Health Care: Obama Faces Uphill Battle

Aug. 21, 2009— -- The Obama administration began the health care reform effort determined to build consensus. It outlined broad goals and invited input from both sides of the aisle. The result: A certain amount of political bedlam.

Now President Obama is sending signals the strategy may soon change.

For the first time, the president publicly accused Republican leaders Thursday of trying to torpedo health care reform.

The president is now vowing to get it done with or without GOP support.

"My commitment to the American people is to get a good product which will include Republican ideas, but I have no control over what the other side decides is their political strategy," Obama said Thursday. "And my obligation to the American people says: We're going to get this done one way or another."

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Obama's approach, until now, had stressed bipartisanship -- mindful of what happened in 1993. That's when Hillary Clinton and her advisers crafted their health care bill behind closed doors and essentially told Congress to take it or leave. They left it.

"My attitude has always been let's see if we can get this done with some consensus," Obama has said. "I would love to have more Republicans engaged and involved in this process."

But Obama now acknowledges that approach seems to have failed.

"I think early on, a decision was made by the Republican leadership that said, 'Look, let's not give them a victory,'" he said in Thursday's radio interview. "Maybe we can have a replay of 1993-94 when Clinton came in. He failed on health care and then we won on the midterm elections. And we got the majority. And I think there are some folks who are taking a page out of that playbook."

"He called out the Republicans in the most direct way yet," ABC News' George Stephanopoulos said Friday on "Good Morning America."

"There's also a limit to how effective this strategy can be," Stephanopoulos added.

New Poll Shows Growing Opposition to Obama's Health Care Plan

Indeed, the shift comes at the same time that a new ABC News/Washington Post poll highlights growing opposition to Obama's health care plan.

By the numbers, less than half of Americans approve of Obama's health care reform plan, with support decreasing steadily since April. Notable within those numbers is a 17-point drop in support from independents.

"Independents liked Obama because they thought he was going to break this partisan gridlock, not intensify it," Stephanopoulos said.

Can a Health Care Bill Pass Without Republican Support?

Technically the Democrats have enough votes to pass a health care plan -- assuming they can agree on the details.

But some members of Obama's party have strong ideas of their own.

In other words, with or without Republicans, every vote is going to count.

That's one reason Sen. Ted Kennedy is urging the Massachusetts governor to appoint a successor if worse comes to worst, even though Massachusetts law requires a waiting period and a special election.

Still, Senate negotiators continue their efforts to get a bipartisan deal. The group held a conference call Thursday night for more than an hour.

"Tonight was a productive conversation," Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., said in a statement after the call. "We discussed our progress and remain committed to continuing our path toward a bipartisan health care reform bill. Our discussion included an increased emphasis on affordability and reducing costs, and our efforts moving forward will reflect that focus.

"We have come a long way, will continue our work throughout August and plan to meet again before the Senate returns in September," Baucus said.

ABC News' Z. Byron Wolf, Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller contributed to this report.