Hittin' the road

The endless dithering of our elected betters has at least presented one positive result: that there will be an extra five weeks for Blue Dog Democrats to collect money from health care conglomerates and insurance giants. But it also gives the President another few weeks to hit the pavement, schedule a few town halls, and start pushing the case harder for health care reform. The vague, unspecific notion of reform.

The effort will feature town-hall-style meetings by lawmakers and the president, including a swing through Western states by Mr. Obama, grass-roots lobbying efforts and a blitz of expensive television advertising. It is intended to drive home the message that revamping the health care system will protect consumers by ending unpopular insurance industry practices, like refusing patients with pre-existing conditions.

“I think what we want to communicate is that this is going to give people who have insurance a degree of security and stability, the protection that they don’t have today against the sort of mercurial judgments of insurance bureaucrats,” said David Axelrod, a senior adviser to Mr. Obama, adding, “Our job is to help folks understand how this will help them.”

Hey, hey, I'm all for a nice round of insurance industry bashing and a couple burning effigies of bureaucrats. But, and I know this is just a crazy idea, shouldn't the President actually start stumping for an actual idea or policy, try to start educating the public on what constitutes a good bill vs. a do nothing industry handout, and start advocating for something other than the idea of reform, the notion of cutting costs, and the belief that more people should be covered? I'm fairly sure people understand these ideas. Maybe it's time to start making them actually understand why your plan or the House/Senate plans are allegedly good and the right step forward, instead of the encroaching black hand of socialism or an excuse to load up all the sick, elderly, and unborn fetuses into an oversize blender and press the button that says "Liquefy."

Maybe, having been born in Mombasa, the President just doesn't understand that. Eventually he's going to have to advocate for a specific idea or plan. Because when Republicans say some specific part of the new bill has great gobs of socialism lurking in it like a big hairy rapist at a coat station, you are going to have to start defending actual ideas and plans. It would be helpful if people heard something more about the bill beforehand than "reform is good, we're trying to reform things *mumble* *mumble* bending cost curves."