Paul Starr on the president’s health-care speech:
President Obama‘s speech to Congress on health care Wednesday evening succeeded at several levels. Beforehand, observers said that he needed to explain to a confused public what he is proposing and why it makes sense, and the speech did that. Analysts also said that the president needed to shift the momentum from August, to confront the ugly distortions of the opposition, and to mobilize support in his own party. In those respects as well, the speech did all that might have been expected of it.
But Obama also undertook several things that were unexpected — at least, I didn’t expect him to do them. He introduced an important new element into the policy discussion. He signaled his support for what is now the likely resolution of the most contentious issue–the public option. And after paying respect to Republicans for their ideas, he used the coda of his speech to make the larger case for liberalism more eloquently than any president has in decades.
