7/21: Mr. President, The Bloggers Are On The Phone

Pres. Obama held a conference call with progressive bloggers yesterday to discuss health care reform. During the call, he emphasized "the important role" that bloggers can play in the process by "keep[ing] the pressure on members of Congress" (as Firedoglake has been doing) and "debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets." Many of the bloggers who participated in the call (McCarter, Amato, Dayen, Singer, Sudbay) are offering their thoughts on the President's remarks, along with transcripts of the relevant exchanges. While Obama didn't break any new ground during the call, lefty bloggers noted that the President (1.) is still open to using the reconciliation process; and (2.) is focused on getting a bill out of the Senate even if it doesn't meet all of his requirements, since "conference is where these differences will get ironed out." Bloggers were also pleased that Obama reiterated his support for a public option and expressed doubts about the co-op model being pushed by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND).

What else is happening in the blogosphere?

• Liberal bloggers (Morrill, McCarter, Benen) are pointing to GOP strategist William Kristol's remarks about the need to "kill" health care reform as evidence that Dems should stop trying to negotiate with GOPers.
• Conservative bloggers (Allahpundit, Ham, Malkin) are buzzing about the news that the Mayo Clinic -- which Obama and other Dems have cited as a model -- criticized the House health care bill yesterday, saying it "misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care." Meanwhile, both liberal and conservative bloggers are urging their readers to call members of Congress and lobby them on health care reform.
• As we noted yesterday, conservative bloggers (Malkin, Hawkins) harshly criticized the American Conservative Union after Politico reported that the organization tried to sell its support for money. Now that ACU Chairman David Keene has responded to Politico's charge, conservative bloggers are still criticizing the organization's conduct, although Erick Erickson thinks that "this whole exchange is not as bad as it looks."

HEALTH CARE REFORM: You Only Get One Shot

Liberal bloggers were impressed by the sense of urgency that Obama conveyed during the conference call:

• Daily Kos' mcjoan: "[T]he main message of the call was the urgency of getting this done sooner rather than later. In answer to John Amato's first question about the latest push for delays from Democrats and Republicans alike, President Obama answered that 'we've been debating this for 50 years, that now's the time to make the tough decisions' with the options now on the table. In a followup question after President Obama left the call, [WH adviser David] Axelrod reiterated that message. This issue has been 'talked to death for decades,' and we've been 'circling around the same issues' -- what matters now is getting it done. He added that if you needed a demonstration of the urgency of getting it done, it's that those who want to stop it are counting on delays that will give them enough time to kill it. He also suggested that those pushing for delays, be they arguing in good faith or not, listen to their constituents who call and e-mail every day with their insurance horror stories."
• Crooks and Liars' Amato: "Since the goal of the opposition is to defeat the bill, a key way to do that is by delaying the process. I asked the President if he would demand that Congress work through their cushy vacations in August if they try to delay the bill. [...] He dodged the question, but in doing so he made it clear that he does not want any delays. Stalling cannot be an option so I want to make the case that if [CT Sen.] Joe Lieberman wants more time to read the bill then he should stay at work doing so."
• dday: "Clearly the very fact of this conference call's existence shows that the White House is leaving no stone unturned in searching for allies to help sell reform, and that the President is ready to step forward in this debate. That's a good thing. He still has enough political capital to manage the process where he wants it to go, and if he wants certain elements of the policy included in the final bill, provided that there is a final bill, I wouldn't bet against them getting in there."
• AMERICAblog's Joe Sudbay: "The White House appears to be pulling out all the stops."

HEALTH CARE REFORM II: Get It To Conference, Then We'll Straighten It Out

Many liberal bloggers were struck by Obama's comments about reconciling the House and Senate bills in conference, "where these differences will get ironed out":

• The Washington Post's Ezra Klein: "[T]his is the clearest indication we've gotten that the White House sees conference committee as the focal point for its efforts. But that's the message. The audience for this call...was mainly progressive bloggers, and so the underlying argument was that liberals should have some faith that a disappointing draft out of the Senate Finance Committee is not the end of the process, and they should not lose heart."
• Think Progress' Matthew Yglesias: "Obama didn't say this explicitly, but the clear implication is that in the initial round of bargaining it's sort of not that important what's in the Senate version of the bill. The important thing is to keep the process moving forward. Get something voted out of the Finance Committee, then get something to the floor of the Senate, then get something passed the Senate. If and only if that happens, you then get to the stage where you write the real bill and then you have the real legislative fight, the battle to get the real bill passed the Senate. The key thing for now is to make sure we reach that point."
• dday: "The President was basically saying: get it to conference, and we'll straighten it out. That probably doesn't mean that the President gets everything he wants, but it means that the big issues will be at his determination and discretion, almost certainly. I think that's an important reminder. Past White Houses have used the conference committee very effectively to make sure bills matched preferences. Obama signaled his willingness to do that. Which means that, while we can have a role in getting this bill through each chamber, the White House will be able to make their presence felt to a degree at the finish line. In effect, he will take ownership of the policy and ensure it beats the status quo."

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: Face It, We're All Gonna Die Anyway

The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf responds to Tom Wolfe's argument that the U.S. should invest in space travel in order to "keep alive the only meaningful life we know of" when the sun eventually burns up:

"That's a sound way to think about the space program. Robert Heinlein put it this way: 'The Earth is just too small and fragile a basket for the human race to keep all its eggs in.'

But look. Earth is going to be hit by another extinction level asteroid long before the sun is going to burn up. An obligation to preserve the only meaningful life that we know suggests that we spend money on scanning the sky for gargantuan rocks hurtling toward us, safeguarding humanity against pandemic diseases and stopping nuclear proliferation. I'd be thrilled to learn that we'll survive half as long as it takes the sun to burn up!"

LEST WE FORGET: But You Have To Promise To Only Use The Pizza For Good

From Overheard in the Office:

Woman: Can you put green peppers and mushrooms on one half and pepperoni on the other?
Pizza Hut guy: Yes, we have the technology to do that.