First an admission: Hawaii (where I’m writing from) has a special connection to Barack Obama. He was born here in 1961, left for a while, and then returned at the age of 10 to attend Punahou School, a private school (where my own son attended). So if I am less than critical about his candidacy for the Presidency or on his positions, just chalk it up to a friendly local bias. But putting that confession aside, and stating for the record that I’m not necessarily or unconditionally a fan of his, I think Obama is approaching health care in exactly the right way.
Let’s do a quick review of the facts. Over the past few months in stump speeches from New Hampshire to Iowa, Obama’s been clear that he wants affordable health care for all Americans. At the same time he’s been cautiously working–or at least saying he’s working–to forge a national consensus. He’s noted “that in previous campaigns, presidential candidates have offered detailed proposals without building that political support, only to see the issue fade after the election.”
Commentators have been trying to figure him out, feeling that maybe this is a simply a feigning to the right, and that his single payer sympathies will eventually win out. Others think him hypocritical, or worse yet, hopelessly naive.
But I’m going to take him at his word–that is he is genuinely trying to come up with a national approach we can all get behind. My view is that Obama is smart enough to see health care is just too important to quickly jump to the traditionally divisive and ideological “partisan” solutions.
At least I hope so. The proof of this leap-of-faith will be in how quickly he comes to a policy conclusion, and what that conclusion is. Should he waffle, and decide to fall on the single payer sword, let the bells ring and the boxing begin. But let’s all hope his pragmatic approach reframes the national debate, and moves the country to a national policy for the uninsured that provides excellent coverage and doesn’t break what’s right about the existing system. The country, Hawaii and Punahou deserve no less.
May 25, 2007 at 5:19 pm
[...] are we going to get beyond this pandering rhetoric? So let’s see what Obama has to offer since his approach has been, at least up to now, one of listening and not out making promises that we all would rather [...]