Obama Appeals to National Morality in Healthcare Reform Speech

By Dan Gilgoff, God & Country

When I ran into the Rev. Jim Wallis—among the most influential (though unofficial) faith advisers to the Democratic Party—in Washington last week, he was visibly miffed that President Obama and the Democrats had managed to lose the moral high ground in the debate over healthcare reform. He'd been in touch with the White House, pressing it to recast its healthcare plan as a moral crusade.

That's just how the president ended his address to Congress last night, with a moral call to arms that he tied to a letter he'd received from Sen. Ted Kennedy upon his recent death:

He had written it back in May, shortly after he was told that his illness was terminal. He asked that it be delivered upon his death.

In it, he spoke about what a happy time his last months were, thanks to the love and support of family and friends, his wife, Vicki, and his children, who are here tonight . And he expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform—"that great unfinished business of our society," he called it—would finally pass. He repeated the truth that health care is decisive for our future prosperity, but he also reminded me that "it concerns more than material things." "What we face," he wrote, "is above all a moral issue; at stake are not just the details of policy, but fundamental principles of social justice and the character of our country."

The rest of Obama's speech was peppered with moral and subtly religious appeals. "That large-heartedness, that concern and regard for the plight of others, is not a partisan feeling," he said. "It is not a Republican or a Democratic feeling. It, too, is part of the American character."

He talked about healthcare reform as the nation's "calling."

This morning, religious progressives are overjoyed, beaming to reporters about the president reframing healthcare as a moral issue. "Preaching from his bully pulpit, Obama reminded us that we have an ethical obligation not simply to protect our own individual interests but to serve the common good," John Gehring, spokesman for Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, says via E-mail.

Now let's see how the rest of the country reacts.

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