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. <\/p>\n
Here’s my scorecard for what I want to hear in his address to Congress and the nation.<\/p>\n
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? <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
It’s a tall order. But you set this agenda. Time to knock off the cool-guy stuff and take a stand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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