The Hiller Instinct: Obama in New Hampshire

There was relatively little excitement or energy at this event, perhaps because there were two town meetings...the one the president wanted on jobs, and--judging from their questions--the one New Hampshire wanted on health care.

But Obama sounded beaten on health care reform. Remember when he wanted a bill to sign last summer...or one for his State of the Union speech last week? Now he's just hoping for anytime in 2010!

"We should keep working to get this done - Democrats and Republicans together - let's get it done this year!” President Obama said.

And listen closely to this: the president talks about his proposal in the past tense, saying "was" not "is"...

"In our health care bill, one of the most important components was the idea..." the president said.

How could this happen? Can you say Scott Brown?

"The House bill, and Senate bill were 90% there-people had some problems with it- and legitimately so. And we were about to clean those up- suddenly the Massachusetts election happened, everybody said "Woah! It's over!" Well, no it's not over,” the president said.

The president tried a football analogy--saying health care reform is on the five yard line, close to the end zone.

But the closest he could come to promising a touchdown was to say he won't walk away from the uninsured, which is not exactly leading the charge.

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