In just over four hours, President Obama will host his fourth prime time press conference since January. The event is being billed by the White House as a six-month report card on the administration’s performance since Obama took office, but the subtext–and presumably most of the substance–will be about health care.
In recent days, with a long congressional recess approaching and, perhaps, a whiff of potential defeat in the air, Obama has stepped up his public and private efforts to push the House and Senate into action. Obama now insists he wants to sign legislation by the end of the year–two months later than his earlier October deadline–and, It’s time, he says, for leaders to bear down and pass legislation to reform the nation’s dysfunctional health care system.
Publicly, Obama has been insisting that Republicans are causing the complications, singling out Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) who said health care reform would be Obama’s “Waterloo” if Republicans could delay legislation to death. But in private, he’s been focusing most of his efforts on recalcitrant Democrats–in both the House and Senate–who have echoed Republican calls to slow things down.
Politically, his campaign arm, Organizing for America has taken both tacks, hitting DeMint for politicizing health care, but targeting fence-sitting Democrats with ads and rallies in an effort to shore up their support for legislation and assure its passage. The goal, it seems, is to remind those Democrats of the perils of failure, and offer them a choice between supporting Republican efforts to derail reform efforts, and Democratic efforts to see reform through to a successful conclusions.
Obama has bombarded the airwaves with speeches and other public and media appearances in the last week and a half. In recent days, he’s even called out individual Republicans in all-but name. But in private, he’s met mainly with House Blue Dogs and “centrist” senators, hoping to allay concerns about the public option, and the cost and pace of reform efforts.
Keep an eye on TPM and TPMDC for live coverage of tonight’s press conference. It’s scheduled to begin at 8 pm–and you can watch along with us here.
