WASHINGTON – For more than a year, President Obama has tailored his rhetoric on health care to focus on the passage of sweeping legislation. In each of his 54 speeches on the subject, the goal has always been the same: getting a bill to his desk.

But his remarks to House lawmakers Saturday afternoon – full of emotion and references to history even before the final votes have been cast – betrayed a new ambition: selling the benefits to the American people once the congressional battle is over.

The president was careful not to explicitly declare victory. Yet his comments all but assumed that a new reality will soon be official.

“Is this the single most important step that we have taken on health care since Medicare?” Obama said. “Absolutely.”

Later, he said: “It turns out that, in fact, people who like their health insurance are going to be able to keep their health insurance, that there’s no government takeover. If they like their doctor, they will be able to keep their doctor. In fact, they will be more likely to keep their doctor because of a stronger system.”

Obama’s speech, which cable news networks carried live, appeared designed to begin the pivot toward the fall elections. And it demonstrated to nervous lawmakers how they might rehabilitate the legislation among skeptical constituents.

Obama’s advice Saturday to Democrats was unambiguous: When you are campaigning this fall, sell this new law as a mainstream, middle-class, middle-of-the-road effort, not the radical approach that opponents have described.

“It will turn out that this piece of historic legislation is built on the private insurance we have now and runs straight down the center of the American political fault line,” he said.

The president predicted that the GOP would have a tougher time criticizing the legislation after it became law.