I want your vote ... on health care!

By Jennifer J. Foster

Please take note of my new poll in the sidebar. I want to know what you think about President Obama’s health care speech to Congress, whether it impacted your view of the debate and if so, how.

Please vote and leave a comment. Then pass it on to all your buddies ... you know, the ones who have been filling your inbox with health care-related forwards.

Public option prognostication

By Jennifer J. Foster

From CNN Friday:

—Democrats met Friday in hopes of achieving consensus on one of the biggest sticking points in the health care battle, while the House majority leader predicted final legislation will include a public option.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer says of the public option: “We ought not to just focus on that.“

The question is what form it will be in, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, told CNN’s “American Morning.“

“We’ll have to see how that legislative process goes. The public option is a priority for us, it’s our objective, and we think that in some form, a public option will be available,“ Hoyer said.

You know, this is getting to be a bit like the Hokey Pokey: “You put your public option in, you take your public option out. You put your public option in, and you shake it all about ...“

Not as catchy? Hmm. That’s funny. I laughed.

We’re still talking trigger, which means we’re more in Olympia Snowe territory than Debbie “please-ignore-my-conflict-of-interest-on-telecommunications-issues” Stabenow territory (thank goodness). That’s because pretty much everyone—well, everyone except fringe liberal progressives and Stabenow herself—understands the reality, which is that the kind of public option Stabenow wants is DOA.

... DOA as in, it can’t pass.

But here’s the thing: If the final version of the bill includes a trigger mechanism, can liberals still accurately say that it includes a public option?

Note that my question isn’t whether you think they will say that it does. (Talk about your fish in a barrel scenario.) My question is whether you think they can accurately say that it does. In other words, is the possibility of a public option still a public option, even though it may never kick in?

Anyway, it looks like it’s all going to come down to ... wait for it ... semantics. You know, because they’re just words, after all.

This week’s column

By Jennifer J. Foster

My most recent column is now available on the web. Check it out:

Finally, Obama shows the way on health care

I reviewed President Obama’s speech on health care in light of last week’s column, in which I offered the president some advice—in convenient alphabetical order, no less—about what to say to the country about health care and how to proceed from rhetoric to reality.

Funny things, rhetoric and reality. One feeds the other. Come to think of it, there’s a little something in the new column about that.

Along those lines, I referenced “A More Perfect Union,“ then-Candidate Obama’s speech on race relations he delivered in March 2008. It was historic then, but it has already—and rightly—found its way into the annals of American oratorical lore. You can read it here. Better yet, watch it here.

Regarding “The Great Communicator,“ check out this piece by Reagan biographer Lou Cannon, written shortly after the former president’s death in 2004 at the age of 93.

And if you missed President Obama’s health care speech altogether, catch up by reading it here or watching it here.

This is a critical moment on this critical issue. Check out the speech and where we’re going with these plans.

You owe it to your country to think for yourself; don’t rely on an interest group or your political pals do it for you.