WASHINGTON — One weekend last month, American forces drove into the Marja area of southern Afghanistan, opening the biggest military operation of the Obama presidency. In the five weeks since then, President Obama has made 38 speeches, statements or other public remarks and never once mentioned the operation.

In fact, amid roughly 100,000 words uttered in these mostly scripted events during that period, the terms “Taliban,” “Marja” and “terrorist” have never passed his lips. Nor has he had anything to say about settlement construction in East Jerusalem, militants in Pakistan or terrorist trials in New York. By contrast, he has used the words “health,” “insurance” or some variation of those terms more than 800 times.The battle over health care in recent weeks has consumed Mr. Obama’s presidency, not to mention the rest of the nation’s capital, overshadowing virtually every other issue, foreign and domestic. Although his administration and Congress continue to work in other areas, like immigration, energy and jobs, by and large the nation’s leadership has been so fixated on health care that it would be easy to think it is the only issue of real import.

Mr. Obama’s decision to put off his trip to Indonesia and Australia to lobby for health care has undercut his own argument that he was paying attention to the region after his predecessor supposedly neglected it. And even some Democrats worry that his failure to talk about Afghanistan misses an opportunity to rally the public behind the war effort and to express support for the dangerous work of the troops.

“He’s concerned about health care — it’s his major challenge and I understand that,” said Representative Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat and chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. “But at the end of the day, if Al Qaeda can pull off another one, you’ll have a bunch of dead Americans. That worries me. We’re playing hard ball over there. We’re playing for keeps.”

The president, of course, still spends time behind the scenes monitoring Afghanistan and weighing in on other policy matters. Aides said his personal engagement with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia in recent days appears to have broken through a logjam holding up a new arms control treaty. And advisers are juggling negotiations with lawmakers on matters like the handling of terror suspects.

But presidential travel and the bully pulpit are vital tools used to send messages internationally and command attention at home, and Mr. Obama has chosen in the last couple months to focus those tools largely on his campaign for health care legislation.

All of which may be the smart use of his limited time and public voice, given how critical health care has become to his presidency. If he had left on Sunday for Jakarta and Canberra as the central domestic project of his term fell apart in the Capitol, it would have been seen by many as a strategic mistake. As it was, Democratic lawmakers were unhappy that he kept the trip on the schedule as long as he did, given the do-or-die nature of the debate.

Read the full article, here.

See, Democrats to Watch on the Health Care Vote, The New York Times, March 19, 2010, by NY Times: 203 expected YES, 204 expected NO, 24 officially undecided.

See Dominos: Democratic Health Care Skeptics Fall Into Line For Reform, Talking Points Memo, March 19, 2010, by Brian Beutler.

See Obama is ‘stubborn’. Kicks Rahm’s ass constantly., Daily Kos, March 20, 2010, by amk for Obama.

Democrats Woo Abortion Foes
in Push for Health Bill

Democrats Woo Abortion Foes in Push for Health Bill, © The New York Times, March 19, 2010, by David M. Herszenhorn and Robert Pear, excerpt quoted verbatim:

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders late Friday were exploring the possibility of a deal with abortion opponents that would clinch the final votes to pass major health care legislation, but they faced stiff resistance from lawmakers who support abortion rights.

It was not immediately clear if the bill could win approval without some concessions to Democrats seeking tighter abortion restrictions.

In similar late-hour wrangling in November, Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, succeeded in winning approval of tight limits on insurance coverage of abortions in the House health care bill.

Mr. Stupak has said he would oppose the current measure without similar limits. Other Democratic opponents of abortion have said they are satisfied with the language in the Senate bill that bans the use of federal money to pay for coverage of the procedure, and they have pledged support for the package, expected to come to a decisive vote in the House on Sunday.

Mr. Stupak introduced a resolution on Friday that would add tougher abortion restrictions to the bill after it is approved but before it is sent to the president — a technique typically used to make minor or technical changes with the consent of both chambers, an unlikely prospect.

“We don’t want another vote on abortion,” said Representative Diana DeGette, Democrat of Colorado and a champion of abortion rights, as she left a meeting Friday evening in the office of Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “We are not going to vote for a bill that restricts women’s right to choose beyond current law.”

The abortion issue was just one complication that Democratic leaders wrestled with on Friday. A dispute over Medicare payments rates also flared as rank-and-file lawmakers pored over the detailed legislative language released Thursday, and a handful of lawmakers said their states would be shortchanged by new provisions.

Read the full article, here.