Obama shouldn’t use fighting words

"The character of our country."

That was the phrase in the president’s remarks to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night that brought out the best of Barack Obama. The man can give an inspiring speech.

Fault his policy proposals if you want — please be civil about it when you do — but ever since his keynote address to the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, he has shown an extraordinary ability to touch crowds with his words.

"We will call you out."

That sentence was Obama’s Wednesday night low point. He was threatening a public fight with any member of Congress who misrepresents his healthcare plan in the future. With those words, he joined in what he called the "acrimony" that has marred the healthcare debate in recent months.

Many of Obama’s supporters say he had to show political toughness to regain stature in the healthcare debate, but I wish he had chosen better words. As the president also said, there has been too much fighting already.

And there was the night’s ugliest point — shocking, really, given the decorum expected at meetings of Congress. Obama must share the blame for it.

While decrying "bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost," Obama attacked Sarah Palin (not by name, but it was easy to know whom he was talking about) and her claim "that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens." He called Palin’s allegation "cynical and irresponsible."

If he had left it at that, he would have been fine. Palin’s brand of politics deserves all the civil criticism it can get.

But Obama continued, "It’s a lie, plain and simple."

That language went too far, and one Republican wasn’t going to take it.

The president’s next point was to deny that his healthcare plan would insure illegal immigrants at public expense.

"You lie," yelled Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina.

The look on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s face, as she sat on dais behind Obama, spoke volumes. She glared briefly at Wilson and then clearly boiled for several minutes. Members don’t yell insults at the president of the United States as he delivers a speech in the House chamber.

As TV commentators pointed out afterward, the incident brought the atmosphere of recent town-hall meetings to the U.S. Capitol. Wilson later called the White House to apologize. Top members of his own party such as Sen. John McCain had already turned on him.

Toward the end of the speech, Obama regained his top oratorical form.

He quoted from a letter written by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy in May. Healthcare reform, wrote Kennedy, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."

As he talked stirringly about the country’s character, the president brought up Social Security and Medicare, wise policies crafted by presidents and congressional leaders who endured bitter criticism.

They knew, he said, "that when any government measure, no matter how carefully crafted or beneficial, is subject to scorn; when any efforts to help people in need are attacked as un-American; when facts and reason are thrown overboard and only timidity passes for wisdom, and we can no longer even engage in a civil conversation with each other over the things that truly matter — that at that point we don’t merely lose our capacity to solve big challenges. We lose something essential about ourselves."

He’s right, you know.

The healthcare debate must go on. Its atmosphere must change from attacks to an honest effort at crafting wise policy. Health insurance and quality healthcare must be made more widely available. Debate is good; neither side needs to contribute more crippling acrimony.

Solving problems like this is in the character of our country.

Mike Norman is the Star-Telegram /Eastern Tarrant County editorial director. 817-390-7830

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