For a few minutes Monday, the cable news networks turned live to a presidential press conference in Guadalajara, Mexico, an event most American viewers experienced as a brief respite from the regularly-scheduled health care reform horror show–the looped videotapes of angry protesters screeching at town hall meetings, the attack ads trying to scare seniors with misleading suggestions of lost coverage and premature death, the game attempts by increasingly-defensive White House aides to regain message control.
But even in Mexico, thousands of miles away, things were not going all that much better for Barack Obama. The first and only American reporter to ask Obama a question wondered aloud how Obama would pass immigration reform given “the blows you’re taking now on health [care]” and the “likely” losses that Democrats will suffer in 15 months, when Congress faces midterm elections.
Obama, appearing at once annoyed and entertained by the premise, tried to get the conversation back on track, calling out his interrogator. “I don’t know if you’re doing some prognosticating about the outcome of the midterm elections, which are over a year away,” he said. “I think we’ll do just fine.”
The recent news cycle, which is turning August into a bad month for Obama, seems to discourage such optimism. News pages and television screens are plastered with signs of turmoil. In one way, it is not a surprise. Modern politics tends to comes in waves. When you are up, you tend to be way up, if only because there is a lot of airtime to fill–and a lot of blogs to write–with pundits falling overt themselves trying to out analyze the other analyzers. The same can be said when you are down, and Obama has lost about seven points in about two months, according to the Pollster.com average of major approval rating polls.
Worst of all, the trend has manifested itself in the heart of summer, a time of beached whales, shark danger, and high speed car chases, when the pundits are especially short on material. A president who promised to “change how business is done in Washington” finds himself trapped inside old divisions, distortions and structure of the typical political game.
The situation was evident in Mexico, where Obama stood on a stage besides Mexican President Felipe Calderone and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, hoping to speak about the close cooperation between the three countries on matters of health, security and trade. Instead, Obama fielded a question from a Canadian reporter about the way his countries health system had become a political football of sorts in the United States.
“I don’t find Canadians particularly scary, but I guess some of the opponents of reform think that they make a good boogeyman,” Obama responded, before trying to turn the page. “I think that’s a mistake, and I suspect that once we get into the fall and people look at the actual legislation that’s being proposed, that more sensible and reasoned arguments will emerge.”
It was another attempt to get the conversation back on track, a wish shared by the entire White House team. And, as Obama said, it will happen, sooner or later, though the cost to his political capital remains an open question.
“When all is said and done on health care reform, the American people are going to be glad that we acted to change an unsustainable system so that more people have coverage,” he said. “Understand, though, I’m not acting based on short-term political calculations. I’m looking at what’s best for the country in the long term.” In other words, this may be hurting me, but it is going to be worth it.