I’m noticing that Obama is stuck with this strange split as he holds these events to promote his health-care overhaul legislation. Overall, his theme is that time is of the essence, the bill must be passed now, there’s no time to wait, etc. But when he’s confronted with controversial provisions, like the requirement that Medicare must now cover consultations on end-of-life care (which some fear is a backdoor to assisted suicide), he insists that it’s nothing to worry about, since the bill is still evolving: “We’re still having a whole series of negotiations, and that may be something that members of Congress will want to take a second look at . . .”

We have to hurry up, except when we review the bill carefully and take out the bad parts . . .