President Obama's conference call with faith leaders just ended. We'll put up a transcription and links a little later when they become available but here's a quick take.
President Obama ripped into the health care critics forcefully.He said there are some people out there that are "bearing false witness". He said these so called, "death panels: are an extrordinary lie and that the government funding abortion is just not true. He asked people of faith on the call to speak the truth.
Earlier in the call, Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes took questions on the call. Even though the topics ranged from abortion to government involvement to conscience protection,the questions were defintely softballs. They gave the White House a chance to set the record straight (in their view) on what the health care legislation would and would not do. It's too bad the questions weren't more probing. Instead they came across scripted. Melody Barnes is one of the administration's best communicators. Surely she could have handled tougher questions. Let her loose. She's very smart and very capable.
Overall, the conference call felt very much like an informercial. With testimonies about poor health care situations to upcoming faith health care events, you got the sense that this felt a little more like a PR call rather than a substantive discussion of health care. I guess I should have expected that. This call was a rallying cry from the progressive religious left and the White House to essentially go out there and set the record straight. We'll see where it all leads.The White House is smart to reach out to the faith community. Spreading the health care word in the pews could make a difference for this President. Of course in conservative Churches the word is spreading too. It's the race to control the narrative.