Under Fire, Obama Plans Strategy Shift on Health Care

Aides to President Obama are putting final touches on a major new strategy to help Democrats come back from a brutal August recess. As part of the new approach, the president will clearly specify what he wants to see in a health care compromise, and is considering delivering a major policy speech as soon as next week.

"The president will be very active," senior adviser David Axelrod said. The venue for the address is still being discussed, but Axelrod described the situation as "in the eighth or ninth inning," and made it plain that Obama would be dictating his terms to Congress.

Obama's advisers concede that the president's popularity has taken a serious hit over the past six weeks, but they see diminished expectations as an opportunity to surprise the country with a successful health care effort. The public option is one concession they are ready to make. "We have been saying all along that the most important part of this debate is not the public option, but rather ensuring choice and competition," an aide said. Obama's speech will include many principles he has spelled out before, but advisers stopped short of disclosing his make-or-break demands.

For details: "Under Fire, President Obama Shifts Strategy" [Politico]