Obama Begins Final Sales Pitch, With Assist From AP

AP's original reporting on Obama's remarks in Missouri:

Pelosi made her comments as Obama followed his campaign-reminiscent Pennsylvania trip of Monday with an appearance near St. Louis, pushing hard in the home stretch of the marathon battle to pass his signature domestic legislation.

“The time for talk is over. It’s time to vote. It’s time to vote. Tired of talking about it,” he told the crowd.

But that won't help in a sales pitch! Makes him sound peevish and not engaged with the effort, and we can't have that.

So AP's later feed omits it:

In St. Charles, Mo., on Wednesday Obama shouted to a crowd: "The time for talk is over. It's time to vote."

Thanks, AP! You deserve a big box of chocolates for your devotion to your boyfriend.

AP writes:

It will come down to a phenomenal effort by congressional leaders and the White House to win over skittish lawmakers after a year of incendiary debate, even as Obama keeps up campaign-style appearances designed to fire up public support.

CentristNet notes:

It should be noted, as it was not by the AP, that this final dickering and deal making between Democrats done behind closed doors last night was without any transparency, punctuating a process of over a year of such backroom, closed door negotiations between Democrats regarding Obamacare. The AP apparently sees this backroom dealing and efforts to twist arms of reluctant House Democrats as “a phenomenal effort”, essentially playing the role of Obama Administration cheerleader instead of objective news organization.

Phenomenal effort, AP!

Meanwhile, via Allah's Twitter feed, serious nomentum-- 25 or more serious no votes are now tallied, reducing that pool of 38 potential new yes votes down to a small pool of 13 or less. And that doesn't even include Stupak's 12+ abortion nos.

More than two dozen Democrats are expected to vote against the healthcare reform bill that will hit the House floor in the coming weeks.

At least 25 House Democrats will reject the healthcare reform legislation, according to a survey by The Hill, a review of other media reports and interviews with lawmakers, aides and lobbyists. Dozens of House Democrats are undecided or won't comment on their position on the measure.

The 25 opposed include firm no votes and members who are likely no votes. Most Democrats on The Hill's whip list are definitely going to vote no, but others, such as Reps. Lincoln Davis (Tenn.) and Harry Teague (N.M.), could vote yes.

However, The Hill has not yet put Democrats who are insisting on Rep. Bart Stupak's (D-Mich.) language on abortion in the no category.

It gets a little worse, tool as noted by Drew: Hispanic Representatives are now agitating for the fixes to include a more generous treatment of illegal immigrants, permitting them to buy into the "health care exchanges." And they say now they'll vote against a plan that doesn't include that.

This is over-speculating, but, if a bill is doomed anyway, then each Congressmen is freed up to make maximalist demands that will please his constituents -- it's cost free, after all. The bill is doomed, so there's no real cost as far as hurting its chances of passage; might as well show off for your partisans and special interests.

So the Hispanic caucus making an 11th hour demand might indicate they're all pretty convinced this is going to fail.

Correction: I wrote sloppily that they were saying this "now" and it's an "11th hour demand." That's not quite right -- they've always opposed the Senate's language.

What's new here is that the caucus has been quiet about this, until now.

Corrected Again: I forgot I saw the Hispanic thing right here on AoSHQ. I changed the post a little to refer to Drew's post and omit the duplicative quotes.

posted by Ace at 12:04 PM

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