I agree. The notion that the Right Wing would put aside their partisan ideology is a fantasy...however, it is something the country needs.
Contrary to the Stones song, we don't always get what we need. So we have to make the best of what we have. And what we have is pretty darned good: a Democrat in the WH, a huge Dem majority house that doesn't need a single Republican vote to pass legislation and a filibuster proof majority Senate. If Democrats can't get our agenda through in that climate then it's the fault of Democrats.
Yep.
Actually the Blue Dogs and the GOP are doing it, not Obama.
No, it's Obama's fault. He had big support for himself and for health care reform, a Dem majority Congress and complete control of the narrative when this health care reform legislation process began. He had as magnificent an opportunity as it's possible to have.
Before he or Congress began the national conversation about the actual legislation, he should have presented Pelosi with the broad specifics of the legislation he expected and had strong solid legislation crafted and as many advocates on board as possible, in Congress and from elsewhere. All that should have been done before one word was spoken in public about the bill. That's what he should have been doing behind the scenes. Instead what he did was tell Congress to craft the legislation even though with Kennedy too sick and Clinton at State, nobody in Congress is up to the task of leading health care reform legislation. He left it to people who couldn't do the job. Then he met in secret with Pharma and made a deal with them that screwed our chance to lower drug costs. Then he went public, supposedly to answer questions about the health care reform bill but he didn't have good answers because he isn't committed to a principled bill -- at this late stage he's still wishy washy about just about everything. He's made a mess of it and opened the flood gates that Republicans were waiting for. They were impotent before this, now they've got control of the health care reform narrative. It's a monumental failure on Obama's part. (Pelosi and Reid et al have also failed but that's another story.)
Is it that Obama is a seducer or that Obama's ideas and belief in the American People's ability to be fair minded and make intelligent decisions that's seductive? The "Yes we Can"....is what those of us on the left want.
It's that he's a seducer.
I don't doubt that some voted for him because they believed him but that doesn't mean he didn't seduce them into believing him when --if they'd looked objectively at what he'd done from the time he left Harvard-- there was no reason to believe he'd accomplish what he promised. He has a history making promises he doesn't keep (specifically regarding health care reform, in Illinois he promised health care reform and instead delivered legislation that directed a study be made about health care reform, and that's just one of many examples I posted about during the primaries) and of tossing supporters under the bus when it conveniences him.
Republicans can be written off, they lost the election for a reason.
Although I agree Democrats can and should write health care reform legislation by themselves, pass it and make it law, it better be good legislation or Republicans will use it against us in 2010 and 2012, and I'm not sure that Obama's sneaky gambit of writing into the legislation that none of it begins to take effect until 2013 will fully protect him from the sting of bad legislation.
The Blue Dog "Dems" aren't and need to be voted out or strong armed.
Well most of them are in office because of Rahm Emanuel and rather than strong arming them ObamaCo is protecting them. Look closely at who the White House is admonishing and who they're protecting, and think objectively about what it means. When progressive House members opposed the war supplemental bill that Obama wanted passed, this is how the WH responded:
The White House is playing hardball with Democrats who intend to vote against the supplemental war spending bill, threatening freshmen who oppose it that they won't get help with reelection and will be cut off from the White House, Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) said Friday.
"We're not going to help you. You'll never hear from us again," Woolsey said the White House is telling freshmen
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/12/white-house-browbeats-dem_n_214870.html
Progressives refuse to toe the White House line, they get threatened. But when Blue Dogs and "centrists" are uncooperative on health care, the WH protects them:
The Politico’s Jonathan Martin
reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel warned leaders of liberal groups in a private meeting this week that it was time to stop running ads attacking Blue Dog and "centrist" Dems on health care.
I'm told, however, that Emanuel went quite a bit further than this.
Sources at the meeting tell me that Emanuel really teed off on the Dem-versus-Dem attacks, calling them "f–king stupid." This was a direct attack on some of the attendees in the room, who are running ads against Dems right now.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/h...king-other-dems-as-f-king-stupid-sources-say/
ObamaCo is protecting the Blue Dog Dems and threatening the liberal and progressive Dems. Think about what that means.
Liberals want the option that was taken "off the table" at the get go. The single payer option. We weren't even given a seat at the table. He needs to remember who brought him to the dance.
I agree with you 100%.
But you're not seeing Obama for who he is.
He remembers who brought him to the dance. He doesn't care. He's behaved exactly the same way from the very beginning of his political career. His history is out there.
Seniors (some of them) are responding to the fear campaign by the right wing led by the Insurance Co's etc.
No, seniors are responding to Obama's untrustworthiness and the fact that he's hinted at cutting Medicare benefits. That's also the reason the AARP has not endorsed any of the bills and have used very careful wording to support health care reform and Obama.
I don't know that AARP doesn't like anything. Could you provide some information? I don't think there has been a bill written yet, has there?
There have been several bills written. The one that's currently considered The bill is HR 3200.
As for AARP, read their website and press releases. Read them carefully because they're written carefully. Their primary objective in this is to protect Medicare for its members. A better Medicare would be fine with them and probably they'll be okay with keeping the status quo, but Obama's suggestions that Medicare benefits might be tampered with will not be supported by AARP.
(Sorry this response is so long.)
