4.  Obama Will Specify Details of Health Care Plan

According to a White House spokesman, President Obama will outline the specifics of his health care plan at some point next week. In the wake of violent town halls and wild public speculation, Obama has come under increased pressure to clarify the plan's goals and diffuse concern about costs. Yesterday, former Sen. Bob Dole wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post exhorting the president to lay out a specific set of proposals and to relinquish his role as "cheerleader in chief." Now, the Atlantic's Marc Ambinder reports, Obama will do so when he returns from vacation. Officials have refused to comment on whether the president will support a public option, but they have said that he will specify his preferred "pay for" method and rearticulate his support for certain goals, including anti-discrimination restrictions on insurance companies. The president will also "rebrand" certain initiatives—like insurance reform—in order to make the plan more politically viable.

Read original story in The Atlantic | Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009