Obama Must Prod Demos Toward Agreement On Health-Care Legislation

Summary

---

WASHINGTON -- The most immediate task at hand for President Barack Obama in his drive to win enactment of health-care legislation is to bring together members of his party behind a single piece of legislation. That is the first step toward a more important political objective, which is to rebuild his and the Democrats' support among independent voters.

The reality of the health-care debate is that bipartisanship is a fleeting hope. The president used parts of his speech to a joint session of Congress last week to reach out to Republicans -- singling out John McCain, Orrin Hatch and Charles Grassley by name and announcing his willingness to explore, modestly, tort reform that Republicans favor.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Obama Must Prod Demos Toward Agreement On Health-Care Legislation

But the speech was every bit as much an in-your-face rebuttal to conservative and Republican critiques of the legislation that has emerged from congressional committees. The response in the chamber, exemplified in the extreme by Rep. Joe Wilson's "You lie!" outburst...

See the full content of this document

---