Dana Blankenhorn

The Sound of Michelle

One more piece about President Obama's speech the other night, because it hasn't been mentioned anywhere.

Near the end, he changed his speaking style. Obama has always been great for the big occasions, noble stentorian tones inspiring millions. But in a small room he's not the best speaker in the world. Not even best in his own bed.

When he spoke of Ted Kennedy, the President adopted the speaking style of his wife, Michelle. I have only seen her speak a few times, during the campaign, and she is great in a small room. She is intimate, she is passionate. If I were on trial for my life I'd want her defending me, not her husband, because she can sway a jury.

An important talent for a great writer, a great comic, a great athlete or a great politician is to steal someone else's moves. Michael Jordan did that. By the end of his career he was doing Karl Malone's leaning-back jumper better than Malone did it, and more effectively.

So in using his wife's voice, Barack Obama paid her a great compliment. She's just as good a lawyer as he is, just as well trained and well educated, yet she has deliberately kept herself in the role of First Lady. It's not beneath her, she tells us by that. And she's great at it.

Bring on the Crazy

Hours after Joe Wilson heckled the President (I'm sure he would have wanted to  jail anyone who did that to George W. Bush) I got an e-mail from a group called ALIPAC defending him.

ALIPAC stands for Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. Their e-mail said categorically Wilson was not wrong, that everyone in the Congress should have joined him. Here's why.

The evidence this is a lie is found in countless major news reports indicating that President Obama and Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) intend to try and pass Comprehensive Immigration Reform Amnesty legislation soon, that would legalize millions of illegal immigrants and qualify them for all taxpayer benefits and jobs in America.

Got that? There's a secret plot to make all the illegals legal, so Obama does want to give health care to illegals. Never mind that comprehensive immigration reform is a separate issue, and they're misrepresenting the President's position on it. But if what they say were true, wouldn't those people then be legal?

This is just one example of the kind of crazy I'm seeing whenever I write about health care policy over at ZDNet. Let me go through my comment threads for more.

• ObamaCare is fascist. This from the head of a "group" called Doctors on strike for freedom in medicine.
• Medicare and Medicaid are unconstitutional under the 10th Amendment.
• You're trying to socialize Medicare. Anyone who supports reforming the market is a socialist.
• Anyone who tells you different from what I'm telling you lies. The media is a conspiracy.
• Let's remember the USSR. It failed. So health reform is Communist.
• Obama represents "Chicago thugs and crooks."

That's just two discussion threads. Just in the last few days.

The inmates are out of the asylum.

Setting Boundaries

Think of this as Volume 12, Number 37 of A-Clue.com, the online newsletter I've written since 1997. Enjoy.

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The most important job of a President is to set boundaries for political debate.

No President can succeed unless they are able to do this. The President is our only nationally-elected political official. If he (or she) can't set boundaries they will be run over.

By that standard, George W. Bush began as a very successful President, undone only by events. The fact he set those events in motion -- Iraq, Katrina, the financial casino, the politicization of everything -- damns him before history. But at this first task, he succeeded.

Tonight, Barack Obama has to do this in the generations' old debate over health care. Success depends first on answering the question -- why did his predecessors fail?

Except for Lyndon Johnson, under whom we got Medicare and Medicaid, past Democratic Presidents were unable to turn their successful outside games -- their rhetoric and personal political success -- into a winning inside game in the form of legislation.

So two types of boundaries must be set.

• The outside boundaries define the ideas the media will hold to be legitimate, and those that will be illegitimate.
• The inside boundaries define the Congressional debate, and lead to a bill's passage.

The President's problem is that he has, so far, failed at defining outside boundaries. His opponents appear free to call him any names they wish, and those in Congress never pay a political price for repeating the slander.

Setting those boundaries is his primary task tonight.