"So far in his young presidency, every time President Obama has wanted to sell a legislative priority to the public (and to Congress) he has hit the road," First Read notes.
"In February, when campaigning for his stimulus, he held town halls in Indiana and Florida. In March, when pushing for his budget, he traveled to California. And now, as health care has become the administration's top priority for the rest of the year, Obama is hitting the road again by holding a town hall in Green Bay, WI at 1:10 pm ET."
New York Times: "The lesson Obama's team took from this experience, and one that will no doubt inform its approach to health care, is that it's fine for a president to stand back from the process -- but not so far back that Congress thinks he's trying to duck the consequences... If Obama is going to sign a transformative health care law this year, it will, at some point soon, have to become his plan, no matter how much autonomy he wants to confer on his allies in Congress."
Of course, it's not always clear who Obama's allies are -- even in his own party.
The Washington Post
says that "the traditional narrative for any big Washington policy
fight is
typically Democrats vs. Republicans, or occasionally, 'change' vs.
'more of the same.' But the increasingly heated debate over health care
reform isn't quite breaking down along those lines yet, as the primary
battles today are happening within the Democratic party."
Likewise, Politico notes Obama's health care push "has touched off an increasingly fierce Democratic civil war on Capitol
Hill, as liberals fearful about squandering the chance to achieve that
goal are taking aggressive steps to keep moderates in line."
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports Sen. Kent Conrad (D) has been trying to find a compromise on
the public insurance option. His idea of creating non-profit co-ops seems to be gathering media momentum and First Read says "we're hearing positive things about it inside the White House."
