SPEECH PREVIEW

Obama's Health-Care Regret

Let GOP "fill up the airwaves [with] nonsense."

President Obama intends to cram a lot into Wednesday's speech to Congress on health care—including a firm call for a public option. The purpose of the speech is to "make sure that the American people are clear exactly what it is that we're proposing," Obama told Good Morning America, as well as "to make sure that Democrats and Republicans understand that I'm open to new ideas, that we're not being rigid and about this thing, but we do intend to get something done this year." Obama also owned that he had "left too much ambiguity" about his plan for health-care reform, which allowed opponents to "fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense." In addition, he charged that Republicans are dusting off their smear playbook from Clinton's 1993-94 health-care campaign and called the much-publicized idea of so-called death panels "ridiculous." Politico also reports that Obama will call for a public option, but not insist that it be included in the final bill.