Barack Obama

America’s first-ever African-American commander in chief make a plea to congregations across the land for help in reforming health care. “Throughout our history, whenever we’ve sought to change this country for the better, whenever we’ve sought to promote justice, there have always been those who wanted to preserve the status quo,” he says. “And these struggles always boil down to a contest between hope and fear. That was true in the debate over Social Security, when FDR was accused of being a socialist. That was true when JFK and Lyndon Johnson tried to pass Medicare. And it’s true in this debate today.”