Grand Junction: President Barack Obama invoked his personal agony over his late grandmother`s death, in his most emotional defence yet of his difficult health care reform drive.
On a western tour mixing high-stakes politics with stops in majestic national parks, Obama said he was fighting a battle of hope over fear against critics who want to thwart his reform drive and stall his presidency.
Obama debated several sceptical members of a Colorado crowd, and fired off high-octane rhetoric reminiscent of his 2008 campaign.
"Because we are getting close, the fight is getting fierce," Obama told a town hall meeting of around 1,600 people packed into a high-school gym here, accusing critics of trying to scare the American people.
"These struggles have always boiled down to a contest between hope and fear," he said, referring to past presidents` crusades for pension and health care reform.
Obama also took another swipe at Republicans who have claimed his plans would include a "death panel" to make fateful decisions to deprive terminally-ill elderly patients of expensive treatments.
"What you can`t do, or you can, but shouldn`t do is say things like we want to set up death panels to pull the plug on Grandma," Obama said.
"I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it`s like to watch somebody you love, who`s aging, deteriorate, and have to struggle with that."
Former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and other Republicans claimed death panels were included in draft Democratic legislation, but the bill would simply allow federal funding for counselling about end-of-life care.
Obama`s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, who partly brought him up in Hawaii, died last year after he paid her an emotional farewell visit in his native Hawaii, just days before he was elected president.
The President`s event here, and a town hall meeting in Montana on Friday were designed to counter what the White House says are waves of "misinformation" about his plans drowning out lawmakers as they hold town hall events in the August recess.
One young man bluntly challenged Obama, saying his plan for a government entity to compete with insurance firms to offer healthcare was not fair and would not work.
Bureau Report
