Health care, as a measure of a president

The passage of health care legislation looks imminent, with a simple majority vote for reconciliation looking to be the deciding factor after the long, drawn-out process that resulted in the passing of two health bills in the two Congressional houses in late 2009.

But, while people dispute the merits and necessity of such legislation, and many point to the political implications for this fall, health care's main message points back to the man who got the ball rolling: President Barack Obama.

Much has been said about whether Obama is a successful president, or whether he is keeping his campaign promises. He said he'd bring bipartisanship and change people could believe in; critics say he's sticking with his party and doing more of the same.

But I think this health care process has shown that, although he may not have reached the Messiah-like levels the electorate was expecting in November 2008, he is keeping those campaign promises pretty well.

While he has not been able to achieve much bipartisan movement, much of that can be attributed to the vociferous immovability of the Republican side, which is more apt to denounce and hedge against plans rather than think up their own. Obama did, in fact, court Republican lawmakers at the beginning of the health care process, but once erroneous attacks were made (see: death panels) and the bickering stretched out for almost a year, he did what every leader has to do at some point: Stop being popular, stop being conciliatory, and get it done.

(Even after the seismic election of Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, which showed a big change in what the American people wanted, Obama called Republican lawmakers back to hear their suggestions. But no headway was made. Whether he could have done more to cooperate with them, I don't know, but there was an effort there. And, in a fact no one will dispute, Obama has not been nearly as liberal as most Democrats hoped he would be.)

That move by Obama, to be a leader and get it done, is how he has kept his second campaign promise, of change people can believe in. "Change" is a word that can be twisted and used in many ways, but Obama made it clear in his campaign that he had some very practical ways he wanted change to be applied to American politics and the White House. For him, the biggest practical application of change was health care for all Americans. He saw this as fundamental to changing the American way of life toward the better.

So, despite the many different views, all the bickering, and the chance that a renegade senator from Massachusetts supposedly representing an unhappy American populace were threatening the change he promised, Obama kept pushing. He didn't see the public backlash as a sign that he was wrong; he saw it as a sign that his message was being misinterpreted. As president, he has been elected to make the best choices for the country, and that is why, despite all the mess that this health care process has become, he has kept pushing health care. He really thinks it's important.

Throughout the campaign, Obama promised to be a person of character, a calm voice of reason, a bull-headed champion for what needed to be done. He did that with the health care process. He got everyone involved and heard everyone's complaints, but he still pushed forward with his bottom line: to get health care to everyone, somehow. His masterful regrouping after the effort seemed lost several times showed his leadership capabilities, and his drive to keep what he sees as his promises.

Whether health care is a good idea is an entirely different matter. No matter what the politicans say, it's going to cost way more, and a lot of people are still going to be lacking. Furthermore, required health care is the first government requirement a person is susceptible to by just being alive (whereas public-use facilities, other types of insurances, and taxes all depend on something being bought, sold, or owned). This is a definite advancement of the government declaring that it knows what's best for people, and that it can make those decisions.

But without the content of this health care deal muddying the picture, it is obvious that the long process has at least revealed this: Obama is serious about what he sees as the fulfillment of his promises, and in this case, the leader figured out a way to get it done.