OBAMAVISION, The Morning After

The Village reaction to Obama's health care presser last night runs the gamut from "The President has weighed in on the Skip Gates incident" to "Well yes, you expect the President to defend his friend" to "Why does the President hate police officers so much?" to "ACORN IS EVIL!"

A couple of folks do try at least to focus on the actual health care part of the presser, but couldn't really help themselves. The NY Times:

Asked what the rush was to meet his August deadline for passage of House and Senate bills, Mr. Obama replied: “I’m rushed because I get letters every day from families that are being clobbered by health care costs. They ask me, ‘Can you help?’ ”

In fact, there is another reason Mr. Obama is rushed: he knows time is not on his side. The more Congress delays passage of a health bill, the more time his Republican opponents will have to marshal their opposition and kill it.

“If you don’t set deadlines in this town, things don’t happen,” Mr. Obama said. “The default position is inertia.”

And the WaPo:

Six months after his inauguration, Obama finds his signature domestic issue stalled on Capitol Hill, where House Democratic leaders are working to quell dissension and the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate acknowledged that action probably will be delayed until September.

Addressing what he called "entirely legitimate" skepticism, the president vowed that health-care reform would drive down costs, eventually saving families thousands of dollars. But he struggled to explain how any of the measures under consideration would fulfill that promise.

For the past week, Obama has engaged in a two-pronged campaign to woo recalcitrant lawmakers and sell nervous voters from the bully pulpit. The news conference seemed to be intended less to stake out new ground than to calm a nation still reeling from the economic meltdown. "The American people are understandably queasy about the huge deficits and debt that we're facing right now," he said.

You'd think we were talking about Bush, circa 2006 here...only then the Village would have said it was Congress's fault for delaying the President's agenda, and not the President's fault for "rushing things".

I haven't weighed in on the Skip Gates incident yet myself, I will at some point today. But in all honesty, I thought the President did a good job of explaining the stakes.