Obama Throws Down the Gauntlet

If passion, eloquence and moral gravity were the main currency of American politics, Barack Obama would have changed the course of the health care debate tonight.

But with Washington as it is, the President could hope for no more than to restore some sanity by calling out the opposition for its "scare tactics," indicting insurance companies for greed and evoking the "large-heartedness" of Ted Kennedy's efforts for universal coverage as "not a Republican or a Democratic feeling" but "part of the American character."

After a summer of public discontent and falling approval numbers, Obama abandoned his disastrous hands-off approach to the legislation by firmly outlining what he wants.

From here on, the White House will be calling the signals for Congressional Democrats and, in time-honored tradition, making party loyalty an issue in the effort to use its majority effectively.

The President declared that "the time for bickering is over. The time for games has passed. Now is the season for action. Now is when we must bring the best ideas of both parties together, and show the American people that we can still do what we were sent here to do. Now is the time to deliver on health care...

"I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it's better politics to kill this plan than improve it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what's in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now...

"I understand that the politically safe move would be to kick the can further down the road--to defer reform one more year, or one more election, or one more term.

"But that's not what the moment calls for. That's not what we came here to do. We did not come to fear the future. We came here to shape it."

Barack Obama has thrown down the gauntlet to Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and their fractious factions. Now they will have to pick it up and meet the challenge.