Not just Congressional Democrats looking for signs from their cryptic leader, but political junkies and anyone else interested in the healthcare debate was supposed to focus on the State of the Union speech to see what signal came down from on high:

Everyone in, near, or around the debate over the future of health care reform watched very closely last night, waiting for signals in President Obama‘s State of the Union address about the road ahead. Given some of the remarks from lawmakers earlier in the week, the fate of reform would be heavily influenced by what the president had to say.

So, did the president single-handedly save the struggling initiative with one section of one speech? Probably not, but that would be unrealistic anyway. Obama did, however, give reform a much-needed boost, and with some meaningful follow-up, the measure may yet succeed.

My first instinct was that only meaningful follow-up matters. What Obama said or didn’t say in the speech would mean diddly-squat if not followed up with meaningful actions. And if there’s going to be meaningful action, it wouldn’t matter diddly-squat what he said or didn’t say in the speech.

But I came to think better of it. I think Obama could have totally turned the prospects for healthcare reform around with the right statement in his speech.

Paul Glastris used to be President Clinton‘s chief speechwriter and is now the Washington Monthly‘s editor-in-chief. Yesterday, Steve Benen quoted him as saying this is what he would love to hear the President say in the State of the Union speech:

Health care reform is the Super Bowl of issues, we’re on the one yard line, and the other team has walked off the field. Let’s pick up the ball and walk across the goal line.

Here’s what I would have liked to hear:

Now. (Hand-thump on lectern.) There is nothing — nothing — more important to the future of Americans than healthcare reform. And so, here and now, I put my presidency on the line for it. (Hand-thump.) If we Democrats fail to pass meaningful healthcare reform in the next two months (hand-thump), I will resign as President of the United States.

It may sound theatrical and extreme, but you have to grant that it would have guaranteed passage of healthcare reform. The jellywobbling Democrats, already trembling like a stand of aspens over the results of the Massachusetts special election, would do absolutely anything to avoid the specter of Joe Biden serving out the remainder of Obama’s term. If there’s anything that could galvanize them into passing healthcare reform and quickly — instead of finding endless excuses why it cannot be passed, or not anytime soon anyway — this threat would do it.

They were looking for legislative marching orders. This would constitute LEGISLATIVE MARCHING ORDERS, and then some.

(Of course, the opportunity is still there. He may not have the stage of the SOTU address to exploit any more, but if he held a press conference today and made this promise, it would certainly generate as much attention as if he had said it last night with millions of Americans watching him say it.)