No, that's not President Obama talking about today's national divide on health-care reform. It's President-elect Abraham Lincoln talking about the pre-Civil War animosity over slavery.

Unfortunately, Lincoln's appeal to reason didn't prevail over the generated fervor that led to rebellion. In comparison, Obama's task certainly appears achievable. But it will take all the skills he boasted of having in his election campaign to broker compromise where others might fail.

The president's biggest obstacle continues to be all the misinformation being presented as his health-reform plan. Because Obama is letting Congress write the legislation, political rivals have labeled any idea out of Congress they don't like as being his.

They twist other ideas to sound sinister. Take former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's insistence that the House bill would install "death panels" designed to deny medical care to the elderly and infirm, including her young son, who was born with Down syndrome.

HR 3200 does include a provision for "Advance Care Planning Consultation," but Palin's chatter has apparently intimidated a Senate panel into rejecting this good idea that would allow Medicare recipients to sit down with a counselor at least every five years, or when there has been a significant change in their health, to candidly discuss their medical situation.

Sure, any discussion that could include end-of-life decisions can be scary. But equating it to going before a "death panel" is either ignorant or politically calculated to block health-care reform and allow the status quo to prevail.

This country can't afford the status quo. The American Enterprise Institute reports that if current trends continue, national health spending will double to $4.3 trillion, or 20 percent of the gross domestic product, by 2018. That's 50 percent faster than predicted growth in the economy.

The cost of the private insurance that opponents of a public option want to protect keeps getting higher. AEI says that between 1999 and 2008, premiums for family coverage purchased through an employer increased 3.5 times faster than workers' earnings. Pay raises are hard to get with employers trying to keep up with their share of premiums.

Obama and some members of Congress are to be commended for holding town hall meetings to dispel some of the myths about proposed legislation. These sessions have been good, too, for letting the public vent its fears and hopes for reform. But the lawmakers must not be deterred by the shouting. They have work to do.

Reform is possible if Congress focuses on the areas where they agree. They agree that the 47 million Americans without insurance must be reduced. They agree that those who can afford insurance should get it. Most agree that employers should somehow contribute to help cover workers whose meager pay won't allow them to buy insurance on their own.

The best solution to the insurance-coverage issue should be multipronged. There should be some type of public option for those who cannot get or don't want private insurance. But there should be a variety of options to get private coverage, including multistate insurance exchanges that allow consumers to shop and compare prices and benefits.

The point is, America doesn't have to fight a civil war over health reform. The beast created in the last half-century that feasts on tax dollars and devours deductibles and premiums while snorting at attempts to tie costs to outcomes is formidable. No doubt it will take more than one blow to tame it. But the alternative is not only unacceptable, it's sickening.