CLEVELAND -- A day after pitching health care reform to a prime-time TV audience, President Obama took his show on the road, telling a gathering in Cleveland that Americans have waited too long for affordable insurance. And he said that critics who think he is moving too fast on his sweeping overhaul plans should remember that politicians have been talking about health care reform "since the days of Harry Truman."

But Mr. Obama, speaking at Shaker Heights High School yesterday afternoon, also signaled that he's giving ground on his preferred timetable.

"We just heard today that, well, we may not be able to get the bill out of the Senate by the end of August, or the beginning of August," he said. "That's OK. I just want people to keep on working. ... I want the bill to get out of the committees and then I want that bill to go to the floor and then I want that bill to be reconciled between the House and the Senate, and then I want to sign a bill, and I want it done by the end of this year."

Mr. Obama's remarks came after Senate Democratic leaders officially abandoned hope for a vote on health care before Congress' August recess. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., delivered the official announcement of the delay, which was something Republicans, the minority party in both the House and Senate, had sought. In the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday that her chamber had the votes necessary to pass its version of health care reform.

Mr. Obama insisted that the August timeline had been flexible all along. "I had said let's get this done by August. Now, what I was referring to is let's get bills voted out of the House and the Senate by August. That still means that we'd have to come back in the fall. ... Our target date is to get this done by the fall. That's the bottom line."

Apart from the timetable talk, Mr. Obama covered much of the same material that was discussed during Wednesday's news conference. He said the reforms and programs he puts into place would not add "one dime" to the deficit; that a "health insurance exchange" would allow private insurers to offer affordable medical coverage to the millions of Americans who lack it; and that rising health care costs would bankrupt the government, businesses and families if they continue unabated.

"Just to take the Ohio example, over the past few years premiums have risen -- have risen nearly nine times faster than wages," he said.

Shaker Heights is an affluent suburb, but northeast Ohio in general has suffered during this recession, experiencing long-term declines in its manufacturing and blue-collar job base, much like Western Pennsylvania. It's one of the reasons that the region was selected for Mr. Obama's first major town hall meeting on health care.

Prior to the meeting, Mr. Obama visited the Cleveland Clinic, the nationally renowned hospital system that he praised for its ability to deliver top results at costs that are lower than the national norms.

After his 30-minute speech, the audience in Shaker heights was permitted to ask questions. One young man asked what he could do to speed the process. Mr. Obama told him to call his senators and representatives, "making sure they know this is important -- that's something that everybody here needs to do, because frankly they are hearing from the other side. ... All the folks who are getting ginned up on talk radio and some of these cable news shows, you know, I have to say that they have an effect on members of Congress."

The Shaker Heights crowd, though stuffed in a hot gymnasium, was friendly, but across America, and even across the street, the president still has some convincing to do. About a mile from the school, outside a Shaker Heights shopping center, more than 100 protesters gathered in a steady drizzle, holding signs that said "We don't need Obama care" and several that called the president a socialist.

Even the Cleveland Clinic, the system the president praised early in his speech, is not convinced that it can support Mr. Obama's plan. The Clinic's president and chief executive, Delos Cosgrove, has not rejected the president's reforms, but neither has he endorsed them, saying that "until we know a little bit more about the plan, it's a little difficult to say what direction this goes," according to The Plain Dealer of Cleveland.

Earlier in the day, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag said during a conference call that rising health care costs are hampering the government's ability to pay for other domestic initiatives, and that the president's reforms would actually save the federal government money in the long run.

Reducing overall health care costs will help to reduce per-capita Medicare and Medicaid obligations, he said, "the key to our fiscal future."