"First, any President can frame a more coherent message than two hundred plus Congressmen. And if the President is of the “great communicator” vintage – then so much the better. But the fact is that you don’t have to have a silver tongue to get to have transcendent moments – think President Bush on top of the rubble after 9/11. A second way to answer this is that President Clinton started making the argument about saving Medicare months ahead of the showdown. He let everyone know that although he could cave on some things, he would not cave on Medicare. And so when the line in the sand was drawn he was ready. Similarly, President Obama has defended his health care bill continuously. He’s not backing down. Is Obamacare as popular as Medicare? No. But regardless of public opinion about the health care law, few expect the President take part in the decapitation of his legislative namesake. And a third way to answer this is to point to one of the all time great moments in the State of the Union, which came in the form of one Richard Dean from Oklahoma City. One day, Vice President Gore came to me after having his weekly private lunch with the President. He instructed me to find a civil servant who had been in the building when the federal building in Oklahoma City was bombed and get them to Washington for the State of the Union. And oh, by the way, don’t tell the speechwriters."
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 21:44:56 +0000
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