Obama Health Care Address - Joint Session of Congress

Obama is doing it again. He's hijacking prime time.

No, it's not another goofy news conference. (Remember what happened at his last prime time appearance? Obama had to hold the Beer Summit to clean up his mess.)

This time Obama will deliver a scripted speech on health care when he commandeers the airwaves. But this isn't just any speech. The Obama White House wants people to take notice.

Obama will address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday, September 9.

That means Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden will be sitting behind Obama. They're somewhat entertaining to watch. It's amusing to count how many times Pelosi blinks and ponder Biden's Botox addiction.

Those distractions will only get in the way of Obama's effort to repackage his government-run health care plan, allegedly NEW AND IMPROVED.

From Politico:

President Barack Obama will address a joint session of Congress on health care reform in prime time on Wednesday, Sept. 9, a senior official tells POLITICO.

...The last time a president addressed a joint session of Congress that wasn’t a State of the Union, or the traditional first address by a new president, was Sept. 20, 2001, when President George W. Bush spoke on the war on terrorism following the 9/11 attacks.

I'll never forget that address. The whole thing was surreal.

Transcript here.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans, in the normal course of events, presidents come to this chamber to report on the state of the union. Tonight, no such report is needed; it has already been delivered by the American people.

We have seen it in the courage of passengers who rushed terrorists to save others on the ground. Passengers like an exceptional man named Todd Beamer. And would you please help me welcome his wife Lisa Beamer here tonight?

(APPLAUSE)

We have seen the state of our union in the endurance of rescuers working past exhaustion.

We've seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic.

We have seen the decency of a loving and giving people who have made the grief of strangers their own.

My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of union, and it is strong.

(APPLAUSE)

Tonight, we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done.

...It is my hope that in the months and years ahead life will return almost to normal. We'll go back to our lives and routines and that is good.

Even grief recedes with time and grace.

But our resolve must not pass. Each of us will remember what happened that day and to whom it happened. We will remember the moment the news came, where we were and what we were doing.

Some will remember an image of a fire or story or rescue. Some will carry memories of a face and a voice gone forever.

And I will carry this. It is the police shield of a man named George Howard who died at the World Trade Center trying to save others.

It was given to me by his mom, Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of lives that ended and a task that does not end.

I will not forget the wound to our country and those who inflicted it. I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people. The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.

(APPLAUSE)

Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come.

In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom and may he watch over the United States of America. Thank you.

I think we, as a nation, needed to hear our president deliver that speech. President Bush spoke to us, but he also spoke for us.

He gave a message to the world that the United States was still a beacon of freedom, and freedom's enemies would not prevail.

President Bush's words were endorsed by the cheers from the members of the House and Senate. It wasn't a partisan stunt. It was clear that the country was united.

It was such a powerful, unforgettable event. Even the lib media didn't criticize President Bush. No one mocked his speaking ability. No one questioned his intelligence.

It's hard to imagine that really happened, but it did. It seems like a lifetime ago.

And now, here we are, eight years later. We have Obama playing politics, using a speech to a joint session of Congress to advance his vision for government-run health care and his goal of a single-payer system.

We don't need a prime time, joint session of Congress address from Obama.

What? Obama's infomercial on ABC back in June wasn't enough? All the fawning over ObamaCare by the Left-wing media isn't enough?

Obama can assemble both houses of Congress and stand before his teleprompters and act presidential.

So what?

That's not going to change the meat of ObamaCare.

That's not going to take away all the horrible things Obama and his Dem comrades have said about Americans opposing government-run health care.

That's not going to alter the "astroturf," "swastika" crap that they've spewed for weeks and weeks.

That's not going to make people forget about, "If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov."

This speech seems like a last-ditch effort, a desperate attempt to "reeducate" the masses.

Instead of having to create a columned temple, a plywood and plaster facade, like he did for his BIG Dem nomination acceptance speech at Invesco Field, Obama is using the ready-made backdrops now at his disposal -- the U.S. Capitol.

I don't think Americans can be won over by a flashy joint session of Congress address. It's too late for that.

From the New York Times:

“It’s so important to get a deal,” a White House official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to be candid about strategy. “He will do almost anything it takes to get one.”

In scheduling a prime-time speech for next Wednesday before members of the House and Senate and a national television audience, Mr. Obama chose to put his political standing on the line more directly and dramatically than he has so far on health care, his signature domestic initiative.

He will deliver the address 16 years after President Bill Clinton outlined his plan for universal insurance coverage in a speech to Congress on Sept. 22, 1993. A year later, in September 1994, the legislation was declared dead, after withering attacks by Republicans and insurance companies. Some Obama advisers, wary of parallels between that effort and Mr. Obama’s push for an overhaul of the health system, had argued that the president should give a televised speech from the Oval Office instead of the House chamber.

More on Bill Clinton's 1993 health care speech to a joint session of Congress:

When President Obama addresses a joint session of Congress next Wednesday to push for health care reform, the speech will come nearly 16 years after President Bill Clinton delivered his own address to Congress on the very same topic.

Clinton's push for health care reform ultimately failed, but in the short term, his speech in September 1993 succeeded: Afterward, polling showed the country somewhat open to Clinton's call for mandatory insurance coverage purchased and supplied through tightly regulated Health Maintenance Organizations.

Obama's speech, however, will occur after a summer of discontent driven by raucous town hall events, resulting in deepening public opposition to Obama's health care plans and newfound skepticism about his ability to lead.

The last thing this year's debate needs is another Obama speech, said Doug Schoen, who took over polling for Clinton after the GOP landslide of 1994 that propelled Republicans to leadership of the House and Senate for the first time in 40 years.

"I think he's out of touch with what he needs to do," Schoen said. "I don't think he needs another speech. I don't think it's a question of oration. I think it's a question of the bill, the agreement, showing presidential leadership in getting the Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and their leadership, to the White House to hammer out an agreement that works in the interest of the American people."

Clinton's address, on Sept. 22, 1993, sought to galvanize a Congress led by Democrats behind a 1,000-page bill that his White House health care task force, led by then-first lady Hillary Clinton, produced to deal with rising health care costs and 37 million uninsured residents.

The circumstances of Obama's address are similar -- but with a big difference: Clinton's speech came at the beginning of the process.

...White House officials say Obama will be more specific about what he wants. But, they caution, he won't be too specific. They cannot say, for example, if Obama will rule out the government-funded entry into private insurance known as the "public option."

...In San Francisco, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday told reporters: "In all three of our committees, we have come up with a public option. And so, we will have a public option in the bill. Let me say it another way: We can't pass a bill without a public option -- unless someone comes up with a better idea, which we haven't heard yet."

It isn't clear yet what that idea might be, but White House advisers hope it is found and agreed upon before the House votes a bill off the floor sometime in October.

...[Anne Kim of Third Way, a think tank that says it represents the "moderate wing of the progressive movement,"] said if the public option is dropped, liberals can achieve other reforms without bleeding Obama of more popularity.

"The public option is like the python that has swallowed the elephant," she said. "Once it's out of the way and digested and gone, then everything else is very easy to deal with. What we already have on the table amounts to the next New Deal for middle-class Americans."

It's unclear if liberals will regard a bill that addresses portability, pre-existing conditions and preventive medicine as the "next New Deal." It's even less clear they will vote for it.

What is clear, Schoen said, is that Obama must stop believing every political problem can be solved with another "big speech."

I think Obama and his advisers actually believe he can win over the public with a "big speech."

That's a pipe dream.

They are overestimating Obama's appeal and skills as an orator.

We've had months now to learn about him and his health care overhaul. We've seen him and his teleprompters on the job.

Many Americans who trusted Obama don't anymore. Their eyes have been opened. They bought into Obama's hope and change campaign rhetoric but now they get what all that was really about. More and more Americans are realizing just how dramatically Obama wants to swing the country to the Left and they aren't on board.

They've seen Obama fumble again and again. There have been so many broken promises and lies.

This speech on September 9 is the equivalent of the stunningly lame Beer Summit. It's a media event, an attempt to undo damage, a sales pitch.

Americans have reason to reject what Obama is selling.

It's one thing for Obama and his people to overestimate his ability to persuade "the masses." What bugs me is the degree to which Obama underestimates the intelligence of the American people.

There's an underlying arrogance there that permeates the Obama administration.

Bottom line: I don't think Obama respects the American people.