The endpoint of overreaching

One could say many things about Barack Obama’s speech last night, and analyze it from a number of angles, but in the end, it’s a political speech—only one thing really matters: did it move the needle? From everything I can see, it didn’t; people pretty much are where they were. Those who thought he was wonderful think he’s wonderfuller, those who were already convinced are more so, those who had doubts and questions still have them, those who were opposed haven’t left their positions, and the great debate on the Right seems to be whether the outburst from Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was inappropriate. (I find it somewhat disturbing that so many people don’t think it was—for his part, Rep. Wilson has quite properly conceded that it was and apologized. I guess the abuse the Democrats gave George W. Bush has skewed some folks’ idea of appropriate behavior.)

There were a number of responses from the GOP which were more constructive, beginning with the official one by Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA), a colleague of Rep. John Fleming both in the Louisiana congressional delegation and in the medical profession. Rep. Boustany hit all the key points clearly and concisely, and did a good job of presenting a positive Republican alternative, not just criticizing the President’s plan.

Perhaps the most important GOP response, unofficial though it was, came from Sarah Palin, who by virtue of her unofficial position was able to go beyond the necessary points and respond with greater freedom (and who didn’t have to cover them, since Rep. Boustany did his job so well). In particular, she continued to press on a couple key issues:

Many Americans fundamentally disagree with this idea. We know from long experience that the creation of a massive new bureaucracy will not provide us with “more stability and security,” but just the opposite. It’s hard to believe the President when he says that this time he and his team of bureaucrats have finally figured out how to do things right if only we’ll take them at their word. . . .

In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns “bogus,” “irresponsible,” and “a lie”—so much for civility. After all the name-calling, though, what he did not do is respond to the arguments we’ve made, arguments even some of his own supporters have agreed have merit.

In fact, after promising to “make sure that no government bureaucrat . . . gets between you and the health care you need,” the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council—an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost . . . the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives. . . .” He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.

You may agree with Gov. Palin or not, but the fact remains that she clearly didn’t see anything new in the President’s speech, and in particular that she didn’t see any sign of a significant overture to folks on the right; from her perspective, it was just more of the same, and more of the same isn’t going to make a difference in a high-stakes debate like this one. That’s why Jay Cost opened his analysis of the speech by saying,

In my judgment President Obama’s address last night was little more than a campaign speech with the Congress as the set piece. Evaluated from that perspective, it was a success. But from the perspective of finding a policy solution—i.e. actual governance—it contributed nothing to health care reform.

In Cost’s stark evaluation, the speech was a flop and an opportunity lost because the President was unwilling to actually act:

However, it failed to address the reason for their doldrums. Democrats need rallying because of internal divisions over actual policy disagreements. President Obama did not deal with those divisions. When you strip away the setting, the soaring rhetoric, the poetic cadences, and all the rest, you’re left with the criticism that both Hillary Clinton and John McCain leveled at him through all of last year: he voted present. . . .

What did last night’s speech contribute to finding a solution [to the divide over the public option]? I’d say that the answer is nothing. The President (once again) refused to get his hands dirty on this issue. He praised the public option to the hilt, rhetoric intended for the progressives, then he hinted that it could be ditched, rhetoric intended for the moderates. At some point in the policymaking process, a choice will have to be made. It was not made last night, which means that this was a governing opportunity lost.

Absent a firm belief in the genius of Barack Obama, it’s hard to dispute Cost on this one. President Obama overreached himself here, trying to load too much freight on his speaking ability and make rhetoric carry a load it simply cannot carry unaided. This was a moment demanding real leadership, not merely exhortation, but the President tried to win it with exhortation alone. The result appears to be that he’s right where he was 24 hours ago, but with one more bullet spent. That doesn’t bode well for his presidency.