I've argued that Obama has dissipated his power by abandoning his pre-Inauguration approach to getting moral and spiritual forces behind him. Here I lay out how he can turn the health-care-reform struggle around by re-connecting with that Force in specific ways I describe.

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Third Piece: How to Put the Force Behind Health-Care Reform

Dear Mr. President,

I've suggested that you've dissipated your power by abandoning the moral and spiritual force that --through your inspiration of millions of Americans-- brought you to the presidency. And I've adduced as evidence the fact that, despite how important health care reform is to taking care of the American people, the American economy, and the solvency of the American government, your clash with your disreputable enemies on this issue seems to have cost you more than it cost them.

But it is not too late to change both of those unfortunate developments. Here's what I would propose:

1) Put Forward an Obama Program

It was a mistake, it seems clear, to be so passive in the formulation of the health care plan. But even if it was not a mistake, it's time now to put YOUR plan on the table.

This plan should be one that meets two criteria: 1) it should be practical enough that it is conceivable that IT (or something much like it) CAN BE PASSED in a scenario which assumes that that the Force is again with you; and 2) it should make important and substantive enough improvements in the present system that, in the context of all the discussion that has already taken place publicly, IT CAN INSPIRE YOUR BASE.

The first of these is necessary, of course, because it is politically important that the outcome be portrayable as a victory for you. The second of these is necessary because inspiring your base is necessary to restoring the power to your leadership that such a victory likely requires.

Push your vision now. Don't be afraid to lead. Exercise your power to the fullest, for there's no other part of the body politic that isn't sorely in need of being pulled upwards. (Surely you should be able to bestride the Washington power structure as powerfully as W did at his zenith-- you who have competence and truth and goodness on your side, where he employed fear and lies and was competent at nothing save at the art of manipulating people to get power.)

Coming out with the "Obama Plan" now does not have to seem like a change of strategy, but can instead be presented as the appropriate next stage. Here's how.

Here's what you could say, in presenting your plan, which almost certainly has to contain a robust public option (otherwise, it seems likely, no inspiration).

(BTW, if a real "public option" is not politically feasible, it would seem to be an error to have raised that expectation, since it makes a bill without it seem to your base like a retreat, or a defeat. And if there is to be no public option, present what's possible as an important and valuable STEP toward the America that we're called upon to create.)

If a public option is conceivably attainable, you can present your decision to put forward your own Obama Plan now in this way:

: I always said that I favored the idea of the public option as a good way to provide the kind of competition to the private insurance companies that is necessary to control the skyrocketing costs. But I also always said that I was open to hearing alternative ways of achieving what needs to be achieved. Well, there apparently is NOT any other real alternative—except going still further into involving government, which I am not proposing to do. The idea of the co-ops has been proposed, but it is clear from the studies that this will not work. And nobody has proposed anything else.

So, now I'm ready to say: what America needs is a public option. Without it, costs will not be controlled. Families will go bankrupt. Businesses will be hobbled. And the federal budget will be dragged deeper into the red.

2) Take the Show on the Road

In your campaign, you gathered a huge wave of power behind you by inspiring the American people. Fortunately, the health-care reform debate allows you to recapitulate that achievement.

During the campaign, the rhythm of the primaries allowed you to renew the energy and sense of vision of your leadership repeatedly: on the night of each primary, win or lose, there you were in an arena putting your rhetorical skills behind your vision of a better America, bringing those in the arena to their feet and evoking inspiration in viewers around the country.

Now it's time to get into the same kind of rhythm for the same kind of events: go around the country giving a series of inspiring speeches --selling the Obama Plan-- to be delivered in arenas around the country. These arenas should be filled with Americans of a representative sort who want to attend, so that their enthusiasm will be seen as representative of the people generally, not just a hand-picked bunch of supporters. (Disruption, however, should not be allowed.)

It is very important for Americans across the country to see, on their television sets, that the passion on this issue does not belong to the relative handful of right-wingnuts and industry-hired astroturfers who disrupted the town halls. The citizenry of this country, and its politicians, need to see a wave of enthusiastic support for your program by regular Americans in their thousands.

Let "Yes We Can!" be heard again in the land.

In order to maximize the television coverage of these events --and it is important to recapitulate not only the enthusiasm of the arenas but also the breadth of attention to your words that evoke that enthusiasm-- perhaps you could arrange for this series of events, in different parts of the country, to cover each a different one of the vital and weighty arguments of why reform is necessary and why your plan is the way to go.

That way, with each event having a different substantive content, the series will not be mere repetition but will have a unique and newsworthy message the media will have to cover.

These talks should be qualitatively different from the way you've mostly spoken to the American people about health care in recent months. Not necessarily different in basic ideas, but different in the character of the communication.

More fundamentally than this being a policy issue, it should be presented as a moral and spiritual issue. All the basic arguments in favor of health care reform can rightfully and meaningfully be presented in that way:

** Maintaining the solvency of our country --on all levels-- is a moral matter, for it involves basic responsibility to ourselves and our children;

** Extending compassion and care for our citizens is a spiritual and a moral matter, for it defines what we are as a nation, and who we are as a people, and it is in accordance with the deepest values of our spiritual traditions;

** Correcting the many injustices of the present system is a moral matter, for it is wrong to have a system in which individuals and families, in their most vulnerable times, have to go up against mighty corporate powers whose main concern is their profits;

** Getting this job done, and done right, is a matter of character, for America has tried and failed to get this accomplished since Truman, and it has been a long time since America demonstrated that it has the capacity to grab hold of such important problems and meet the challenge.

It is not just the words that need to be there to summon forth that moral and spiritual force you want to gather again behind you. It's also the "music."

In other words, these speeches should be delivered in a rhetorical style that moves people, that inspires them. Inspiration was surely part of your campaign-era speaking ability. A lot of that was about vision for our future, and that should surely be part of the "music" that you re-establish in your communication with the American people.

For these speeches, it may be especially important for you to bring in another instrument as well, one that's about FEELING what's at stake in this struggle. Talk to the American people about the health care thing as if you were feeling intensely the pain and outrage of the status quo. Show what your heart feels about the thousands who die every year because they're uninsured, about the million families who fall into bankruptcy, about the struggles of tens of millions of families under the weight of skyrocketing costs.

If you can project real feeling about the unacceptability of the status quo, then your audience will feel it, too, and the position of the obstructionists arrayed against you will get washed out to sea like sandcastles on the beach with an incoming tide.

When you've inspired the people in the arena, and millions of others watching on TV, when you've brought them to their feet, when the arena is rocking with shouts of "Yes We Can!" and "Reform Now!," issue a call to action. Just as during the campaign, call on your supporters to put the "move" into movement: knock on doors, call their Congresspeople, lean on their Blue Dogs, march on Washington.

Call forth that great Force that bore you to this office, and not only can you turn the tide on health care reform but also begin again to fulfill, more generally, the great potential of your leadership.

America elected you to be a torch-bearer in this era where such dark forces dragged us down. Hold up the light for us again, and lead us upward with high moral purpose and spiritual passion. Rekindle that hope --not just for new laws, but for a new America-- that you were audacious and eloquent enough to kindle.

Authors Bio:
Andy Schmookler, an award-winning author, political commentator, radio talk-show host, and teacher, was the Democratic nominee for Congress from Virginia's 6th District. His new book -- written to have an impact on the central political battle of our time -- is WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST. His previous books include The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution, for which he was awarded the Erik H. Erikson prize by the International Society for Political Psychology.