By Evan Falchuk

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that President Obama has another new sales pitch for reform, which he will roll out today in a call with religious groups.  The theme is expected to be about the “moral imperative” for reform:

“This is such a technical issue, it’s easy to get bogged down in the weeds,” said Dan Nejfelt, a spokesman for Faith in Public Life, one of the groups scheduled for the Wednesday call. “It’s important to have a voice saying, ‘This is about right and wrong. This is about honoring faith.’”

So reform is a sort of “faith-based initiative”?  Well, it’s an idea.

But could it work?

I don’t think so.  Shifting messages won’t calm the fears of those who are wondering what reform is all about.  First, it was about “the most important fiscal issue we face as a country.”  Then, it was not that big of a deal: just some simple reforms to insurance law.  Now, it seems, it is about right and wrong:

A Democratic strategist said, “If you are going to sell something as big and monumental and transformative as health care, you cannot get small with it.  You’ve got to be bigger.  You’ve got to call on the better angels out there.”

But this is a mistake.  The major trouble for reformers is the anxiety that there is something big and transformative planned, and that we’re trying to do it fast, now, right away.  Changing the sales pitch to emphasize how much the reform proposals will transform American health care may be more honest, but it will only create more of the worry it is trying to lessen.