Is Obama his own Grover Norquist?

As David Brooks noted in the midst of the 2008 campaign, Obama has put himself in a box on taxes. Here's David Plouffe on Meet the Press today:

DAVID GREGORY:
--bring up taxes, though. Is-- in the President's plan as he envisions tackling the deficit, do taxes have to go up? Does that have to be part of this equation across the board?

DAVID PLOUFFE:
Well, this is part of his budget for next year. He has said he believes-- taxes on the higher income, people over $250,000-- should eventually go up.

The Plouffe of the pudding is in the (OFA) email.

A few days ago, waiting for Godobama to move on health care, I wondered, "In the wake of the MA election, why isn't OFA asking supporters to call their reps and senators and tell them to pass a comprehensive HCR bill? (By mass email, that is. Some readers reported getting phone calls.)

Today, OFA sent out an email with the subject line: Pass health reform now.

It doesn't (natch) ask members to tell their House reps to pass the Senate bill, or their senators to negotiate a reconciliation patch to mollify the House. It's focused on a letter-writing campaign. But the message is unequivocal:

This isn't a problem we can kick down the road for another decade -- or even another year. We need to pass health reform now.

We're incredibly close. But too many in Washington are now saying that we should delay or give up on reform entirely. So we need to make it crystal clear that Americans understand the stakes for our economy and our lives, and that we want action.  

Are you listening, Bill Pascrell?

Meanwhile, this very day, Obama shed the ambiguity cloak, telling the DNC:

Plouffe offers political clarity on health care reform

It's amazing how two-sided statements by Obama, Pelosi and Axelrod about the way forward on health care reform have been to date. Obama has managed to suggest simultaneously that piecemeal health care reforms can't work and that he's receptive to a scaled-back bill; Axelrod has done the same. Pelosi has been subtler, suggesting that she doesn't have the votes this moment to pass the Senate bill and work fixes by reconciliation, but that she wants them.

Into this haze comes a ray of clarity (in a Wash Post op-ed) from David Plouffe, newly brought aboard to lead White House political operations. Here's the first plank of the platform he sketches out for Democrats:

-- Pass a meaningful health insurance reform package without delay. Americans' health and our nation's long-term fiscal health depend on it. I know that the short-term politics are bad. It's a good plan that's become a demonized caricature. But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside. If we do pass it, dozens of protections and benefits take effect this year. Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. Workers won't have to worry that their coverage will be dropped because they get sick. Seniors will feel relief from prescription costs. Only if the plan becomes law will the American people see that all the scary things Sarah Palin and others have predicted -- such as the so-called death panels -- were baseless. We own the bill and the health-care votes. We need to get some of the upside. (P.S.: Health care is a jobs creator.)

Here's hoping that Plouffe is speaking with what will be Obama's voice.  The political logic is incontrovertible, and that's Plouffe's bailiwick. As for the long-term policy imperative, no one understands it better than Obama.

UPDATE (from the Dept. of taking credit for the sunrise): further down Plouffe's column, there's this fighting sentiment:

Instead of fearing what may happen, let's prove that we have more than just the brains to govern -- that we have the guts to govern.

That chimes with a bit of xpostfactoid-ese, highlighted in The Daily Dish on Jan. 19:

"We have one party that has not got the brains to govern. Will we now learn for certain that we have another party that hasn't got the guts?

 And of course, The Dish does have its readers:

As for what Obama reads online, his advisers said he looks for offbeat blogs and news stories, tracking down firsthand reporting and seeking out writers with opinions about his policies. Obama was particularly interested in Atlantic Online's Andrew Sullivan's tweeting of the Iranian elections last year, said an aide, who requested anonymity to discuss what influences the president. 

Ah, September: bedwetting season for Democrats

This time last year (okay, Sept. 12 '08), as McCain surged ahead of Obama in the polls in the wake of Sarah Palin's demagogic debut and a ghoulish supporting cast blasting away at the "community organizer" in the Republican Convention, David Plouffe was ruefully downplaying the panic of Democratic "bedwetters." Here we go again: after a month of gleeful lying about health care reform in town hall meetings, Republicans smell blood and Dems are wetting away as Obama's poll numbers sag.

I am confident that Obama will once again prove calmer, more focused, smarter than his critics. As Jonathan Chait and John Dickerson have pointed out, premature postmortems detailing his purported errors -- too uncompromisingly liberal, too focused rhetorically on reducing costs rather than increasing coverage, too passive in the legislative process -- are wrong where they're not mutually exclusive. In hindsight, again, we'll recognize that Obama was consistent and focused, and that he gave his adversaries space to hang themselves. Concessions and scaling back, as with the stimulus bill, will loom large and disappoint, but in hindsight it will be recognized that the legislation that passes constituted a giant step toward universal coverage.

Meanwhile, the dominant narrative comes across visually as much as verbally. Our radiant One has become the frowning, nonplussed, beleaguered One, per above. Let's see if the image changes after his speech on health care reform next Wednesday.