space to imajin

As the Whitehouse kind of pats it’s self on it’s collective back after a solid speech from President Obama they need to consider this:

In the era of 24/7 cable news, NO governement can afford for the kind of vacuum in the health-care public discourse that has occurred. Only a speech like President Obama’s could have brought this debate from the brink of anarchy.

His delivery was detailed where it needed to be, emotional at the right points, I believe it struck the right tone to bring the priorities of health reform back into focus. It brought to light the danger of fox-holing in ideological tunnels. Unfortunately when one does that, you are surrounded only by those that are on your side. This does not bode well for problem solving. Facing the bullets of the opposition with solid debate becomes an after thought. Tonight President Obama faced down his critics but at the same time the fist was clothed in a velvet glove.

If this reform gets passed it will be a model for the possibility of true bi-partisan democracy. How to be true to your party’s colors but yet give enough ground for the good of the populi.

“I suffer no illusions that this will be an easy process. It will be hard. But I also know that nearly a century after Teddy Roosevelt first called for reform, the cost of our health care has weighed down our economy and the conscience of our nation long enough. So let there be no doubt: health care reform cannot wait, it must not wait, and it will not wait another year.”

– President Barack Obama, February 24, 2009