A potent alliance of Republicans, church pastors, insurance companies and rightwing media commentators have forced President Barack Obamaon to the road to sell his ideas of health reform in America.

Obama flew to Montana in the west Friday to confront critics at a public meeting and is due to return to the fray again Saturday in Colorado. Both states have a reputation for independence and outspoken individualism.

A network of anti-health care groups have put Obama's proposals in jeopardy with disruptive tactics at public meetings across the U.S. and misrepresentation of his plan, in particular that he wants to encourage euthanasia. Some of the opposition has been orchestrated by the same groups and individuals that successfully blocked President Bill Clinton's health reform plan between 1992 and 1994, including commentators Bill Kristol and Betsy McCaughey. But the growth of the internet has expanded the ability of opponents to spread their message, multiply networks and target public meetings.

The Republican party, on the defensive since its crushing defeat in November's presidential and Congressional elections, sees health care as a first sign of Obama's vulnerability. Much of the damage to the health package is being done by Christian pastors such as Rick Joyner, of the MorningStar ministries based in South Carolina. Joyner, who has a large following, on his website raises the spectre of Hitler and Stalin, a comparison that has entered the mainstream of arguments by opponents of health reform.

Describing the health care bill as diabolical, Joyner writes: "As incomprehensible as it may seem, this is about euthanasia, the power to determine who lives or dies in America. Hitler and Stalin would have loved to have had a means such as this for dispatching the millions they killed. It would have made their job much easier, and probably given them the ability to kill many more than they did. This bill is sinister."