Obama's Health Speech a Victory for the Center: Brooks

Highly effective talk knocks down House plan, public option

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Sep 11, 2009 8:08 AM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama’s health care speech was “the finest speech of his presidency,” writes David Brooks: While rhetorically appeasing liberals, it “subtly staked out ground in the center” to win over moderates, making passage “much more likely,” he opines in the New York Times. Obama was firm in creating the “Dime Standard”: No plan can add “one dime to our deficits.” Bye, House plan.

Meanwhile, the president showed he was open, in principle, to tort reform and to “capping the tax exemption on employer-provided health benefits.” After these words, he won’t easily be able to reject amendments confronting either issue. Obama also killed the public option and dumped the “soak-the-rich” tax approach to cover reform, Brooks writes. But all this doesn’t mean “this is effective health reform,” he notes. Obama “has decided to expand the current system, not fix it.”

[Images (2)]

[Quotes (1)]

President Barack Obama speaks to a joint session of Congress on healthcare at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009. (AP Photo/Jason Reed, pool)

President Barack Obama gestures while delivering a speech on healthcare to a joint session of Congress, Wednesday, Sept., 9, 2009, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

In short, the president can read the polls just like anybody else. He has apparently recognized the need to pull back to get something passed. - David Brooks

« Prev« Prev | Next »Next » Slideshow

To report an error on this story, notify our editors.

OTHER STORIES ON OUR RADAR

AP Photo

35 Brutally Honest Reasons Men Say No to Sex (The Stir)

Man in Mugshot Explains Why He Has Half a Head (HuffPost)

Another Sign Rihanna and Chris Brown Might Get Back Together? (Celebuzz)

These Exes Were Spotted Making Out … and That's a Bad Thing (Bleacher Report)

Did the Romney Family Dog Flee to Canada? (Slate)

Partner Links

A snapshot of the day's best news stories.

View Larger Grid

All Today Yesterday Pick a Date

COMMENTS

Read the comment policy

Showing 3 of 7 comments

cornelison

Sep 12, 2009 7:04 AM CDT

The moderates include the middle class. The middle class is vital to the economic health of the country. Having said that, the Dems. in the House will keep Obama to his word of providing health care for every American.

MarkFL

Sep 11, 2009 11:55 AM CDT

I actually agree with Brooks. Obama is definitely not as lefty as the Republitards would like to make him out to be. He is a centrist like most of the democrats out there. Centrists get a lot of flack but they may just accomplish something. His speech spent an awful lot of time talking about how he really does not support liberal ideas like universal coverage, single payer system, etc. He pushed the bill to the center. For all the complaining that people do about the center, I think people would prefer the center to partisan gridlock. At the moment we have Democrats in the center, a couple of lone wolves on the left like Kucinich and Republicans from the center right like Snowe to the lunatic freak conservatives that hog the media time by being outrageously stupid. Obama is definitely a centrist trying really hard to resist the liberal label. This of course infuriates liberals but I think it helps Obama overall. He will lose approval points for being too centrist but when he gets a few bills under his belt (and they work) he will start to earn his label. Clinton was another centrist who is very popular in hindsight but a little less so in practice. Obama is very Clintonesque. Kudos to Brooks for being a conservative who looks at what is really going on instead of just regurgitating the talking points.

Forderon

Sep 11, 2009 5:18 AM CDT

Everyone agrees so we should save our words for disagreeing and shouting at each other? It has apparently become customary now to find UNcommon ground in any debate instead of the other way around.

What's Popular Now on Facebook

Rick Santorum: Birth Control Is 'Not OK'

E-Cigarette Explodes in Man's Mouth

New York Times (Source Grid »)

Politics • Health

Congress • health care reform • speech • budget deficit • David Brooks • tort reform • President Obama • public option

More Newser Stories

Obama Unveils $3.8T Budget, Targets Rich

Budget would institute 'Buffett Rule,' boost infrastructure

(NEWSER) - President Obama officially unveiled his $3.8 trillion budget today, and as expected it draws a 2012 battle line, calling for higher taxes on the wealthy combined with spending measures intended to bolster the economy, the AP reports. "We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules," Obama said, according to CNN . "This is not about class warfare. This is about the nation's welfare." More»

Obama's Budget Sets Up Fight With GOP

He wants to beef up domestic spending, raise taxes on rich

(NEWSER) - The major news outlets are getting details of the budget plan President Obama will unveil on Monday, and it sounds like it's designed to set up election-year comparisons with Republicans. Two big themes: It calls for higher taxes on the rich and big spending on roads and manufacturing projects. It also projects the 2012 deficit will rise slightly to $1.33 trillion before dropping to $901 billion in fiscal 2013. Other details: More»

How Much Did Obama Really Add to Deficit?

Ezra Klein crunches the numbers and comes up with a lower total than you think

(NEWSER) - Mitt Romney has taken to carrying around a debt clock, blaming President Obama for the ever-climbing number it shows. But the clock doesn't show how much Obama has actually added to that debt, so Ezra Klein set out to find out. "There are two answers," he writes in the Washington Post . The first, which is "simple and wrong" is $4.7 trillion. That's what you get when you subtract the debt when Obama took office (about $10.5 trillion) from the current debt (about $15.2 trillion). More»

Obama: Aloof Image Is Media Creation

Press corps miffed by quiet social life, he suggests

(NEWSER) - President Obama isn't aloof, he says—it's just that he and Michelle don't tend to paint the town red. "My suspicion is that this whole critique has to do with the fact that I don’t go to a lot of Washington parties and, as a consequence, the Washington press corps maybe just doesn’t feel like I’m in the mix enough with them," he tells Time in an interview, noted by Politico . "And they figure, well, if I’m not spending time with them, I must be cold and aloof." More»

Obama Defies Congress With More Recess Appointments

He picks three for National Labor Relations Board

(NEWSER) - President Obama isn't winning much love among his political enemies on Capitol Hill today. Hours after making a controversial recess appointment to lead the new consumer protection agency, the president announced three more—this time to the National Labor Relations Board. The move will please the president's pro-union allies and irritate Senate Republicans who were likely to filibuster the nominees, reports the Hill . More»

NEWS FROM OUR PARTNERS

What is Newser?

Face it: there's too much news. At Newser, we choose the most thought-provoking and entertaining stories from hundreds of US and international sources and reduce them to a headline, picture, and two paragraphs. And we do it 24/7—you can come back morning, noon, night (and in between) for something new that matters. Read less, know more.

Learn more »

Partnering with: Slate

View Newser on the mobile website

Obama's Health Speech a Victory for the Center: Brooks