Salesman In Chief

President Obama takes to the road this week to Philadelphia today and St. Louis mid-week trying to sell health care reform to the American people.

Obama's pitch in Philadelphia, along with a stop in St. Louis Wednesday, comes as the president begins an all-out effort to pass his health care proposals. Though his plan has received only modest public support, Obama has implored lawmakers to show political courage and not let a historic opportunity slip away. 

Despite staunch Republican opposition, Democratic leaders are cautiously optimistic they can pass a bill without GOP votes. 

"I think the trend is in the right direction because people see that the status quo is absolutely broken," Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union". 

Party leaders are narrowing in on a strategy that calls for House Democrats to go along with a health care bill the Senate passed in December. Obama would sign it into law, but senators would promise to make numerous changes on issues that have concerned House Democrats. Because Senate Democrats lost the 60-seat majority needed to stop GOP filibusters with the Massachusetts Senate race, the changes would have to be made under rules that require only simple majority votes. 

That strategy would put lawmakers on way to meet Obama's goal of Congress passing a health care bill by March 18, when he leaves on a trip to Indonesia and Australia. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama would sign a bill "shortly thereafter." 

But full Democratic support is far from certain. Some party moderates are uneasy about the cost of the $1 trillion bill and its language on abortion, and some House Democrats are suspicious of whether their Senate colleagues would follow through on promises to work out the differences in the bills. 

"The Senate has given us a lot of reason not to trust them," Rep. Jason Altmire, D-Pa., said on Fox News Sunday. "There has to be some certainty that the Senate is going to follow through on their part." 

Over 200 House bills died in the Senate since January 2009.  Altmire has a very, very valid point.  But a lot has to happen for this to get going by March 18, just ten days away.

Still, Obama needs to do this.  He has to make the hard sell right now.  We know he's capable of it, but so much as usual depends on the Village gatekeepers actually letting him speak rather than simply telling America what they think Obama actually said.

They don't have a very good record on that.