent days, the House has become bogged down in negotiations, with several factions inside the Democratic caucus unhappy with the 1,000-page bill drafted by three committee chairmen."
New York Times' David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear, "Concerns on Plan Show Clashing Goals"
CBS News' Mark Knoller, "It's Health Insurance, Not Health Care, For Obama"
Politics Daily's Jill Lawrence, "Dr. Obama's Health Care Prescription: Change Will Make You Feel Better"
Associated Press' Calvin Woodward and Jim Kuhnhenn, "Fact Check: Obama's health care claims adrift?"
Politico's Manu Raju, "GOP leaders fear anti-Obama tone"
Wall Street Journal's Vanessa Fuhrmans, "Replicating Cleveland Clinic's Success Poses Major Challenges"
Washington Post's Dan Eggen and Rob Stein, "Abortion Opponents Criticize Health Reform Bills"
New York Times' Duff Wilson, "More Cost Cuts Sought From Drug Industry"
Associated Press' Sharon Theimer, "White House invited med industry execs in early"
"President Obama, weighing in on the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., said last night that Cambridge police 'acted stupidly' when they handcuffed Gates even after he showed proof that he lived in the house," reports the Boston Globe's Joseph Williams.
"Calling Gates 'a friend,' and acknowledging he didn't 'know all the facts,' Obama said during a nationally televised press conference otherwise devoted to healthcare that he didn't know whether race played a role in the arrest of Gates, who is black and a noted authority on race relations, by a white Cambridge police officer investigating a burglary report.
"But the president added that it is 'just a fact' that African-Americans and Latinos are disproportionately stopped by police - evidence 'that race remains a factor in our society.'"
"Obama, in a lighter moment, imagined what would happen if, like Gates, he 'jimmied his way' into his house," writes the Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, who asked the question about Gates at last night's news conference. "'I mean, if I was trying to jigger into -- well, I guess this is my house now, so -- it probably wouldn't happen. But let's say my old house in Chicago -- here I'd get shot.'"
New York Times' Katherine Q. Seelye, "With Vigor, Obama Wades Into a Volatile Racial Issue"
ALSO TODAY: After his health care events, the president heads to Chicago for a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser. Also scheduled: Chicago Bears head coach Lovie Smith and Bears QB Jay Cutler.
The funeral service for longtime CBS Evening News anchor Walter Cronkite takes place today at St. Bartholomew's in New York City.
IRAQ
Washington Post's Karen DeYoung, "Obama Urges Iraq to Resolve Internal Disputes"
Time Magazine's Bobby Ghosh, "What al-Maliki (and Iraq) Still Need from Obama"
FOREIGN POLICY
Wall Street Journal's James Hookway, "North Korea Lashes Out at Clinton, Rejects Six-Party Talks"
LA Times' Paul Richter, "U.S. may put up 'defense umbrella' over Mideast"
CBSNews.com's Kevin Hechtkopf, "Clinton Remark on Iran Raises Concern in Israel"
New York Times' Alan Cowell, "Biden Warns of More 'Sacrifice' in Afghanistan"
Associated Press' Douglas Birch, "Georgia to ask Biden for weapons, observers"
SOTOMAYOR
LA Times' James Oliphant and David G. Savage, "Key GOP senator says he'll vote to confirm Sotomayor"
McClatchy Newspapers' David Lightman, "GOP's Graham says he'll vote for Sotomayor"
BAILOUTS
Washington Post's Tomoeh Murakami Tse, "Wall St. Jacks Up Pay After Bailouts"
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION
NY Times' Robert Draper profile's White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, "The Ultimate Obama Insider"
Washington Post's Glenn Kessler, "Clinton Discusses Relationship With Obama"
SARAH PALIN
Associates Press' Matthew Daly, "Trustee says Palin isn't involved in fund"
GOV. MARK SANFORD
The State's John O'Connor, "Sanford's off to Europe this time, with his family"
SEN. JOHN ENSIGN
Las Vegas Sun's Lisa Mascaro, "Christian group paid for Ensign's foreign travel"
Las Vegas Sun's J. Patrick Coolican, "Ensign's chief of staff leaving"
CALIFORNIA BUDGET
San Francisco Chronicle's Matthew Yi, "State budget deal back on track"
Wall Street Journal's Stu Woo, "Budget Deal Boosts California's Republicans"
FUTURE RACES
2009 NY-23: CQ Politics' Emily Cadei, "House Nominee Picked For New York Special Election"
2009 NJ Governor: PolitickerNJ, "Corzine to announce LG pick on Saturday"
2009 NJ Governor: Newark Star-Ledger's Claire Heininger, "'Apprentice' winner Randal Pinkett says he would consider running as Corzine's lieutenant governor"
2009 VA Governor: Washington Times' Sarah Abruzzese, "McAuliffe's big donors hold back from Deeds campaign"
2010 CT Senate: Quinnipiac Poll, "Dodd In Slump In Connecticut Reelection Bid"
2010 FL Senate: St. Petersburg Times, "Bob Graham blesses Meek for Senate"
2010 IL Senate: Associated Press' Deanna Bellandi, "Obama's seat race could cost Senate some diversity"
2010 NH Senate: Manchester Union Leader's Drew Cline, "Taush not running for Senate"
2010 PA Senate: Philadelphia Inquirer's Bonnie L. Cook, "Sestak's Senate candidacy is not official yet"