The Katrina Metaphor

Embattled as he now is, Barack Obama has not lost his rhetorical touch. In today's weekly address, he uses the fourth anniversary of the Gulf hurricane as an image for American efforts to repair the economy, reform health care and overcome political division.

"Government," he says, "must be a partner--not an opponent-–in getting things done."

His description of hands-on efforts to rebuild New Orleans comes against a backdrop of devastation in Washington as bipartisan efforts in the Senate Finance Committee are deemed "all but dead" and the White House is reported to be "quietly talking about drafting formal health care legislation after allowing Congress to work on its own for months."

Amid this political wreckage, the President is at pains to point out that "with every tragedy comes the chance of renewal. It is a quintessentially American notion--that adversity can give birth to hope, and that the lessons of the past hold the key to a better future.

"From the streets of New Orleans to the Mississippi Coast, folks are beginning the next chapter in their American stories. And together, we can ensure that the legacy of a terrible storm is a country that is safer and more prepared for the challenges that may come."

Even as he stresses such an inspirational metaphor, Barack Obama manages to tuck in a political jibe at George W. Bush and Heckuva-Job Brownie.

"I’m proud," he declares, "that my FEMA Administrator has 25 years of experience in disaster management in Florida, a state that has known its share of hurricanes."

As opposed to being forced to resign as a flack for the Arabian Horse Association.

Stupidity as a Pre-Existing Condition

The rowdiness will no doubt subside, but could civility save the "debate" over health care? The signs are not encouraging.

Today the President devotes part of his weekly address to "dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid, or bring about a government takeover of health care.

"That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance."

A Republican rebuttal comes from the newly liberated Sarah Palin on her Facebook page:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of 'their level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil."

As Obama and Democratic Congress members spend time and energy treating such stupidity as a pre-existing condition, the real issues in health care reform may be quietly being bartered away behind the usual closed doors.

A perfect example surfaces with news that the Administration had assured lobbyists that "any health care overhaul would not include allowing direct government negotiation of drug prices or require certain additional price rebates."

Now that this deal has gone public, the Obama White House is backpedaling away from it, but it raises questions about what else is being aborted there as well as in the Baucus-Grassley operating room on Capitol Hill in the name of bipartisanship.

When the hecklers are gone from TV screens next month, what will remain of real health care reform?

Sound-Bite Coming of Age

Grownups are just children who owe money, said a character in the 1992 movie "Peter's Friends" and now, with the economic crisis, they owe even more and, thanks to 24/7 cable TV, seem less mature than ever.

"Republicans, Let's Play Grown-Up," Peggy Noonan urges in the Wall Street Journal, suggesting that "idiots" in her party rise above temper tantrums in opposing Sonia Sotomayor:

"Don't grill and grandstand, summon and inform. Show the respect that expresses equality and the equality that is an expression of respect. Ask and listen, get the logic, explain where you think it wrong. Fill the airwaves with thoughtful exchanges."

As a grown-up White House tries to deal with overheated attacks on Obama's nominee as "racist," thoughtful exchanges are in short supply.

In his weekly address, the President observes, "There are, of course, some in Washington who are attempting to draw old battle lines and playing the usual political games, pulling a few comments out of context to paint a distorted picture of Judge Sotomayor’s record. But I am confident that these efforts will fail; because Judge Sotomayor’s seventeen-year record on the bench--hundreds of judicial decisions that every American can read for him or herself--speak far louder than any attack; her record makes clear that she is fair, unbiased, and dedicated to the rule of law."

But how many Americans will read any of those hundreds of decisions? How many more will make up their minds based on Keith Olbermann's rage about G. Gordon Liddy's radio rant comparing La Raza to the KKK and hoping that "key conferences" of the Supreme Court don't take place "when she's menstruating or something"?

Noonan says, "Comment-thread conservatives, like their mirror-image warriors on the left ("Worst person in the woooorrrlllddd!") are perpetually agitated, permanently enraged. They don't need to be revved, they're already revved. Newt Gingrich twitters that Judge Sotomayor is a racist. Does anyone believe that? He should rest his dancing thumbs, stop trying to position himself as the choice and voice of the base in 2012, and think."

Sounds good, but don't hold your breath from now until 2012 waiting for them all to grow up.

Online Overhaul for America

In his weekly address, the President is selling his plan to save the economy and, at the same time, promising to tell us all about it as he goes along.

"We’ll launch an unprecedented effort," he says, "to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new web site called recovery.gov."

You can add it to your bookmarks now, even though there is nothing to see but a promise to show "where and how your tax dollars are spent" after passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Among other promises in the Act are proposals to update our electric grid with more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines; weatherize 2.5 million homes; protect health insurance for more than 8 million Americans in danger of losing their coverage; secure 90 major ports; renovate 10,000 schools; and triple the number of science fellowships.

All this, and a web site to show us if and how members of Congress are getting their grubby hands on any of it for pork. Should keep us pointing and clicking for months to come.