"With a carefully designed timetable at risk in the Senate, President
Obama and his allies this week are launching a public relations
blitz to bolster the case for health care reform," Roll Call reports.
The White House "announced that Obama will hold a midday Rose
Garden press conference today, at which Obama aides are expecting a
barrage of health care questions -- and the opportunity for Obama to
provide answers that will amount to big pitches for his plan. The
president may kick off the session with comments on health care."
"On
Wednesday night, Obama holds a health care 'town hall' event at the
White House that will be staged at 8 p.m. and broadcast later in the
evening on ABC."
First Read: "In the game of basketball, after your team commits some errors and after the opposition runs off a couple of easy baskets, you'll routinely see the coach make this move: call a timeout. It's intended to settle down the team, get them back to basics, and slow down the opponent's momentum. And that might be the best way to view today's televised Rose Garden press conference at 12:30 pm ET. "
David Nather notes the White House is testing a new argument to ease concerns over those sky-high estimates of
the cost of overhauling the health care system. The federal government
wouldn't really be spending more money on health care, the argument
goes -- just shifting money that's already in the system and spending it
more efficiently.
But it's a dangerous argument for the White House to make, though, because it's too easily shot down.
However, Ezra Klein suggests the White House learned a key lesson learned from the Clinton administration. In 1994, President Clinton "exhausted his political capital guiding
the development of the legislation. Barack Obama, by contrast, has
saved his to push for its passage."
