Forget Polls, Mr. President, Ram Through Health Bill

President Obama needs to show some leadership by making sure the health bill passes despite its unpopularity, writes Richard Cohen. Polls show support for reform is falling, but that's because its benefits are either not immediate nor easily communicated via TV newsbites, Cohen writes in the Washington Post. The bill needs to go through simply because it's the right thing to do, he argues.

In a sense, reforms like the Civil Rights Act were "rammed" through, Cohen writes, and health care reform is just as important to people for whom it will make the difference between sickness and health. "The presidency was never intended as a weather vane, turning this way and that on the slight breeze of the latest poll," writes Cohen, urging Obama to "ram the damn thing, Mr. President. Ram it!" (More Roger Cohen stories.)