Sorry, Mr. President, Nobody Likes Change

Conservatives hold out hope for success in 2010, 2012

(NEWSER) - Conservatives are not happy about the House's passage of health care reform legislation. Some opinions:

• Paraphrasing Marx in the Weekly Standard , William Kristol writes that while the "the first appearance in full flower of modern American liberalism" in the 1960s was a "tragedy," this second coming is more of a "farce." He saves the big guns for President Obama: "Have we had in modern times a president who was so out of his depth?"

(NEWSER) - To listen to the Obama camp and the liberal media, the anti-Obamacare protesters at last month’s town halls are a grave threat to our way of life, Mary Katharine Harn writes in the Weekly Standard. But “the climate of paranoia and violence that enveloped our political system this August was largely a creation” of the people who railed against it (think Olbermann and Matthews). In more than 400 meetings, “there were fewer than ten documented incidents that could be described as violent.” 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»

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»

(AP) - President Barack Obama stepped up his pitch for overhauling health care today, saying the American people need it and must overcome resistance from opponents in Washington, whom he described vaguely as naysayers and skeptics. "Reform may be coming too soon for some in Washington," the president told a town-hall meeting in a Cleveland suburb. "But it's not soon enough for the American people." More»