Democrats’ attempts to coordinate health-care message leave Republicans scratching their heads

Given the severe obstacles in the way of any bill passing through either chamber at this point, especially given the political climate in the country, Republicans were left to guess what the White House strategy might be.

“Far more interesting than the substance of the new proposal … is trying to understand what Team Obama is trying to do with it,” wrote Keith Hennessey, a top economic adviser in the Bush White House, on his blog. “I struggle to understand how the president’s new proposal is relevant to any serious attempts at legislating if he cannot deliver either House or Senate Democrats in support of it.”

For all the talk of pushing a bill through the Senate through reconciliation and with only a 51-vote requirement, the biggest challenge for Democrats may be the House, where Democrats already need to make up one vote to get to their 218-vote threshold, and could face the prospect of conservative Democrats who voted for the bill the first time defecting out of fear for their political future.

“I can’t figure it out. They took a bad bill and made it worse,” said a senior Republican Senate leadership aide.

The Obama proposal – the first actual specific offer by the president in the more than year-long debate – left the Senate bill largely intact but removed a few of the provisions that were most politically unpalatable and added new government powers to regulate health insurance rates.

Obama’s plan does not include a public option, which fails to win over liberal lawmakers who voted against it the first time for that reason.

“I voted against it when it didn’t have a public option. Without a public option there’s nothing to talk about,” said Rep. Dennis Kucinich, Ohio Democrat, in an interview.

Obama adopted the same language on abortion as the Senate bill, which would alienate another block of pro-life Democrats.

For example, a spokesman for Rep. Daniel Lipinski, Illinois Democrat, who opposed the Senate bill because of its abortion language, said he opposed the president’s plan for the same reason.