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People are chattering today about this hippie-punching passage from the President’s press conference.
“This is the public option debate all over again,” the president said. “So I pass a signature piece of legislation, where we finally get health care for all Americans, something that Democrats have been fighting for for a hundred years, but because there was a provision in there that they didn’t get, that would have affected maybe a couple of million people, even though we got health insurance for 30 million people and the potential for lower premiums for 100 million people, that somehow that was a sign of weakness and compromise.”
This notion that everyone loves the health insurance bailout bill except “they” (liberal purity trolls) seems to be a real idee fixe for Obama, and I’m not sure why.
A new study by SurveyUSA puts support for a public option at a robust 77 percent, one percentage point higher than where it stood in June.
On the issue that has been perhaps the most pronounced flash point in the national debate, 57 percent of all Americans now favor a public insurance option, while 40 percent oppose it.
Just 34% of voters nationwide support the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats if the so-called “public option” is removed.
Now, the President clearly has his fee-fees hurt that Americans aren’t clapping loud enough for his health insurance industry-friendly bill. But it’s not unpopular because liberals perceive it as a “sign of weakness and compromise.”
It’s unpopular because it forces people to become paying customers of Aetna and WellPoint without giving them the ability to fire them when they get screwed. And get screwed they will. Put another way, it does nothing to break up the pernicious cartel that is running our health industry like a criminal racket.
And as Jon Walker points out — there’s nothing stopping the Democrats from adding a public option in now.
Stop blaming liberals, Mr. President. You got the bill you wanted and the majority of Americans don’t like it. And PS, complaining about how we just don’t appreciate the things you’ve done for us makes you sound weak.
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Obama’s not so fine whine does not improve with age
Leave Obama alooooooooooooooooooooooooone!
Talk about pouting baby….
Because it’s DC’s favorite bipartisan pastime? What else would one expect of the Blue Dog in Chief?
Fixed it for ya.
Well now at least the Repukes can stop worrying about Palin winning the nomination in 2012– even she can beat Obama.
Palin/Huckabee 2012!
30 million people with health insurance as a consequence of his vaunted health insurance reform bill? (Source)
Then why has the number of uninsured gone UP to 59 million Americans as of November 2010? This is actually 4 million MORE than this time last year.
As for ‘potential for premiums to go down’ — we all know how that’s gone. The double-digit percentage increases have, if anything, accelerated.
If the health care bill had been left up to Obama and his Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel there would have been no bill at all. It was Nancy Pelosi who pushed this bill through the House, bad as it is, against the wishes of the WH. The WH didn’t actually want a bill passed. They wanted its failure to be passed as an issue to bash the Republicans with. Obama just keeps on lying. Peace
Maybe he’s using Rove’s math as well as his tactics.
Reminds me, sorta, of how Bush said he’d expected the Iraqi people would A) be more grateful and B) show their gratitude more often.
Thank you, Leader Obama, for raising my taxes, as a poor person, when you said no one’s taxes would go up on January first. Thank you, Leader Obama, for crafting a bill that forbids me from getting my prescription drugs more cheaply across the border. Thank you, Leader Obama, for not prioritizing my rights in the workplace, as a gay man. Thank you, Leader Obama, for ensuring that my surviving spouse won’t have any right to my Social Security widows’ pension. Thank you, Leader Obama, for letting the chance for open service to slip away.
See, there’s LOTS to be grateful for! We just need to be more vocal in our gratitude, as Leader Bush asked of the Iraqi people.
He may be right. We are the ones pointing out the huge problems with the bill. And we are using- wait for it- FACTS!
He’s thrown us to the insurance wolves and he can feel our resentment and anger for that. He inflates the significance of what he has done, placing it on the same level with Medicare and Social Security. That’s over stating his achievements.
You’re all a bunch of sancimonious purists! Sheesh! It was signature legislation, okay? Get off his back. It’s hard enough for him to play basketball without us riding him.
I don’t think they’d cooperate with the PTB who decide who the candidates are…just sayin’…very likely a combination of Jeb and somebody else…like Liz Cheney, because the PTB will demolish Palin and Huckabee but won’t lay a hand on the other two. I hope that doesn’t happen, but I think that is why we have President Contrarian.
My gosh, I’d forgotten that. At least Bush wasn’t self destructive about it. The people he used to badmouth weren’t ever going to be in a position to vote for or against him.
Yeah! He gets hit hard enough shooting hoops to have us busting his chops too!
So, when did this happen?
Obama is lying or delusional.
“potential for lower premiums ”
lol. i love this line. He basically admits it won’t happen, but it could, though. didn’t.
I have less of a problem with corruption than I do with incompetence – how many votes did he buy with his precious compromises?
Why did he push for a tax on health plans that he bashed McCain for and push for mandates that he bashed Hillary for? Those were the 2 least popular parts of HCR, he turned on his supporters and made the bill worse, and in the end, got no republicans – who forced him to do that?
If you looked at his demeanor hippie bashing versus hostage taking, it looks like he is passionate about the former, and the latter was a line he was forced to say.
Agree with you. I think Palin’s just gonna be “used” as bait ‘n switch in the primary to rouse her slavering worshippers. The PTB ain’t gonna let Palin be POTUS. Jeb and MiniMeLiz… gulp: yep; quite possible.
Obama is being paid good money, and lots of it, to make the left the enemy.
Yeah, and who cares if a couple million of the “all” don’t get it…Does he even review his speechifying…does he still have that kid writing for him??
Um…because it’s so spectacularly good in every conceivable way, and the dirty fucking hippie purists just can’t seem to grasp that fact?
Just spit-balling here…
Yeah. That’s why I had to perform surgery on my own ass last week. Fucking assclown.
That’s bullshit. The kabuki queen ended up pushing thru the obama/baucus bill without the public option. It was a bill that had the same parameters that obama just happened to negotiate with the various health care corporate entities. obama got what he wanted. The pharmas got what they wanted. The hospitals got what they wanted. The health insurance companies got what they wanted. And pelosi delivered for all of them.
Z
Yeah good analogy to the Iraqi’s who allegedly were going to shower our troops with rose petals when WE invaded THEIR country.
How delusional was that?? About as delusional as Obama is right now, but as you say: Obama’s screwing US citizens, not Iraqi citizens.
Obama and his cronies appear to be in full panic mode. That performance yesterday was pathetic and disjointed. Some of it made no sense at all. They are, IMO, beginning to feel the pressure.
Obama blames liberals for his HCR bill’s unpopularity because we are always the conveniently bestest fall guy evah!! How do I know that?? Because RushGlennSarahBilloSean said so. And *clearly* Obama very much agrees with RushGlennetc. Get the picture? I did: loud & clear.
Blame the dirty fucking hippies for everything. Nobody likes them anyway. Sanctimonious purists who are always right about everything.
Did you have to use a mirror?
Why does he keep doing it? Because he was selected to destroy the Democratic Party by alienating its base while delivering all can to the ruling elites.
Remember, the people he tries to please, the people he APOLOGIZES to, are the people who will NEVER vote for him.
That sure sounds elitist to me: only the “guardians” in Plato’s The Republic were allowed to have medical care. We commoners are not considered worthy of saving.
Two in fact. One to see and one to provide enough light.
Meaning they’ll act even nastier to the DFHs aka PLs. I can hardly wait.
You must be extremely coordinated and dexterous, to boot. So to speak.
Or maybe extremely desperate but I’ll admit that my years as an F-14 airframe tech served me well. There are a lot of places in that airframe that you have to use a mirror or just feel what you’re doing. A good skill to have as it turns out.
I imagine so. Let him. He will begin to look like a nut.
Yeah, I expect name calling soon.
He looked like a real shit when he walked up on stage yesterday. Kinda self-righteous, and sassy looking. Then he proceeded to lie, and make shit up for awhile, and finished it with chewing out the very folks that would normally be most likely to vote for him???
Fascinating leadership style. Lets see how that HopeyChangey thing works out for him in 2012.
Thank you. Well done!
The insurance industry, providers and PHARMA have three years remaining to sc**w us royally before all the provisions of the Bill kick in and they have already begun with skyrocketing cost increases that will price many many more people out of the market. By the time the Bill is inacted (if it ever is) it will be so unpopular every politician from BOTH Parties will be begged to shelve it for something else and every middle class American will qualify for a subsidy which we can’t afford. Without cost containment and competition, of which HCR, has neither, it is designed to crash and burn. I worked my tail off to get this President elected and today, I wouldn’t buy a car from him.
Hope you did as good a job on your posterior as I’m confident you did on those jets.
AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen Blue Texan:
There is an echo in here,we all know how disingenous it is for Obama to be pointing to healthcare “reform” as a success or the public option as bein’ ideological purity. The real topical question now is: is there enough muscle in the House progressive caucus and are there enough intelligent Democrats in the Senate to blow the entire tax issue out of the water and let ‘em all expire?
What the state of play on this issue in the Congress since it doesn’t appear that Obama or anyone in his administration has a clue?
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION, THEY HAVE THE FINAL SOLUTION ALL LINED UP FOR US!!
Fixed it for ya.
Obama called his health care reform bill “signature legislation.” I agree. It has the health insurance industry’s signature all over it.
Great post, Blue Texan, thank you.
LMAO! Me too! I never lost a bird, hopefully I won’t lose my ass!
This caught my ear, too.
I thought to myself “there’s always been a potential for lower premiums. The insurance companies can price-fix however they see fit!”
“we finally get health care for all Americans”
He lies like his predecessor, the worst President ever. I guess we should be happy that the monster-lovers only listen to the right wing noise machine. If they were paying attention, they’d recognize that Obama is the Republican dream: someone who can fool Democrats into believing he is one of them.
Unless a 3rd party candidate wins the 2012 election, the Republicans will hold the White House either with their pet monster or the one who currently occupies it.
If Obama thinks all this is bad, wait until the future historian excoriate him for doing nothing nothing about climate change.
Citizen Twain:
I agree, I think that Obama is a one-termer and he knows it. Time to get out to the party caucuses and ORGANIZE, Citizen.
The inverse to the incorrect statement by the presididn’t that “all Americans have insurance” is that now the insurance companies will “have” all us poor saps in the bag.
I am pretty sure that commenter is referencing the fact that Rahm urged Obama to give up altogether after the Massachusetts election.
The point being even if you concede that this is the most awesome bill ever, the responsibility for it does not lie with Obama (he’s a constitutional scholar, remember?)
This country, sir, was NOT founded on compromise. my two cents here.
I lost my ass once. Police found it at the Dew Drop Inn.
Good one.
Barack Obama:
Might
As
Well
Be
Bush
So…what are they going to do to people who can’t pay the imposed premiums after they try to sic the IRS on them….and then they can’t pay the fines obviously either…put them/us in camps or prisons or just garnish wages….?
Bring out yer dead…
I would die of embarrassment if the cops found my ass at a place called “The Dew Drop Inn”. Ugh!
Yeah, just don’t touch that Pentagon budget when push comes to shove. It’s a sacred cow creamer.
The “Public Option’ you still seem to believe in was conceived and executed as a marketing ploy to divert well meaning people away from the real fix, Single Payer, H.R. 676.
it served it’s purpose well, thanks to gullible (D) captured ‘pragmatists’ and their message discipline.
getting ridiculous, (D) still referring to this nebulous phantom as if it could be ‘real’ again - it never was real!
Probably repeal laws requiring emergency rooms to treat everybody. The Republican Congress will take that up. The Democrats will vote for it. Watch
I don’t see anything change when the rest kicks in.
They have loopholes for everything so far and I don’t see that changing.
Assuming that’s true, do you think his current tack (which really doesn’t seem substantively different than his previous tack), is to cozy up to the ruling class even more, to get while the gettin’ is good? Admittedly, I am jaded and cynical, but I can’t help but wonder.
Nice to see you back in these parts, Norske.
They’re not giving new enrollees the option to NOT buy insurance.
My wife just got promoted at work to a position with actual benefits and was told by her HR rep that she had to select an insurance option because of the Health Care Reform Laws. She was told she had no choice.
Well fortunately, nobody dropped anything in.
White House economist Larry Summers just said failing to pass the Obama-McConnell deal, will ”materially increase the risk the economy will stall out and we will have a double dip.”
Isn’t that saying tax cuts are good for the economy?
Good! Talk about FOD!
Doonesbury strip, May 20, 1974
Of course in this modern world, the weekly address is done via the net. That’s called “change”.
I think he’s going after a slice of the citizens united pie and setting himself up with a sweet lawyering gig with BP, Pharma, AHIP (insert corporate overlord here).
O/T: I just had a large hole drilled into a tooth, and the local anesthetic is starting to wear off.
Maybe that health care plan will miraculously make the pain disappear. That’s gonna be great. In the meantime, damn that thing hurts. This dude must have been trying to dig to China, or something…
O’s got 2 daughters he’s got to provide $3 billion weddings for. Let’s get our priorities straight, please.
Trudeau had Nixon down, didn’t he?
Sounds just about right.
Nothing has changed in 10 years, and there might be a double dip, because nothing will change with the bill, and so passing the bill will prevent a double dip. Right. That makes a lot of sense.
I hope he’ll send me wedding pictures under my bridge.
Citizen Shoto:
I think that given what we now know about Obama and who he really is and who he really represents, the best thing that could have happened this last election was the loss of the House and the virtual elimination of the Blue Dogs as a force in the Democratic Caucus. The hollowed out structure of the Democratic Party in the states since ObamaRahma dismantled Howard Dean’s DNC, leaves us a great opportunity to get a real Democrat nominated in 2012 and to take back the House and increase the Senate majority if we let Obama and the Fascists take responsibility for the collapse of the economy that is comin’ in the next 2 years.
A good sign that Trudeau was nailing it was the fact that the local daily rag moved him off the comic pages and buried him somewhere else.
Don’t tell me you’re not funny.
Carlin is laughin’ his ass off … somewhere, Margaret.
Humor that knows the pain has got real power.
You be verra verra good funny.
DW
Um, sorry. Gotta have internet & pay $1 million/year for priority service to see the wedding pics.
On edit: O will get $100 for each pair of eyeballs on the wedding pics. Wonder why Bill didn’t think of that.
O is a classic narcissist. He cannot take criticism. It’s why he says he is not ideological. He has no core values or beliefs outside of his own power, gain and well-being. And he does not like to be called on his mistakes one little bit.
$1 million a year? I think we need more tax cuts! How else will we afford the internet and healthcare?
Yes, an esteemed member of the Obama Brains Trust and all around misogynist.
Yup. That’s the plan. Save the economy with tax cuts. If taxes go to zero, and the Fed finances the entire government with monetization, prosperity will shower down like manna from heaven.
Summers is a clueless idiot.
What we need to do is outsource the wedding to Korea! Then you can buy the photos at Walmart (sterling silver frames with lead accents!) for a much more affordable price!
Maybe, but I think everything he does is meant to help his re-election.
As his number continue to drop, he is becoming more and more desperate.
Gotta niece like that. Only diff between her personality & O’s is that she starts attacking you before you even open your mouth to criticize her.
“Stop blaming liberals, Mr. President. You got the bill you wanted and the majority of Americans don’t like it.”
I was just thinking that, for someone who has gotten so much fo what he wanted, president Obama sure is unhappy.
He wanted to force people to buy private insurance, and he got it. He wanted a small stimulus, and he got it. He wanted more offshore oil drilling and got it. Most of all, he wanted to be Mister Bipartisan and boy is he getting that.
So why is he lashing out at people? Strange.
P.S. Can’t spend too much time around here ‘cuz I’m doin a bit of moonlightin’ and I get too pissed off readin’ some a the chatter among the “cool kids” around here.
Chelsea cheated him by not getting married until she was almost 30.
i remember that one. heh. i wish we had more creative people like him; he’s a national treasure.
The only poll that counts is the one taken on election day, all the rest are meaningless, and in the election day poll the voting public quite clearly favored no form of HCR at all, and especially not single payer. Every Republican elected in both the House and Senate is 100 percent against single payer and 90 percent against any reform at all. All the polls in the world can’t change that fact. If people really felt that single payer was the way to go, they would vote that way. Since they don’t, obviously something is wrong with these polls.
Sadly a nation of ignorant rednecks chooses to wallow in their ignorance. A reasonable person cannot blame Obama and the Democrats for that.
But there is hope, turn to the states, I believe californiaonecare.org is coming, and as goes Cali, so goes the rest of the nation.
That’s most definitely where we should be aiming. It’s going to take discipline, though. More than that, it’s going to take getting everyone reading off the same hymnal. That, I’m afraid, will be akin to herding cats. One thing I can say about the fascists is that they’re very good at maintaining party discipline, although the baggers might throw a wrench into their (usually well-oiled) machine…which would create a very large opportunity for the sane people to exploit. Again…discipline and focus.
OT, but not really.
Just got back from a jaunt to town. Flipped the dial over to see what Rushbot was saying. “Pension Plans for the Unemployed with Health benefits.” Then he went on to do his regular banter about stupid, lazy, poor people wanting something for nothing.
Copy that.
I’ve been saying forever that all politicians are something of narcissists but Obama raises it to an art form. he thinks he’s worthy of adoration just on the grounds that he got elected. That reminds me of another Doonesbury strip where Bush Sr. was facing election defeat and was saying “What happened to my nice, shiny (Persian Gulf) victory?”
You know, Chelsea will be old enough to run for Prez in five years. One or two terms for Jed, then two for Chelsea. Unfortunately, by that time we will be out of Bushes and Clintons. Where ever can America look for leadership besides two families?
ok, i’m going to get flamed for this because i’m such a vocal atheist, but you know what else he is?
a Leo.
i’ve dated a mess of those, and yeah: it’s always all about them. there are good Leos, the kind who are leaders and independent thinkers and blaze a path and provide an inspiring example, “Follow me into the Future!” and there are bad Leos, like Obama is showing himself to be. “Love me, love my show! or i’ll call you names! your opinion means nothing because i’m better than you!”
i wonder if he treats Michelle like he treats us. i hope not, for her sake.
It’s abput 99 percent more likely your scenario will result in President Palin, or did you not notice the Democrats just lost the House and would have lost the Senate were it not for Angle and the other crazy woman in Delaware.
The trosseaux truth, eCAHN?
The legacy class IS expensive, especially for the recently “arrived”.
Barack shall have to curb the hissy side of his nature, however, as it is not considered as especially coth by the “right crowd … and no crowding” set.
DW
David Eisenhower/Julie Nixon… hahaha They were on Colbert last night.
See: Dodd, Chris…
Oooo. L. Summers is saying this tax cut is critical to US economy.
Can he get anymore on the GOPterror train without driving it?
I loved the depiction of Larry Summers in The Social Network (well worth seeing for many other reasons as well).
Don’t worry. After Chelsea come Malia and Sasha.
He is driving it.
What I think the Pres doesn’t understand is this:
He lied to us. He let millions of Americans work hard for the inclusion of the PO for close to a year after he had dealt it away. People spent time and money trying to get the PO, his campaign idea, into the legislation and he let Lieberman, et al, tank it at the eleventh hour. HE KNEW it was dead. HE KNEW he had to kill it, yet he let millions work their asses off trying to get it. He didn’t fight for it. How could he?
THAT’S what pisses people off about his wonderful legislative triumph. Doesn’t he get that? Apparently not.
Expanding the Imperial Rotation for four families. That’s a pretty radical idea.
And O didn’t even condescend to show up at Chelsea’s wedding.
This is probably a good time to point out that not so long ago I was called a moderate Democrat. For nearly twenty years, before the rise of Obama, I considered myself a moderate Democrat.
Obama and his White House can label people like me whatever they like in their effort to dismiss us. The fact is that they are the ones who’re out of the mainstream on a whole host of issues.
Well, then we can all put away those deficit stop signs for the train. It is not slowing down a bit.
I’m not going to flame you, I have too much respect for you for that. I am going to snicker quietly into my hand though. ;)
Of course not! it wasn’t about him.
Malia won’t be old enough until 33, which means she can’t run until the 36 election.
Odd how little attention the professional political tea-leaf readers paid to that interesting little ..um factoid.
Some of them must have noticed.
Ah, the weebs we wave …eCAHN.
DW
8 years of the Decider, now 4 years with the Enabler.
Looks like Niel Bush then…
it’s a little more complicated than that. yes, the “ignorant rednecks” showed up in force. but the other thing that happened? people on the real left stayed home, or voted for third party candidates. because they couldn’t support today’s “democratic” party as it sells out the country to the richest 2%. it’s not terribly surprising that actual liberals and progressives don’t want to vote for blue dog neorepublicanism, even if the candidates have a (D) after their names.
obama is acting like a whiny narcissist right now because there are one or two actual science based analysts in his inner circle who are showing him that data. “you actually need your base, Sir.” and like the narcissist he is, he’d rather throw a temper tantrum than address that simple fact.
You can bet the next will be 4-8 years of the Eliminator.
Precisely. Narcissists have no use for anybody but their admirers.
So Neil needs to take off some time from working with the Moonies? Boy, we’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, here.
It’s a crisis of succession, I tell you!
Good, then I’ll be dead anyway.
Hmm, if the third horseman starts with an “A” and the fourth with a “D” …
What will we be?
Merely disgusted ?
Rapture me up, Scotty.
DW
obama came out and promoted this bill once the pressure for the public option began to build … he wanted to get it passed before it was politically untenable to get passed without a public option … and the kabuki queen complied.
The posters comment that I replied to that contended that pelosi passed the bill against the wishes of the white house is complete nonsense … she passed it to please the white house.
Z
don’t make me come over there and perform surgery on you. ;-)
heh, it’s that oddest of things that almost never happens: when being gay and an atheist don’t harmoniously go together. one of my Boys does tarot readings, and i’m a big fan of this book on signs one of my gfs has. it’s something i can’t seem to completely let go of, it’s too fun being a gay mystic every once in a while (usually when smoking a blunt)
A good blunt always helps my credulity as well. :-)
Those are the cheap ones. People in the know prefer DU accents.
When I worked on the Samm Simpson campaign in 06 the local Dem Party apparatchiks were mostly Blue Dogs, some even working on Bill Young’s campaign for years. Some younger folks got involved in the Party and 4 years later there are no Blue Dogs left on the board or executive committee. Local Party is left now, not enough for my liking, but left. It ain’t easy but definitely doable.
If this war against the middle class continues, we may have Chicago 1969 all over again. There’s a limit to how much the people will take.
Someone needs to tell him that the crappy bill that was passed was a Democrats/White House only bill. All the watering down, all the compromising, all the running around the desk with Olympia Snowe, hoping to melt her frosty Maine heart and get even just one Republican vote, in order to give it the sine non qua to be labeled “bi-partisan” was for naught. How extremely pathetic.
I also wonder if any of his inner staff has told him that it is now common knowledge that he and his White House personally intervened early to kill off the public option and drug negotiation and re-importation. It is a kindness to label his actions “weakness and compromise”. I can think of much stronger terms.
68. We need some folks like Malcolm X to shake up the AA community. Rev Dr Jeremiah Wright needs to return to the pulpit and wake ‘em up.
There is no doubt that after the Enabler, the Eliminator will be there to show us “all” how its done as we creep closer to fascism. I believe the hallmark will be once the the borders get ultra-militarized and drone attacks are done on the borders of Mexico and US daily for the sake to “keep illegals out” because our broken system can’t handle its very own citizens, but everyone will know that this is just a pretense to begin the land grab of Mexico for more and cheaper resources to include labor and eventually a broader tax base to keep this MIC ponzi scheme going. The Eliminator will probably by this point would go full bore with Israel and continue to mire the middle east with continuous localized warfare in order to continue the sale of weapons, one of the few things we still make in the good ol’ USofA.
Don’t think it can happen? The seeds are already being planted on the propaganda machine called Foxnews with its incessant coverage of the drug wars in Mexico and continually calling it a failed state.
“Judge a man not by the color of his skin but rather by the content of his character,” Martin Luther King
Obama is a worthless, lying piece of shit. People hate the so called health reform because it too is a worthless piece of shit.
How do you think the police and the courts will respond this time, Twain?
And “Homeland Security” … which will involve the military?
Any excuse for “government” to go violent will likely be exploited.
A larger question is how many lawyers, in the legal profession, not in Congress, will side with the people?
DW
who else is he supposed to blame? he had a great scam: cut lucrative deals with the crooks behind closed doors while claiming he was battling industry interests in public. the republicans played along faithfully. the press was on board. how did all those rubes figure out what was going on? who kept bringing up campaign promises? how many people even knew what a public option was before 2009? yes, the bill is bad, but the reason so many people understand that is because liberals did a good job of building that case and exposing the process, lies and doublespeak. that’s what team obama is mad about. liberals (and firedoglake prominently among them) called them on their bullshit instead of playing along. on that level, liberals shouldn’t feel put upon by obama’s anger. they should welcome it and take pride in the accomplishment of effectively informing fellow citizens about sham reform marketed as the “most progressive legislation in a generation.”
having said that, i don’t think critics of obamacare or other policy sellouts should stand for being called sanctimonious. if good policy isn’t possible in washington, change washington. that’s what i voted for. when you compare obama’s rhetoric to his actions, the dude has a lot of nerve calling anyone else sanctimonious.
Sorry about saying 69 – old fingers not what they used to be. Wright or somebody needs to speak and do it now.
FDR gave America the New Deal.
Barack Obama gave America the Back Room Deal aka the Raw Deal.
DW
I didn’t mean that it would be a good thing. It would probably be a tragedy but the young people will be in serious need by ’12. They led us in that time and may do so again. They won’t be patient as we oldsters sometimes are – too often, IMO.
Yes. Maybe … Sometimes, but it is all a matter of timing AND understanding … as you, Twain, know and demonstrate with wisdom, grace, and patience.
DW
Whoa! Chill out. I’ve been saying it for years, decades even.
I think you got it exactly right. Obama and his team are mad that the “professional left” “purists” “sanctimonious” actually cared about results and watched the process closely and could see they were being scammed by an Administration that wanted to pass “historic legislation” regardless of its actual merits. “Potential for lower premiums” is a very tough and cruel assessment of his own legislation if that’s all it does – offer the “potential” for lower premiums. My God, what does he think the whole exercise was about in the first place?
I am also irritated that he repeats again the widows and orphans canard about SS that he already spouted on Jon Stewart and was corrected for.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/254762/obama-gets-social-security-history-wrong-john-j-pitney-jr
Another sign of how low we’ve sunk – we have to quote $%&(!@#$*!! National Review to correct “our” President’s distortions!
No anger is directed towards you. Just finishing my point.
wow, until recently I would have puked at that thought, but now my puking threshold has been raised by the current president.
[Editted]
Ooo! Quick, try this instead!
With every one of these canards that he repeats, though, it becomes yet more clear that much of the education that he’s taken to heart comes from hard right propaganda and not from any genuine scholarship.
historical comparisons are not going to help him. i say x and i do y is rarely cured by rationalization.
it bothers me that he keeps talking about the uninsured like that’s the problem and it’s solved. the uninsured are not the problem. they are the symptom of unaffordable healthcare. people can’t afford healthcare for themselves, companies can’t afford healthcare for their employees and pretty soon the gov’t will not be able to afford its healthcare obligations. to pretend that the problem is fixed is just plain irresponsible.
Thanks, Brad DeLong is a much better choice. After having extricated my brain from rightwing memes, the very mention of National Review brings back bad memories. Although it does have its lighter side. Is it still edited by Rich “starbursts” Lowry?
The way he handled the public option was like an athlete making a deal to throw a game, then appearing at pep rallies to encourage the fans. It doesn’t seem like a good strategy for him to keep bringing it up.
The only times he seems emotionally engaged at what he’s saying is when he sneers at the people who trusted him.
Good comment!
Unlike the conservative voters, whether Tea Party or otherwise, the leftie “purists” actually pay attention to factual reality, and we see for ourselves what’s *really going on.* We at FDL are not plugging into various idiot machines to get our daily “talking points” and marching orders and instructions from highly paid lackeys of the wealthy Overlords.
The PTB, especially Fake “nooz,” keep harping on false equivalencies between lefty pol. junkies and those on the right. Frankly, there couldn’t be more of a difference between the 2 groups. One group willingly drinks Kool Aid and believes a fictional fairy tale pooped out to them daily by the RushGlenn continuum and gets all *happy* when they totally ripped off by the super wealthy.
Those of here actually stick to reality, do our own research and homework, and mostly see very clearly what’s going on. And we don’t hesitate to speak truth to power and call these bastards on their stuff.
I think somewhere along the line Obamaco *bought* the false equivalency meme, and just thought we’d all roll over and be like the Tea Party and drink their version of Kool Aid and be all happy be screwed over solely by virtue of the fact that Obama runs around pretending to be a “Democrat.”
What. a. Tool.
You and David Dayen have pretty much taken care of refuting the Obama speech for me, BT. Those points are spot on. It wasn’t just liberals (purist or otherwise) who objected to the HC”R” bill; it wasn’t just the “public option” we wanted but didn’t get (we wanted something that would make things better, mainly); we understand the idea of compromise – doing what the other guys want so the they don’t do something they probably wouldn’t have done anyway isn’t compromise.
And yet, the pathetic rationalizations live on.
I doubt, at this point, that the leftie-bashing & rationalizations will ever stop. It’s their raison d’etre and their only “refuge” at this stage. What ELSE have they got? A big fat ZERO. Bupkiss. Nada. Zip.
Why? He’s not a private individual, he’s the *#&% POTUS! If he can’t stand the heat, he should leave the kitchen. The rest of us have the right and indeed the duty to inform Mr. President if he’s screwing up.
Perhaps I misunderstood your original… If so, sorry.
nice recap.
Yes, the comment was snark. If you stick around here a bit, you’ll see exactly where Margaret stands.
And petulant and kind of whiny, too. This President doesn’t want feedback, he wants a cheering section.
aka Mr Tough Decision.
Funny, whenever I hear someone opine about “tough decisions,” bullshit and outrage usually follow.
i really, really doubt it. She gives him his Black cred. Without Michelle hes just an even more obnoxious version of Bryant Gumbel
Perhaps that is exactly what we need. Maybe scaring these mother fukers is what needs to happen.
Individual Mandates for Private Entities is totally against the free choice spirit of our constitution. We cannot have mandates without representation.
Public Option with Anti-trust Exemption Repeal was the true and only reform. Congress had that in its version and the initial senate version had it.
At the last moment former Wells Point VP version was pulled in disregarding the hard work done by congress and senate committees. If the premiums are unaffordable mainstream is hit with Mandates. Any private company CEO would like this kind of arrangement. Put out a crappy product, do not sell a single product but still make tons of money with everybody chipping in without any basic Anti-trust oversight. Simply put this is not reform but a scam and is against the spirit of our constitution.