Health Care's Fate Is Moment of Truth for 'No Drama Obama'

Aides nicknamed the president "No Drama Obama" as a compliment during the 2008 campaign. Barack Obama is certainly cool under pressure, but "Obama's Drama" is happening right now: he needs a win and he knows it. He's starting to speak his piece loud and clear, just what people wanted to hear . . . last year.

It's the drama of his lifetime, one that the Bard set the stage for. This is like Henry V before the Battle of Agincourt against France, where he and his band of brothers, "we happy few," proved the leader's mettle. Charm, charisma, good looks, eloquence: these things are not good enough armor to take into battle against the Republicans.

The wise men of Washington, even his own advisers, are starting to say this town likes a winner. The sages are getting restless to see if Obama is one.
There are no quick victories for the plucking on the foreign policy horizon, so that leaves health care as the immediate measure of what Obama can do. Its fate hangs in the balance this week in the House where Obama and Democratic leaders believe they will prevail, although they don't yet have the votes.

The irony is that the advent of spring seems to have awakened the political passion in the president who took to the hustings with a strong populist call to arms on health care reform -- which is great, but late to the game.

In Pennsylvania and Missouri last week, he demanded an up or down vote on health care, saying "if not now, when?" He criticized the insurance industry, urging us not to give it more control over health care in America. He said the time for talk is over.

It's clear now the first year White House was way too mellow on health care -- waiting while Washington watched to see if Republican Olympia Snowe would melt in summer. Apparently, Maine snow does not melt, summer or not. The president and Senate Democrats did not need her vote to win, which made the spectacle hard to watch.

If they were children, Republicans would have sized Obama up as a lenient babysitter they could push around. When he was a member of the Senate club, he never pounded a table or broke a sweat, which made colleagues wonder about him. The Congressional Black Caucus is equally puzzled as to why he he has not taken more action to address unemployment in big cities like his own Chicago, according to the Washington Post. And as a former ambassador told me, the international community wishes he would wield more the power of the Nobel Peace Prize to get direct talks going toward a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Democratic lawmakers like the fighting form they see today -- but not even the president's best friends are sure of the outcome of Obama's Drama. Beautiful words won't be enough for the first time in his life.


Now health care is about so much more than health care.

Pure and simple, this is the testing ground for all of Obama's ambitions -- and for all in town and country to see whether he's a winner.