Thursday"s White House"s "Open for Questions" summit was the latest in a line of innovative mediums by which the president has communicated to and with the public. It also was one of the most personal.
At two points during the roughly hour-long session, Barack Obama offered rather intimate autobiographical anecdotes to underscore the need for -- and the administration"s commitment to -- massive health care reform.
The first came during a give and take with an SEIU nurse, who discussed (rather than questioned) the need for preventive care and education. After expressing his "bias" in favor of nurses, Obama brought the topic around to his daughter and the sense of dread he felt when she was diagnosed with meningitis.
"When Sasha, our little precious pea, she got meningitis when she was three months old," said Obama. "The doctors did a terrific job, but frankly, it was the nurses that were there with us when she had to get a spinal tap and all sorts of things that were just bringing me to tears. And we"ve got a problem in this country, which is we have a shortage of nurses."
Later in the session, he was pressed on the need to have insurance companies cover preexisting conditions, and once more dipped into his personal story.
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