Ambitions & Ambiguities: A new, new start — but what if you can’t see the lines in the sand?

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: It's just possible that Republicans got their wish.

That "reset" that they've been calling for just might be taking place — albeit not entirely on terms of their choosing.

The narrative of President Obama's message gone flat — of a legislative push that came to shove and is left in chaos — is so well-established that it's primed for a rewrite.

That's where Wednesday night comes in: When the president enters the House chamber at 8 pm ET, he gets another big moment to rescue his biggest legislative initiative.

And it comes as Sarah Palin jumps back into the health care debate — maybe not an opponent Team Obama minds having just now.

For all the noise, the president returns to speak in front of a back-from-break Congress pushing a reform effort that's just about where it was a month ago. The "Gang of Six" is still meeting. There are still five bills pending.

Yes, he's sought new momentum before, again, and again. It hasn't crystallized into law — and yet it all hasn't crumbled into pieces, either.

As for the most-anticipated item . . . asked by ABC's Robin Roberts if the nation will learn whether he would sign a health care reform bill without a public option, the president said: "Well, I think what the country is going to know is exactly what I think will solve our health care crisis."

Roberts asked twice whether the public option is a must-have part of the bill, but Obama didn't answer (and might that be an answer?): "There are some core principles that I've already laid out previously," he said. "We're going to be providing a much more detailed plan," Obama said on "Good Morning America Wednesday.

"There are some principles that, if they're not embodied in the bill, I will not sign it," the president said, citing budget-neutrality (and not the public option).

Mistakes made? "I, out of an effort to give Congress the ability to do their thing and not step on their toes, probably left too much ambiguity out there, which allowed, then, opponents of reform to come in and to fill up the airwaves with a lot of nonsense –everything from this ridiculous idea that we're setting up death panels, to false notions that this was designed to provide health insurance to illegal immigrants," the president said.

Where we (still) stand: Take out the row over the public option (yeah, we know) and you've got broad support for health care reforms — along with broad consensus that something will ultimately get done.

Confidence from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.: "Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation," per ABC's Jake Tapper.

Said Reid (in a sentence where every phrase is worth unpacking): "We're going to do our very best to have a public option or something like a public option before we finish this work."

Tapper, on "GMA": "The White House is confident that if the American people understand what is in the bill, they will support it."

And what happens if the president isn't clear on the public option Wednesday night? What happens in the sandbox if you still can't read all the lines in the sand?

"The White House set a high bar for the rare presidential address to a joint session of Congress, acknowledging the huge stakes and creating big expectations about the level of specificity Obama would provide," the AP's Jennifer Loven reports.

And death panels live — as an argument advanced by you-know-whom: "Given such statements, is it any wonder that many of the sick and elderly are concerned that the Democrats' proposals will ultimately lead to rationing of their health care by — dare I say it — death panels?" Sarah Palin writes in a Wall Street Journal column.

Palin continues: "Establishment voices dismissed that phrase, but it rang true for many Americans. Working through ‘normal political channels,' they made themselves heard, and as a result Congress will likely reject a wrong-headed proposal to authorize end-of-life counseling in this cost-cutting context. But the fact remains that the Democrats' proposals would still empower unelected bureaucrats to make decisions affecting life or death health-care matters. Such government overreaching is what we've come to expect from this administration." (If this was normal, what's abnormal?)

It's another Louisiana Republican offering the formal GOP response: "U.S. Rep. Charles Boustany will step into the national spotlight tonight to offer a rebuttal to President Barack Obama's speech on health care," Jeff Moore writes in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser. "A retired cardiothoracic surgeon, Boustany has emerged as a leading figure in the health-care debate."

Pre-buttal watch: House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are planning a joint news conference around lunchtime Wednesday (after McConnell attends Supreme Court arguments) to discuss "the need for responsible, bipartisan health care reform in advance of the President's address to a Joint Session of Congress."

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., wants separate bills: "The president has a real opportunity, so take a deep breath, and step back. Not try to sell the country on one bill, with one solution with 1300 pages, but instead offer to work on good ideas, good approaches with the whole country, and to do it in a series of smaller bills," Gingrich said in remarks fed out via satellite Wednesday morning.

Your new narrative: "While the month of August clearly knocked the White House back on its heels, as Congressional town hall-style meetings exposed Americans' unease with an overhaul, the uproar does not seem to have greatly altered public opinion or substantially weakened Democrats' resolve," Sheryl Gay Stolberg reports in The New York Times.

"Critical players in the health care industry remain at the negotiating table, meaning they are not out whipping up public or legislative opposition. "Despite tensions between moderate and liberal Democrats, there is broad agreement within the party over most of what a package would look like."

"Depending on how this plays politically, I think there is the foundation for building support for broader legislation," said D r. Mark McClellan, who ran Medicare and the FDA under President George W. Bush.

Time's Michael Scherer and Karen Tumulty: "This is what Barack Obama does. Back him into a corner, get the press in a frenzy, send his poll ratings plummeting, and the aging basketball player responds again and again with the same move: he delivers a major speech. And why not? It keeps working."

What if August wasn't a disaster? "The more I think about the events in August, the more I think of professional wrestling," The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder writes. "Lots of chair shots, blood and taunts, plenty of theater, but at the end of the day, everyone goes back to the locker room, changes out of their tights, and goes to the bar for a drink."

The stakes: "Amid a summer of setbacks, President Obama's speech tonight before a joint session of Congress is a crucial moment that could determine whether he will be able to reestablish his presidency as what John F. Kennedy called the ‘vital center of action' in the government," Peter Nicholas reports in the Los Angeles Times.

The details: "The president is likely to make clear that a government-run insurance plan, known as the ‘public option,' will not provide a level of subsidies that give it an unfair advantage over private insurers, according to aides familiar with the speech preparations," Jonathan Weisman and Janet Adamy report in The Wall Street Journal. "Big questions are likely to remain. Mr. Gibbs said the speech wouldn't be ‘accompanied by truckloads of paper and our own piece of legislation.' "

Back to those questions: "But a Democratic leadership aide who sat in on an administration briefing Tuesday said that while Obama will offer support Wednesday for a public option, the president will not insist on it," per The Hill's Mike Soraghan, Alexander Bolton and Sam Youngman. Said the aide: "I think he's going to be a bit noncommittal."

"He will continue to equivocate like he and his staff have been doing recently," an "informed congressional source" tells the New York Daily News' Kenneth R. Bazinet and Michael McAuliff.

Education time: "White House officials said that Mr. Obama would provide new details of what he would like to see in a final health care measure when he addresses Congress and the nation Wednesday, but that his chief focus would be on conveying to the public the need for a health care overhaul," Carl Hulse and Robert Pear write in The New York Times. 

The headline that should sound familiar: "Obama Speech Aims To Reenergize Effort."

Yet, for context: "Two prominent House Democrats backed away from a public option Tuesday, providing at least some leeway for Obama," The Washington Post's Shailagh Murray and Lori Montgomery report. "Rep. Mike Ross (Ark.), a leader of the 52-member Blue Dog coalition, said he could no longer support a government-run plan, a shift from his position a few months ago that suggests the divide between liberal and conservative Democrats may have widened in the wake of raucous town hall meetings last month. House  Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said he still supports a public option but could back legislation without it — a remark that ran counter to Pelosi's insistence Tuesday that a government plan ‘is essential to our passing a bill.' "From the other side: "We want him to know that his biggest supporters don't just like a public option, we absolutely require it in a health care bill, and would consider anything short of that not ‘change we can believe in,' " Adam Green, cofounder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which organized a rally of Obama campaign staffers and volunteers outside the White House, tells The Boston Globe's Lisa Wangsness.

The PCCC is turning a letter signed by 400 former Obama staffers and 25,000 former Obama volunteers into a full-page ad that will run in The New York Times. A preview is HERE.

"We're not raising a white flag and surrendering on the item," Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., said of the public option, on ABCNews.com's "Top Line" Tuesday.

Knowing the limits: "With Bill Clinton as a guide, the evidence suggests that a good speech, in and of itself, won't do it," ABC Polling Director Gary Langer writes. "One reason cuts to the challenge of presidential speechifying. These addresses to some extent represent an exercise in preaching to the choir, or at best to choir applicants; people who tune in tend to be favorably inclined, or at least willing to lend an ear."

Advice from one who's gone here before: "I wouldn't even worry about the Republicans. I'd worry about executing," Bill Clinton tells Esquire. "All we have to worry about is getting things done and doing them as well as we can. Don't even worry about the Republicans. Let them figure out what they're going to stand for.  'Cause as long as they're sitting around waiting for us to mess up, they don't have a chance."

Oh, and "even though" . . . "Do I think he's doing the right thing, even though he's jamming a lot of change down the system? I do," he said. "So there's a lot that's like my first year, but it's going to have a different ending — he's going to get health care reform."

Advice from one who's been in the inner circle: "I am one of the millions of frustrated Americans who want to see Washington do more than it's doing right now," said Steve Hildebrand, Obama's former deputy campaign manager who oversaw the campaign's field organization, tells Politico's Ben Smith. "I want change just as much as a majority of Americans do, and I'm one of the many Americans who are losing patience."

"Less Spocky, More Rocky," says Maureen Dowd: "In the absence of more vivid presidential leadership, the Democrats have reverted to their old DNA — self-destructive scrapping and spending. . . . Just as he let Hillary b reathe new life into her faltering campaign in New Hampshire, Obama let the moribund Republicans revivify themselves in the slashing image of Limbaugh and Palin."

"Mr. Obama has proved that he can be inspiring. But at this point, what he needs to inspire most of all is fear," Bill Schneider writes for Huffington Post.

Remember when the Senate Finance Committee was the center of the universe? Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., wants finality before he loses relevancy: "The Senate Democrat overseeing negotiations on a bipartisan health care bill said he hopes to reach an agreement in principle on the legislation by the time President Obama begins his speech to Congress tonight," USA Today's John Fritze reports.

New part of the deal? "Now, it seems, malpractice reform may be back in play," ABC's Jonathan Karl reports. "The reason: Olympia Snowe, the sole Republican Senator who seems inclined to support Democrats on health care reform, wants it."

A new Web video from the National Republican Senatorial Committee focuses on the public option: "Government-run health care. . . Democrats in disarray. . . . They pushed a public option. . . The American People rejected them."

Annals of bipartisanship: The Bipartisan Policy Center and Better Health Care Together are sponsoring a forum at The Newseum in Washington Wednesday, starting at 11:30 am ET, focusing on "areas of agreement among political, business and labor leaders in the health reform debate." Featured: Former senator Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Tom Daschle, D-S.D.; SEIU's Andy Stern; and Walmart's Leslie Dach.

Staying put: "Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will announce on Wednesday morning that he will remain as chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, opting not to take over as chairman of the health panel," per The Hill's Silla Brush, J. Taylor Rushing and Jeffrey Young. "Three Washington sources said Tuesday evening that Dodd has decided not to replace the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee."

Fresh on the docket, for your new nine: It's Hillary, the argument. "The Supreme Court returns on Wednesday to consider ending long-standing limits on corporate and union spending in political campaigns — a move critics say could give big money more influence over U.S. elections," Reuters' James Vicini reports. "Proponents say the case, which involves a movie critical of then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, represents a basic issue of free speech. But a decision by the nation's highest court in the case could reshape the rules on how money can be spent in presidential and congressional elections, which already break new spending records with each political cycle."

Shopping for a new cause, anyone? "President Obama's nominee to oversee bioterrorism defense at the Department of Homeland Security has been nagged since the early 1990s about her membership with a reading group that once described itself as Marxist," the Washington Times' Amanda Carpenter reports. "Dr. Tara O'Toole, whose confirmation as undersecretary of science and technology is pending, came under fire from conservatives in 1993 when she revealed she belonged to a study group called the Northeast Feminist Scholars, originally known as the Marxist-Feminist Group 1."

On Sen. Mel Martinez', R-Fla., last day, a rough start already for his successor: "Democratic U.S. Rep. Kendrick Meek joined union workers Tuesday in blasting incoming Republican Sen. George LeMieux over his law firm's role in bringing in Mexican laborers to build a high-rise hotel and condominiums in Miami," Beth Reinhard reports in The Miami Herald.

Latest Mass. maneuverings: "Republican Christy Mihos said last night that he is on the verge of dropping his campaign for governor to run for the US Senate, adding to a frenzied day of political activity as the field of contenders for the seat of Edward M. Kennedy came into sharper focus," Frank Phillips reports in The Boston Globe.

"Amid the jockeying, a new name emerged from outside the sphere of politics: Alan Khazei, the 48-year-old cofounder of City Year, the nationwide community service program for young adults, said he was seriously considering jumping into the Democratic primary. Though Khazei lacks experience in elective office, he would have access to liberal donors, the ability to deploy an army of young campaign activists, and the possibility of claiming the Kennedy mantle of public service."

Plus: Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., is making a play to the left — and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., is among the last big names on the fence, with former Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., out.

From the comeback files: "Former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley was scheduled to tape the first broadcast of a new radio show he's launching from Palm Beach County. ‘Inside the Mind of Mark Foley' was billed by the station as a program that ‘will expose the inner workings of Washington D.C.' It will air for the first time on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. on WSVU 960 AM," per the Palm Beach Post's Michael C. Bender.

The Kicker:

"During these incredibly changing times, it's important that we hear the voice of a true Washington D.C. insider." — WSVU-AM General Manager Chet Tart, announcing the hiring of Mark Foley.

"At this point, you know everything about me." — Former Gov. Eliot Spitzer, D-N.Y., at his weekly lecture at CCNY.

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