For Pelosi, Recess Means Selling Health Plan

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/01/AR2009080101838_2.html?hpid=topnews


House Speaker Nancy Pelosi returned home to San Francisco this weekend carrying a red, white and blue pocket card that will help guide her through the August recess. The card lists talking points she hopes will convince everyday Americans of the benefits they could receive under the health-care reform plan she hatched with other House Democrats last week.

Pelosi distributed the cards to all 256 of her caucus members, arming the unruly Democratic majority for battle in their disparate districts across the country. After laboring for weeks in Washington to reach a compromise between liberal and conservative factions of her caucus, Pelosi is taking the fight outside the Beltway, where polls show that her popularity is faltering. She plans to stump for health-care reform in San Francisco, Denver and other cities.

At stake is legislation that could define her legacy as speaker and shape President Obama's political future. Pelosi called health-care reform with a public insurance option "the issue of an official lifetime."

"August will be a month of inoculation against the negative message of the insurance industry," Pelosi said in an interview, resting in a yellow armchair in her stately office, which has sweeping views of the Mall. "It will be a month of education in terms of what is in our bill. It will be a month of communication -- listening, listening, listening to what constituents have to say."