[digg-reddit-me]Ezra Klein – as expected – has the best summary of what Obama accomplished last night. After voicing a few critiques of the policies promoted by the speech and some of the rhetoric on wonkish grounds, Klein concludes:

But if Obama hasn’t created the perfect plan, he’s created something arguably more impressive: a plan that actually might pass. That plan might not do enough to change the system, and it may not spend enough to protect everybody, but there is plenty in the proposal that will better the lives, health coverage, and financial security for millions of real people. It will insure around 30 million Americans and protect tens of millions more from insurer discrimination, medical bankruptcy and rescission. It will bring more evidence to medicine and more competition to the insurance market. That may not be perfection, but it is improvement. And it is achievable.

Klein also helpfully links to the plan posted by the White House and posted the transcript of the full speech (though I’ve included the New York Times link.) For those who missed it, this interactive video from the Times is useful as well. Andrew Sullivan meanwhile provided his useful reax (and a part ii) from notables around the blogosphere.

It is certainly too soon to declare victory – but last night’s speech accomplished what Obama needed – to give the media a peg to turn around their coverage. Through August the sizzle and dazzle came from the opponents of reform who finally were able to take on Obama and knock him down a few pegs. They were the sexy new story after months of that post-election glow. The White House fought back – but stayed largely above the fray. They continued to push reform behind closed doors. They searched for a deal that could pass. And they took punches. A lot of them. Andrew Sullivan dubbed this Obama’s rope-a-dope strategy (and here) back during the campaign – and it has emerged as a theme. Bill Clinton was the “Comeback Kid” who would get himself into some awful jam, but them miraculously pull himself out – often with the help of the overreach of his enemies. It was entertaining. But Obama’s approach is different. He lets his opponents attack him for a long time – enough to bring down his numbers and to make his agenda unpopular – and they get to the point where they sense victory, all the while positioning himself for where he wants to be at the decisive moment. And then he hits back. This has happened before: during the scandal over Reverend Wright; during the long summer of the 2008 campaign; when Sarah Palin was nominated; during the fight over the stimulus; and now, on health care. The game plan is the same – as I wrote earlier about the stimulus fight:

Sun-Tzu advised to “accommodate yourself to the enemy until you can fight a decisive battle.” This seems to have been Obama’s strategy – to allow his campaign to take hits and play defense, sticking to an overall strategy that would gain him a final decisive victory rather than exhausting his staff fighting every daily flair-up. Sometimes, this led to awful weeks – such as the long lack of a complete response to the Rev. Wright fiasco. But Obama ended up winning because, though he lost a thousand daily battles over Rev. Wright, he took the long view and gave a subtle, personal speech about race. He won that war not by fighting back charge after charge but by changing it from a war into a reflective national moment. It’s hard to describe how extraordinary that is – how rarely that has happened in history, and how difficult it was to imagine this was even possible, especially in the frenetic media environment that has existed since 1992.

Clinton’s strategy allowed him to survive personally, but was a disaster for the Democratic Party as a whole. Obama’s strategy seems to offer something better – a chance to win policy battles. (Of course, the zeitgeist of the times also plays a role in the fate of Democratic policies under Clinton versus Obama as well.)

It’s too soon to count the health care fight as won – but the administration is well-positioned to achieve what Teddy Roosevelt, Harry Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Bill Clinton all set out to achieve (and even what George W. Bush set out to achieve on tort reform.) And it is so positioned because of Obama’s clear strategic vision.

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