POLITICAL NEWS Analysis

President Barack Obama and his opponents are searching for bite sized, focused and compelling mes sages that will win over the voters who polls show remain up for grabs

Obama and his foes are going at it hard during the congressional break in August, a raucous, pivotal month when the public and lawmakers are deciding whether to support his drive to reshape the health system.

At a town hall meeting last week in Portsmouth, N.H., Obama said, “If you don’t have health insurance, you will finally have quality, affordable options once we pass reform. If you do have health insurance, we will make sure that no insurance company or government bureaucrat gets be tween you and the care that you need.”

He said people could keep their current doctors and health plans and not have to wait in lines. He promised his plan would help the economy without worsening the federal deficit. He denied it would encourage eu thanasia of older people or cuts in their Medicare coverage.

His comments a jumble of play ing offense and defense showed how tricky it is to concisely explain how people would benefit from re shaping the $2.5 trillion health sys tem. The search for the right message is complicated by all those who, ac cording to polls, like the general idea of an overhaul but are fairly satisfied with their own health coverage.

Obama and his strategists are “on their heels a little bit right now, but I don’t think it’s a permanent condi tion,” said Chris Jennings, a Demo cratic lobbyist. He advised President Bill Clinton on health care and was among several Democrats who said the White House message must get clearer. “I think they’re recalculating and refocusing.”

Republicans and other opponents have had it easier, in a way. It usually is simpler to attack than defend. Most notably, they have sprinkled their ad vertising and speeches with familiar, poll tested catch phrases.

A TV ad the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just began airing in about 20 states warned of “inflated taxes, swelling deficits and expanded gov ernment control over your health.” House GOP leaders sent lawmakers home for the summer break with packets lambasting Obama’s “gov ernment takeover of health care.”

Former hospital executive Rick Scott, who heads the big spending Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, distributed a memo citing “less choice, long waiting lists and denial of needed treatments for patients.”

Such attack lines have a strong ap peal to conservatives who comprise the core of the GOP. It is unclear how persuasive they are to centrist voters.

“What you’re watching is a devel oping process” in which both sides are refining their messages, said David Winston, a GOP pollster who has worked with his party’s congres sional leaders. “This issue has been extraordinarily difficult to understand over the years.”

Supporters and opponents have been preparing their health messages for a long time, relying on polling, focus groups, testing of ads and plain old experience.

Reflecting a consensus that Dem ocratic rhetoric during Clinton’s failed health care effort of 1993 and 1994 focused too heavily on the unin sured, the White House has stepped up arguments that its proposals would help those already covered.

Every word can make a differ ence. Democrats talk about “afford ability,” not “cost containment,” which might suggest cuts in services. “Coverage for all” is better than “uni versal” coverage, which has echoes of government controlled care.

Resurgent Republic, a GOP strat egy organization, is advising Repub licans to focus on concerns that a health overhaul could increase budget deficits, raise taxes and push people into government run cover age. The group is urging Republicans to propose alternative proposals they have offered several because people’s top economic worry is their rising health costs.

During Congress’ August vaca tion, those opposed to an overhaul have disrupted lawmakers’ town hall meetings.

Many see it as a crucial month as legislators gauge whether the uproar is orchestrated as Obama backers insist or if people are lumping the roughly $1 trillion health effort to gether with the unpopular Wall Street and Detroit bailouts and the eco nomic stimulus package into a gigan tic symbol of big government run amok.

In an interview, senior Obama ad viser David Axelrod said the public thinks changes are needed and the White House has a strong argument to address that desire.

“If I had one line to say, it’s that we want to bring stability and secu rity to health care so people could know they can count on it and it will be there when they need it,” he said.

For both sides, the weeks are dwindling to get their messages right.