Monday, September 21, 2009
By MARK SILVA
WASHINGTON — After months of pressing the American public and Congress to support sweeping changes to health care and health insurance, President Barack Obama on Sunday offered a humbling admission: His message is sometimes not “breaking through.”
“I think there have been times where I have said, ’I’ve got to step up my game in terms of talking to the American people about issues like health care,”’ Obama said during an unprecedented spree of Sunday morning television news show appearances.
Asked by an interviewer if he had lost control of the health debate at those times, the president said: “Well, not so much lost control, but where I’ve said to myself, somehow I’m not breaking through.”
The president’s saturation of the Sunday shows — a five-network set of broadcast and cable appearances — marked yet another effort to explain to a divided public why he is pushing for legislation to remake the health system. Taped on Friday at the White House, the TV appearances followed a prime-time address to a joint session of Congress earlier this month and a series of town hall-style appearances and rallies across the country aimed at reviving the fervor for “change” that propelled Obama’s presidential campaign.
In giving the president such prominent exposure, the White House is showing its confidence that Obama himself is the best salesman for his policies. The president not only swept through the major Sunday news shows, skipping only the Fox network, but he also plans an appearance on David Letterman’s “Late Show” on Monday night, a first for a sitting president.
Critics of the president suggested doubters in the public have heard the president’s message — they just aren’t buying it.
“Actually, he has broken through. People don’t like what he is selling,” said Alex Castellanos, a Washington-based Republican consultant and campaign media expert. “This is not a communications problem.”
The roadblock of TV appearances presented a risk for the president, as does his broader strategy of staking so much political capital on a health care bill, said Doug Schoen, a Democratic pollster who served President Clinton.
“If he doesn’t get a bill, he’s been on five Sunday shows, David Letterman, and, if he doesn’t move the needle, it’s hard to see how he wins. And the midterm elections become very problematic” for his party, Schoen said. “He is doubling down, betting the ranch and putting it all on the line on the basis that his communications skills are superior and that he can carry the day.”
With the proposed health care overhaul, Obama and supporters in the Democratic-controlled Congress are promising better health insurance for Americans who already have it and coverage for millions lacking it — without raising taxes on anyone but the wealthiest Americans. They are also aiming to rein in health care costs that are consuming a large part of the family budget and, through Medicare, the federal budget.
“I don’t think I’ve promised too much at all,” Obama said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Everyone recognizes this is a problem. Everyone recognizes the current path we’re on is unsustainable.... We know that standing still is not an option.” In the process, the president has promised no tax increases for middle-class Americans. “I can still keep that promise,” he said on CBS.
Republicans are not the only ones resisting Obama’s plans; so are some lawmakers in his own party. Obama insists he has not given up on his idea of a “public option,” a government-run health insurance plan that would compete with private insurance companies. House Democratic leaders say they cannot pass a bill without a government-run insurance program, but it appears the Senate cannot pass a bill that includes one.
“I absolutely do not believe that it’s dead,” Obama said of a government-run insurance plan in his Sunday appearance on Spanish-language Univision. “I think that it’s something that we can still include as part of a comprehensive reform effort.” In a calm manner, Obama also has addressed the fervor of the current public debate, suggesting that much of the “vitriol” aimed at him in protests stems from a natural fear of “big changes” in government — and not, as former President Jimmy Carter has suggested, because opponents cannot accept the fact that an African American is president.
“Unfortunately, we’ve got... a 24-hour news cycle where what gets you on the news is controversy,” Obama said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “What gets you on the news is the extreme statement. The easiest way to get 15 minutes on the news — or your 15 minutes of fame — is to be rude.”
Speaking about his political opponents’ stance on health care, Obama said on Univision’s “Al Punto Con Jorge Ramos”: “I think that the opposition has made a decision. They are just not going to support anything, for political reasons.... There’s some people who just cynically want to defeat me politically.”
The president has called for a “civil” debate, and analysts said his own steadfastness and calmness set a certain tone.
“First, he is the administration’s best spokesperson,” said John Geer, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. “Second, he gets to be the story, as opposed to others, such as Jimmy Carter, who can muddle and undermine the message.”
“It is a smart move to saturate the Sunday interview shows,” said Darrell West, director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution. “This gives the president a chance to dominate the news cycle and get his views on health care into the papers. You cannot buy that kind of publicity.”
Asked about the risk of putting so much on the plate without winning any converts, West said: “Presidents have to communicate, because if they don’t, their opponents will fill the void.”