Obama’s closing argument: can he make the case?

The President sees his speech tomorrow night as an opportunity to make that closing argument that lawyers dream of — one that will make his doubters see his case in a new light, his supporters reaffirm their faith in his version of the facts and the undecideds move to his side. But, the problem here is that the President has not only failed to make his case, but that the other side has presented overwhelming evidence that the President’s side of the story, that a public option would create competition, bring down cost, and that no one would lose their insurance — cannot be true. The facts are simply not on his side.

So no matter how good of a presentation he gives, no matter how passionate or charismatic his final pleas to the jury, it has already made up its mind. In my evidence class in law school, I was taught that 90% of people make up their minds about cases during the opening arguments. From the beginning of this debate, the American people have viewed Democrats’ proposals for what they really are — a means of injecting the federal government into the health care system. So long as the President stays the course and continues to support government intervention in health care, he won’t change the jury’s mind.

Adding to the weakness of his case, the President’s colleagues, his co-counsel if you will, continuously hurt his case by making it clear that 1) they aren’t listening to the American people, and 2) they are avoiding the tough work of creating new policies and instead playing word games.

Case in point, Speaker Pelosi. Reuters reported today that:

“Pelosi said she remained committed to the idea of a public insurance option to compete with private insurers. which has scared off Republicans and some centrist Democrats. But she said that overall House Democrats were 85 percent in agreement on the way forward and that these differences would narrow.”We make a distinction between those who want to obstruct the debate and those who have legitimate concerns,” Pelosi said.”

That’s Pelosi code for: bipartisanship has long been dead. Those people that have concerns about the legislation we’ve drafted in the House, they are Astroturfing, un-American obstructionists we can’t be bothered with. So much for civic participation or bipartisanship. She’s too busy working on backroom deals with Democrats she might be able to appease than to worry about what the American people have to say.

Then, Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said this:

“I find it interesting that many of the conservative and Republican opponents to a public option oppose it in large measure because it would be so popular. I mean, that’s their argument. Everybody is going to go to this public plan, even though we guarantee that it’s going to have a level playing field. But their opposition is because it’s going to be so popular, they oppose it.”

When you’re done laughing, maybe you can direct me to a link where a conservative has indicated that their problem with the public option is that it’s going to drive private insurance out of business because of its immense popularity. Is that what Mr. Daschle thinks The Lewin Group concluded when it released its study predicting that 83.4 million people would lose their insurance and be forced into the public option thanks to expensive mandates on businesses and increasing costs of private insurance due to government regulations included in this bill? Clearly, Mr. Daschle is just as confused about that study and about the choices Americans want to preserve for themselves as he was about including his car and driver as a gift on his tax returns.

Finally, President Obama himself said this yesterday at an AFL-CIO picnic.

“We have never been this close. We’ve never had such broad agreement on what needs to be done. And because we’re so close to real reform, suddenly the special interests are doing what they always do, which is just try to scare the heck out of people.”

Why is it that dissent from the left is a ‘legitimate concern’, but when the right dissents, it’s trying to scare the heck out of people? According to a Rasmussen poll, 53% of Americans oppose health care reform, and 68% believe liberals’ reforms will increase the deficit. And, it’s not because they’ve had the heck scared out of them or because they’re afraid of the bill’s popularity. It’s because they’re concerned about the road this is taking us on, about our country’s financial future and about their own health care. Despite how difficult Congress has made it for Americans to read these bills, with the House bill reaching over 1,000 pages and the Senate bill not far behind at a little over 600 pages, Americans did their homework this summer.

The left is losing the case, and it’s not due to a lack of speeches by the President.

“Since the start of June, Obama has given 25 speeches and statements alone on his health care plan, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who keeps a detailed log of presidential activities. And that doesn’t include a battery of interviews on the topic.”

As Jonah Goldberg points out,

“His July 22 press conference was billed as perhaps Obama’s last chance to save health-care reform. It tanked…Afterward, public support for Obamacare dropped significantly. A Pew poll taken that week found that more people opposed the proposals being considered by Congress than supported them, and that Obama’s overall approval had dropped 7 points from the previous month. Other polls showed similar declines.”

America doesn’t need another speech. Unless President Obama gives us something new tomorrow evening, he will lose even more supporters. Americans don’t want a rebranding of the issues. They want narrowly tailored solutions to specific problems – tax benefits for individual insurance, opening up insurance markets across state lines, addressing pre-existing conditions and tort reform. President Obama’s only chance to turn around the jury’s opinion is to change course and address these topics. In law, closing arguments cannot contain new information. Luckily for President Obama, he is not bound by any rules tomorrow night. If he truly cares about health care, he will tear up his old closing argument and start over with a new plan that addresses Americans’ concerns and brings Republicans into the fold. If not, his closing statement will be nothing more than another rhetorical exercise on a jury that made up its mind months ago.

*Originally published September 8, 2009 on The American Issues Project Blog, here.

Tags: health care debate, public option