Want to know a great way to set the terms of a legislative debate? Have the President declare that an issue is greviously important (the bully pulpit is good for that) and announce that he will only sign a bill that falls inside certain parameters. Unless Congress thinks it can override his veto, subsequent debate internalizes whatever arbitrary guidelines the President just set. And it makes the President seem to care about something tangible rather than fetishizing some nebulous concept of process.
Meanwhile, in the most favorable environment imaginable for tangible reform Barack Obama will apparently sign whatever crappy health bill Max Baucus leaves on his desk. Baucus, meanwhile, has discovered all on his own that pushing the ‘compromise’ option to the leftmost edge of acceptable discourse makes an almost complete Republican victory that much more likely.
For a party that supposedly owns the internet, watching our leaders struggle with the Mad Men era is a little depressing.
br
There’s an easy reply if Obama grandstands like that: the congress will just pass nothing. These are Democrats, Tim.
This is a stupid post.
recusancy
Obama is basically the only good thing going in the party right now. Everyone else are privileged, old, stuck-in-their-ways, assholes. The grassroots own the internet. Our elected representatives own the telegraph.
Obama has given us the false sense that our party has new blood. It doesn’t. Harry Ried and Nacy Pelosi aren’t exactly on the cutting edge.
Fr33d0m
Well I hate to call anything stupid but the post is called “Pining For George W. Bush”.
Have you forgotten that the elected Democrats are scared of the Republicans?
Rosali
11-05-04: President Bush proclaimed his election as evidence that Americans embrace his plans to reform Social Security, simplify the tax code, curb lawsuits and fight the war on terror, pledging Thursday to work in a bipartisan manner with “everyone who shares our goals.”
“I earned capital in this campaign, political capital, and now I intend to spend it,” Bush told reporters. “It is my style.”
And that style worked out so well for him.
Fulcanelli
How long have you been a Democrat? Depression is a feature, not a bug on this side of the aisle, dude. It’s one reason we can’t get anything done. Congressional Dems act just like battered wives.
I have a hunch that Dems that cave on this and leave Obama waiting at the altar are gonna regret it when it comes time for re-election mojo from the Prez and VP and it hits home with a broke ass electorate. Effin’ sissies.
Narcissus
Jesus, Charlie Gibson is a hack.
Elie
Y’all don’t give up —
The struggle is part of the process and part of the learning that leads to change. If this fails, if we get chopped liver instead of the health care we all deserve, then we learn and keep pushing forward.
Don’t expect easy — it lets you become too discouraged.
I keep the young Iranians close to my thinking and my heart…they are virtually leaderless and yet still push for their idea of liberty and justice..
I know that I sound schmaltzy, but I believe it from the bottom of my heart. We can only move forward and learn and push, take our disappointments but keep going…
Mike P
Seriously…everybody needs to chill a bit. The mood swings that occur after every little twist and turn in the health care saga are far too violent. We don’t know what Obama is going to sign because there’s obviously a lot left to do between putting together the House and Senate bills and just because single payer is out that doesn’t also mean we won’t get a public option.
Let it play (but pressure your reps).
Little Dreamer
Just a little depressing? It’s like watching the world go to hell with your party at the helm.
robertdsc
Arlen Specter spit in the President’s face and deliberately stomped on his agenda when he announced his switch to the D’s. Obama’s still supporting him without question. Funny how that works.
Ripley
I’m with Elie and Mike P on this one. The term ‘incrementalist bullshit’ is bound to show up on this thread sooner or later, but the flipside – call it ‘self-deluded instantaneity’ – isn’t any prettier, and it’s a lot less likely. Unless, like the Iranians, we take to the streets in protest, all of us, daily until our point and our insistence is clear, even if we suffer much in the process. Are you with me, America?
I didn’t think so.
Ruem
No offense, but I’m finding most of these healthcare posts to be…well clutched. And I say this as someone surrounded by people with serious, uninsured problems and with her own personal insurance she’s too underpaid to use. I’ve been in contact with the WH, Dodd, my Senators and Congressmen multiple times this week on the issue of health care and I’m not slashing my wrists in as much ultra prog outrage as you are. We have no bill as of yet. Kicking at the multiple variations avails you naught.
low-tech cyclist
Unless Congress thinks it can override his veto, subsequent debate internalizes whatever arbitrary guidelines the President just set.
Or unless Congress can keep on offering up bad bills, or pass no bill at all, etc.
If Obama vetoes a health care bill that gives him 95% of what he wants, he’ll wind up with zero.
Napoleon
I have concluded Obama really isn’t up to the job. I have had it with him. He is no better then Bush on Constitutional issues, and its impossible to conclude that we are in anything but a form of police state, and Obama is moving to ratify that, and on issues like healthcare Obama has proven totally incapable of leading.
Krista
Well, it’s hard not to have mood swings when uninsured and having 2 chronic conditions. Haven’t been to a doctor in 4 years. So it’s a bit of a life/death situation for me even if that is melodramatic. Coming from a red state (KS), sending letters and calling my Senators is really a waste of time as they will surely vote no to anything, and my House Rep already supports a public plan. I hope Mike P and Elie are correct that it may still work out, but after watching that ABC fiasco (Charlie Gibson is not just a hack but a ********), and knowing how much money the insurance industry is pouring into the pockets of Congressional members and TV ads, I begin to wonder if a public plan will happen in my lifetime. I begin to think that until the health insurance industry actually fails like the banking industry recently failed, nothing but miniscule, ineffective reforms will happen. And look at the banking industry!: bailed out totally at the expense of taxpayers and have any regulations or reforms been put in place successfully???
Krista
oops extra hit
RedKitten (formerly Krista - the Canadian one)
Uh-oh — we have two Kristas on here. Cue the mass confusion.
Ah well, I’ve been craving a moniker change anyway.
Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist
For a party that supposedly owns the internet, watching our leaders struggle with the Mad Men era is a little depressing.
I totally agree – we should all just curl up and die.
I bet you’re wondering why I keep commenting that on the Tim F. posts.
Will
@br:
No it’s not a stupid post. Tim is right. Like Bill Maher said, Obama really could use some George W. Bush in him. Bush was able to ram through unpopular legislation almost without fail, even able to beat many Democrats into submitting to it. Obama may prove incapable of corralling enough Democrats to push through deeply popular legislation. He can’t even convince these morons to vote in their best interests, those interests being not to go home and have to say to their constituents, “Yeah, I know we had the White House, and wide majorities in both Houses of Congress, and poll numbers in the 80’s supporting health care, but we just couldn’t get it done. Sorry.”