Kozlowski: On healthcare, time for Obama to take charge

All politicians are somewhat fond of being vague. Very few politicians want to be as honest as George McGovern and thereby lose elections as badly as he did. However, there are times when a man in office has to lead, to write bills himself and to be clear, lest he lose major political points. This is the situation President Obama finds himself in today, yet at times it appears he is more concerned about appearing everybody’s ally than putting things plainly.

Health care reform is one major area in which Obama has tried to appear decisive yet come up somewhat short. The biggest problem? It is unclear what “Obama-care” actually is. There are three versions of the bill running around out there — a House version, a Senate version and a version that attempts to reconcile the two. Yet, none of these bills were clearly Obama’s, and it appears that he has allowed the Congress to do most of the heavy lifting.

In a recent article, The New York Times outlined the president’s woes: The compromise bill has stalled in committee, and Obama is counting on the support of Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and other liberal Republicans to get the darn thing passed. It looks like the Obama administration is heading for a watering down of the public option. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., however, has made it clear that a bill without the public option will not pass the House.

This is all deeply problematic for the president. First, no matter what he does, his opponents can point to what the House Democrats are trying to pass and claim: that a) the bill is still socialist and b) Obama is trying to pull a fast one by sounding less liberal. Second, if he attempts to court liberal Republican and moderate Democrat support in the Senate, he risks losing support in the House. It does not help that the president has not been especially clear, and indeed the speech to Congress next week provides a hint that the administration has finally realized this lack of clarity. Here Obama must make it clear that the period of delegation is over and establish that he is firmly in charge. This should not be a “have I got a car for you” speech. This should be a “here are the features I want with the car” speech.

This might help him with a long-term problem of delegating to Congress, a problem the Economist calls “Californication.” California is king in the Congress, and the California delegation is very liberal. If Obama continues to delegate too much to Congress instead of making specific requests, his vague instructions will be pulled to the left. Obama’s name is now attached to something that might be too liberal for the American people to stomach. Further, California Democrats have different agendas than Midwest Democrats, who have lost influence. There is the potential for in-fighting to result, and resolving it requires leadership from the White House.

Obama must also keep an eye on his cabinet. Indeed, Joe “gaffes and laughs” Biden is a constant concern, as he demonstrated when talking about the nation with which we are trying to press the overcharge button, Russia. Reining in his vice president, both in matters of foreign and domestic policy, would serve the president well. The flubs of Biden would then be seen in a different light, more as a Dan Quayle comedy act instead of another example of what’s wrong with the administration, or worse, remarks that confuse what the Obama policy actually is. The same holds for other cabinet secretaries, especially in light of The New York Times reporting brewing disagreement about the size of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration finds itself at a critical juncture. An NBC poll suggests that Americans don’t much like the health plan, and the president’s approval ratings are slipping, as shown by the Chicago Tribune, which recently reported that his approval rating stands at 50 percent, the third fastest drop to that level since World War II — surpassed by only Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton. Meanwhile, unemployment is creeping toward 10 percent, and Iraq and Afghanistan appear less secure now than they were in January.

The Democrats’ Faustian bargain of running more conservative Democrats in some states might come home to haunt them, and the 60 seats the Democrats have in the Senate seem less overwhelming than before. Obama in particular might find his deal with the devil, promising that everything would be better if he were elected, a ticklish problem. In times like these, continuing to promise hope and change will simply not do the trick. Obama must take an active role in crafting or re-crafting legislation, delegating less and appearing as the president, not as a man who is still running for the office.

E-mail Mark at kozthought@gmail.com.