On Wednesday in Missouri, President Obama delivered his 37th speech promoting his health reform proposal, despite sustained opposition from inside and outside his own party. Previous arguments didn't sell.

In early 2009, he couldn't convince fiscal conservatives with his pitch that "health reform is deficit reduction." In late 2009, middle America wasn't persuaded that 2,000 pages of statutes were necessary to cover pre-existing conditions. Early in 2010, the president tried the "it's time to get it over with" line — and Scott Brown was elected senator from Massachusetts.