Jon Cohn has a nice piece today parsing the health care section of the Democratic Party platform for insights into Obama's evolving stance on the issue. He walks away optimistic. I'm less so. Not because of the platform, which does have a morally forceful and strongly presented section on health care, but because of Obama himself: He's barely said the words "health care" since winning the nomination. He's certainly not tried to elevate the issue to a central question of this campaign, or made it a primary cudgel against John McCain. I understand the platform as the product of an extraordinarily open feedback process mixing Obama's staff, a variety of political constituencies, and thousands and thousands of grassroots Democrats nationwide who offered feedback and advice that actually were incorporated into the eventual profile. This whole process was quarterbacked by Obama's Senate policy director, Karen Kornbluh, whose presence in his inner circle gives me enormous comfort. But even so, the platform is not Obama's words. Obama's words are his words. And he's not been using those words to build a mandate for health care or really any other progressive policy. Indeed, he's been running an extremely reactive campaign since he returned from his overseas trip. The policy arguments that have happened -- think the surge, or drilling -- have largely been at the McCain campaign's behest. So it's not really that health care has been pt on the backburner in favor of other policies. It's been that there's not been much attention to building a specific mandate at all. The tricky thing with Obama is that his staff, his high-profile supporters (think Kennedy and Daschle), and the institutions and constituencies he's committed to, truly are passionate about health reform. And though all those parties assure me that Obama shares their commitment, little of that passion shines through in his campaigning. That may prove to be fine: The test will be what he does, not what he feels. But it's not, at this point, reassuring.
