The Turning Point?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on October 27th, 2009 4:37 am by HL
The Turning Point?
After the Democratic effort to reform health care took a pounding in August, President Obama’s speech to a joint session of Congress in early September may have been even more important than we thought at the time to getting things back on track.
Two important things happened during that speech:
First, the president surprised many when he made an impassioned case for the public option. Most analysts thought he would push for compromise by dropping it altogether. Instead, the public option is still very much alive today in both the House and Senate versions of the bill.
Second, Rep. Joe Wilson’s (R-SC) outburst during the speech unintentionally laid the groundwork for Democrats to go it alone by portraying his party as totally uninterested in bipartisanship. Wilson became the poster-child for obstructionism.
It’s still too early for Democrats to declare victory, but health care reform has never looked in better shape than it does right now.