Memo to President Obama: No more Mr. Cool

Next week, President Barack Obama will give the speech of his life, setting (or failing to set) the trajectory for the national debate over health care.

Here’s my scorecard for what I want to hear in his address to Congress and the nation.

1. Show some passion and a clear agenda. Put it on the line, Mr. Obama. Win or lose, you own this. Might as well be up front about what ‘this’ is. Is it a moral imperative that we care for our fellow citizens? Or is this about technocratic tweaking?

2. Offer some new ideas. To solve this puzzle, we need your brain trust to come up with one or two game-changers. Not only because the healthcare system has to improve. We also need you to restore our confidence that government can be smart and creative.

3. Ignore the crazies. Democrats have embarrassed themselves dismally this summer, shadow-boxing with nuts. If you spend a single sentence trying to mollify people who think you’re an evil Fascist, you’ll lose enormous credibility.

4. Convince us that the lines will converge. Most Americans understand that we needed to spend money like drunken sailors to avert a full-scale economic collapse. But we’re terrified of the national debt, and rightly so. How do we expand healthcare without going bankrupt?

It’s a tall order. But you set this agenda. Time to knock off the cool-guy stuff and take a stand.

Tags: health