Slow Down, Obama: Baby Steps to Fix Health Care

President calls liberal congressman to carp about criticism

(NEWSER) - John Conyers hasn't been shy about what he sees as the president's failings, and his remarks seem to have struck a nerve. “I’ve been saying I don’t agree with him on Afghanistan, I think he screwed up on health care reform, on Guantánamo," said the long-serving liberal congressman. “Obama called me and told me that he heard that I was demeaning him, and I had to explain to him that it wasn't anything personal, it was an honest difference on the issues." More»

Lumbering dinosaur of a bill will fall flat with 21st century voters

(NEWSER) - We live in the age of the iPhone, a world in which you can take your pick of 100,000 apps—and "Democrats are pushing the biggest, fattest, one-size-fits all legislation since 1965," writes Daniel Henninger for the Wall Street Journal. It's not what you'd hope for from our hipster-in-chief. "But the Obama health care bill, and maybe this whole administration, is starting to look totally out of sync with the new zeitgeist, the spirit of the age." More»

Big speech to Congress next week likely to make or break health care reform

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama's address to a joint session of Congress next Wednesday could well be the biggest moment of his presidency, Nate Silver writes in FiveThirtyEight. Two-thirds of voters are still confused about the president's plans for health care, and this speech will be a make-or-break chance to give them some clarity and help get genuine reforms passed, he notes. More»

(NEWSER) - Now that he’s in office, President Obama is having a lot of trouble mobilizing the grassroots network that helped put him there, the Los Angeles Times reports. With Republican health care opponents operating like a well-oiled, talk-show-fueled machine, Organizing for America (aka Obama for America) is stuttering—in part because its left-leaning members aren’t enthusiastic about Obama’s centrist health care goals. More»

Aims for clear message amid policy debate

(NEWSER) - President Obama is taking a repackaged health care message on the road in North Carolina and Virginia today, where he'll unveil an eight-point plan intended to cut wonkish policy to the chase for voters. While the Washington Post can't come up with a catchy moniker for the plan, it lays out the highlights: More»