Health care reform: We’re going to need a bigger boat.
Does anyone in America need a vacation more than President Obama? Today he’s off to Camp David for the weekend, ahead of a week with the family on Martha’s Vineyard.
“It’s been a long week,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Friday.
August has proven a cruel mistress for the Obama White House, with little progress to show for a pretty big public relationsh effort. A new Washington Poll poll found a significant dropoff in Americans’ confidence that Obama will make the right decisions for the country — down to 49 percent from 60 percent 100 days into his presidency.
Gibbs scoffed at suggestions August was a crucial month in the health care debate, saying when the president gets back at the end of the month, cable news will declare September crucial, possibly followed by October. Fair enough, but the lack of momentum over the past few weeks was underscored by Gibbs’ description of what the president will be doing when he returns:
Obama will “continue to tell people about why health-care reform is important, why we can’t afford to do nothing, the stakes that are involved, and to try to push back on the mistruths and misrepresentations that we all know are still out there about health-care reform,” he said.
Isn’t that where we were three weeks ago?
Mr. President: Try to enjoy the week.
