Air Force One took off from suburban Maryland today at 11:13 a.m. and landed 48 minutes later in Connecticut.
For Sen. Joe Lieberman -- who says he plans to vote no on the president's health-care bill -- it must have felt like a much longer flight. Obama invited Lieberman to the ultimate pressure cooker as he tries to nail down a majority for his top domestic priority.
...there was a public hint of the kind of pressure he is under. When Obama introduced Lieberman at his rally, someone in the audience called out, "Vote yes." Obama, not missing a beat, turned to his traveling partner. "Did you hear that, Joe?" he asked.
Near the end of his speech, Obama said he had told Lieberman on the flight: "You know what? It's been such a long time since we made government on the side of ordinary working folks, where we did something for them that relieved some of their struggles."
This is the presidential bully pulpit at work. Using the full force of the presidency to pressure opponents. Awesome!
UPDATE: Sorry for the typos. Turns out all references to Joe Lieberman were actually Dennis Kucinich.
UPDATE III: I corrected "bullypulpit" to "bully pulpit." It's been used so little recently, the correct spelling escaped me. Thanks for the correction, folks.
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