"We're entering a new season... it's time to get this done." Such are the words that Obama's strategist David Axelrod used while confirming to CNN that President Obama is considering a major address on health care.
This is still developing news, and so its implications aren't yet completely clear.
But feel free to join me in some speculation and discussion.
It seems like the Obama administration has once again tried to lay the groundwork for dropping its absolute support of a public option, according to several aides.
That bit of information could be another trial balloon, or it could be the first authorized leak about the administration's new position. Obama's health-care speech would allegedly be a lot more substantive than anything he's done on the subject so far, putting out a clear set of tenets that a health-care plan must have and how it will actually affect people's lives.
We all know that in August, Kathleen Sebelius set off an uproar when she suggested it wasn't the Administration's position that a public option was critical; she and the administration backpedaled from this position after the backlash had become very visibly apparent.
Why would the Obama administration do this again? Do they actually want to strip the bill of the public option?
I'm sure we'll know more details later today. It's certain that Obama's at his best when he uses the bully pulpit. Perhaps he's playing it by ear, perhaps he's in someone's pocket, or perhaps he's playing a game of 17th dimensional chess; we may never know how this was originally all supposed to go down with absolute certainty. But it would be good to hear from President Obama who no longer feels he must remove himself from the policy debate.
But keep an eye out today as questions about the nature of this address start to get answered.