44, Day 45: Form a Task Force and Call Me in the Morning

An ongoing log of the daily activities of the 44th president of the United States during his first 100 days:

-At the White House, health care was the topic of the day as President Obama talked about the need for health care reform this year and like-minded politicians, business officials, health care professionals, and regular folks pretty much agreed with him. Obama's remarks were big on sweeping goals, and light on the kind of specifics that ultimately doomed the last presidential attempt to reform health care (that would be during Bill Clinton's first term). "The biggest threat to our nation's balance sheet is the skyrocketing cost of health care. It's not even close," Obama said.

-To go along with the push for health care reform this year, there's a new government website to prove just how important the issue is--www.healthreform.gov. This makes at least the fourth mico-site the Obama administration has produced, following sites to help Americans see where stimulus dollars are going, what the 2010 budget looks like, and what the middle class task force is up to. All of the sites help Obama satisfy his campaign pledge to show how his administration is doing its job. But they also all have a "see the great things we're doing" quality to them. Since there are so many legitimate, divergent opinions about health care, it will be interesting to see how www.healthreform.gov treats the different voices and whether it allows points of view with which it disagrees to get play.

-The House today gave a boost to the president's plan to stem the tide of home foreclosures by passing a bill to allow bankruptcy judges to modify the terms of some mortgages. But as they did with the stimulus bill, Republicans opposed the measure. It now goes to the Senate.

-Why oh why did the Obama administration have to build up Rush Limbaugh as the head of the Republican party? It was a cute line at first, following Limbaugh's much-talked-about address before a key group of conservative activists. But now Limbaugh is getting the kind of press reserved for, well, for an actual head of a political party. And in keeping with that status, Limbaugh wants to do what any chief presidential opponent wants--a debate with the other guy. "Let's talk about the New Deal versus Reaganomics," Limbaugh said yesterday. "Let's talk about closing Guantanamo Bay, and let's talk about sending $900 million to Hamas. Let's talk about illegal immigration and the lawlessness on the borders." Can we just hit the mute button please?

-Personnel watch: The Obama administration won't be getting any TV-news celebrity glitz in its top ranks now that CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has pulled his name from consideration to be the next Surgeon General.

by J. Jennings Moss

Sources: The White House, the Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times,