Just a few days into the “administration” of President-Elect Barack Obama, the direction and plausibility of health care reform are already undergoing great debate. I’ve seen ads on TV, debates on the Web, op-ed pieces in major newspapers, and Sunday morning talking heads already debating the possibility of health reform.

What I’ve been saying since it became clear that an Obama presidency was a distinct possibility is that his administration could fundamentally change how legislation is debated in Congress. It’s not just that Obama is a unique leader. It’s also that he better understands the tools at his disposal in 21st-century America than most wonks in Washington.

There is a great line paraphrasing Howard Dean’s 2004 campaign strategist Joe Trippi in a page 2 article in today’s Washington Post that articulates some of my thinking, “Just as John F. Kennedy mastered television as a medium for taking his message to the public, Obama is poised to transform the art of political communication once again.”

Obama has 10 million email addresses of activist supporters, more than 3 million of whom made financial contributions to his presidential campaign. Before he even had his White House chief of staff in place, he had launched www.change.gov, in order to ensure that no momentum from the campaign is lost in the transition.

Cynics and long-time Washington insiders remain skeptical that health care reform is possible or that this year will be any different than the fights they have seen over it in 1993-94 (or earlier). There is no doubt that the sinking economy and exploding national debt only make the mountain to climb steeper and higher.

But bringing the 2.0 tools that Obama deployed to run one of the most strategic, disciplined and effective presidential campaigns in history to the act of governing gives his administration a legitimate chance…. Probably better odds than he was given just 12 months ago to become president.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under Inside the Beltway. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.