President Obama is scheduled to go up to Capitol Hill for a meeting with Senate Democrats at 2 pm on Sunday.
This may be the most crucial meeting and moment in the fight for health care, but it does not loom well for the President or the health care legislation, which has been a controversy for many months.
How is the President going to rally the forces in the Senate, a notoriously egotistical body of men and women who all love the sound of their own voices and have complete belief in their own virtues, to overcome their differences, particularly in relation to the “public option”, abortion, and their own individual re-election campaigns that they will face in 2010 or 2012?
This is the time to be the so called “fly on the wall”, able to observe the body language and the verbal interaction between the President and his colleagues in the Democratic party.
Barack Obama has many skills, but it is not clear yet that he is the successor to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson in the ability to win over support by whatever means necessary.
At this point in the debate over health care, that is what is required! Unfortunately, don’t bet on it! 🙁