Respect for Politicking

Not to be too redundant here, or anything, but a big part of the problem is that the media is terrible at reporting the news. When the media offers a steady diet of “will the health insurance reform plan kill your grandma?” and “is Obama too indifferent to the media?” stories, in lieu of news and perspective about policy, it favors ignorant, lying politicians.

Joe: You touched on something I’ve long wondered. Even the most jaded Republican will acknowledge that Obama can give a really good speech. Yet, he has this disconnect between a speech and a press conference / interview.
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Ever seen this before on any other politician? Usually the bad public speakers are the bad public speakers in all areas. Perhaps Obama just cannot match the expectations that those campaign speeches created?

I don’t know whether Obama has the “Give em hell Harry” in him lurking somewhere. He had better find it soon and give the Dems and Indies who voted for him a reason to go to the polls in Nov, instead of sitting on their hands. Of course, if Obama get’s truly “fired up” the MSM will play the same clips over and over, and sugar coat (except for Fox) the question about whether he is being an “angry black man.” This is not the time for lofty principles and talk about wanting to work with the GOP, but the brass knucks need to come out and remind the voters that the GOP is essentially the party of the top 2%.

How do you speak to a nation that isn’t listening, Joe? When 40% of cable news viewers watch Fox News, and 40% of word of mouth comes from Fox News viewers, and Fox News refuses to cover positives from the President, what do you expect to happen?

There’s more than a few sources of information now, and it would be impossible or if achieved unappreciated if Obama interrupted them. I remember when Obama did try to inform the public what he was doing, with almost biweekly addresses, that people quickly got tired of hearing from him, that people were upset their shows were being delayed, that they simply turned off their tv, and that even the networks eventually complained and said no.

He’s remarkably lucky to be in the circumstances he has been in, and I am happier that he accomplished what he did than I am upset at the possibility of having replacements in the senate, house of reps, or white house in the next few years.

“If Obama is not reelected, it will be because he comes across as disdaining what he does for a living.”

Bah.

Perhaps when you talk about how Bill Clinton was such a great politician you’ve conveniently forgotten how delusional the rpess was at the time. Like now they were catering to GOP lunatics and nearly derailed his presidency in the process. You people wrote him off several times and only because voters managed to ignore you probably because of a booming economy, which will do the exact same thing for Obama if it returns as expected by 2011, that he got a second term. Let’s not make up history just to suit the media analysis of the moment. This one is right up there with the year of anti-incumbency.

I think that Obama’s a speech writer first and a speaker second. As such, when he’s asked questions, he seems to feel a need to pause and consider his answer carefully before responding. It’s not that he’s uncomfortable speaking but that he’s uncomfortable not carefully formulating his words.

Also from the Dionne link:

It is too late to turn this election into a triumph for the administration, but not too late to salvage his party’s congressional majorities. Given dismal Democratic expectations, that would now be rated as a victory. But doing so will require Obama to think anew about what “politicking” really means, to pick more than tactical fights with his adversaries, and to lay out, without equivocation or apology, where he is trying to move the country. It’s just too bad he didn’t start earlier.

I agree with the overall point – Obama could do more politicking, even if the accusations of being on teevee too much start up again. There’s plenty of other non-politicky things he could do, if his administration wanted to, that would have the effect of ‘rallying the base’…

..however, part of the fault for needing to “salvage his party’s congressional majorities” lies squarely with Congress itself, namely the Senate. You can cite Republican obstruction and you’d be right…but you can’t ignore the Senate Dems’ ham-handed handling of legislation.

I think the difference between Obama and say Carter or HW is that Obama can be very, very good. He is, in fact, a good politician. You don’t beat the Clinton machine if you’re not. She is also very, very good and might make an excellent running mate for a second term — a decision that would change the 2012 calculus considerably.

I think the problem for Obama isn’t that he doesnt enjoy the politics it’s that he turns it on and off. When Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan were in public they were always, always, on. I met Bill Clinton once in a totally unimportant context — no cameras, no nothing, and he was out of office and didn’t need my support for a darned thing but he was still on.

Obama turns it off when he doesn’t need it so that he can do the serious technocrat stuff. In that I guess he’s Bloombergian.

But I think people forget that Clinton liked the wonky stuff too. I think it even made him happier. I’m somewhat confident that when Obama’s job is on the line he’ll find those political skills and put them to work. He’s not, as Clinton was, such an effective stumper for other candidates though. The Democrats are on their own in the midterms.

Perhaps when you talk about how Bill Clinton was such a great politician you’ve conveniently forgotten how delusional the rpess was at the time. Like now they were catering to GOP lunatics and nearly derailed his presidency in the process.
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[Krugman had a column on that], Dee…

The last time a Democrat sat in the White House, he faced a nonstop witch hunt by his political opponents. Prominent figures on the right accused Bill and Hillary Clinton of everything from drug smuggling to murder. And once Republicans took control of Congress, they subjected the Clinton administration to unrelenting harassment — at one point taking 140 hours of sworn testimony over accusations that the White House had misused its Christmas card list. [...]
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So what will happen if, as expected, Republicans win control of the House? We already know part of the answer: Politico reports that they’re gearing up for a repeat performance of the 1990s, with a “wave of committee investigations” — several of them over supposed scandals that we already know are completely phony. We can expect the G.O.P. to play chicken over the federal budget, too; I’d put even odds on a 1995-type government shutdown sometime over the next couple of years.
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It will be an ugly scene, and it will be dangerous, too. The 1990s were a time of peace and prosperity; this is a time of neither. In particular, we’re still suffering the after-effects of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and we can’t afford to have a federal government paralyzed by an opposition with no interest in helping the president govern.

Where Krugman and Klein and Dionne are all in agreement is that Obama needs to shift it into a higher gear…my opinion is that Obama isn’t the only one; Congressional Dems – especially those in the Senate – need to have a gut check.

“…might make an excellent running mate for a second term — a decision that would change the 2012 calculus considerably.”

This is something that I have been thinking about over the last few months. Biden is a “good soldier” and he would probably relish being Sec. of State as an ending to his career. That ticket would be potent.

Clinton clearly loves the politicking game more than Obama, but it was Obama who got health care passed. The problem is not that Obama can’t give a good speech when necessary – he can – but rather that he is so constrained by the parlous coalition he heads that he is terribly reluctant to say something that will cause that coalition to splinter. Given that every legislative victory comes down to a tortuous dance with a Senator from a generally conservative state (see “Lincoln, Blanche” or “Nelson, Ben”), there is really not a lot that lofty rhetoric, no matter how much it might excite the Washington press corps, is really going to sell. Coming on the heels of a President whose bold statements more often than not came back to haunt him (“Mission accomplished!”) it is not at all surprising that Obama is ruled by caution over inspiration.

Moreover, the cases that Obama has been trying to make with the public are complex, if not tortuous: “You may have insurance, but it is worth sacrificing a little bit on behalf of the millions who do not”, “the Stimulus made things better than they would have been otherwise”, “it is worth taxing ourselves a bit for the cause of energy independence”. Even Bill Clinton would have trouble selling these concepts, especially in this media environment and in the face of a political opposition that sells self serving simplicity as a form of patriotism.

Obama may be a bit of an academic and a little too cool by half (but, yes, as a black man, he really cannot afford to be anyting but), but, really, should that drive voters, particularly in a mid term election? If you are not scared by Pat Toomey, Sharron Angle, Rand Paul and Carly Fiorina, you simply are not paying attention. And if you are a self-professed liberal or leftist and you think there is not sufficient difference between the two parties to bother to vote, you deserve the nightmare that would ensue if the Republicans grabbed either wing of Congress.

If contantly turning your head left and right like a bobblehead and reading thru prompters means giving good speech, heck, I can do much better.

Sadly though, I don’t have a birth cirtificate, so that knida disqualifies me

I agree with you here. I think a lot of the disappointment with Obama stems from his wooden, even halting, delivery of policy statements and short speeches. Then you see him on the stump again and thinnk “Aha! That’s the man that I voted for and that inspired me.”

Unfortunately, Obama is neither good at governing, nor at politicking.

Even his fellow democrats are realising that now and avoiding him like a plague for this election season.

I’m closer to where you are, but I do see what EJD and JK are talking about. First of all, disparaging “poltiicking” in favor of governing is, well, politicking, pretty standard stuff. Haven’t the R’s already accused Obama of being “constant campaign mode”, another pretty generic charge addressed at all administrations?
I don’t watch much political TV, and I find the smug and smarmy Brian Williams particularly grating, so I didn’t see the most recent interview, but I don’t get see BO as weak in interviews as JK does. I am surprised (and disappointed) at how few press conferences Obama has done, and as a general rule I think politicians, presidents especially, should be available to the press. But I can’t really blame Obama for not wanting to deal with the sort of questions Chuck Todd or Jake Tapper would come up with

“”Well, we can politick for three months. They’ve forgotten I know how to politick pretty good.”"

His hatchet job on the English language is evidence alone that he has gone back into campaign mode. He seems to have adopted a southern accent as well. All he has to do now is give speeches completely bereft of any ideas and he will fit in with the new style of politician Sarah Palin is hatching around the country.

Heh. I had the same thought, this immediately brought back the “okey-doke” and “brush it off” moments from the primary race

He needs to meet voters where they at.

darkskinned: You realize admitting simple facts won’t crush your world view, right?
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Let me show you. I, as someone on the left side of the spectrum, freely admit that Sarah Palin is a good speaker. I freely admit that Glenn Beck is also a very good speaker.
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Acknowledging that someone is good at public speaking is not the same as agreeing with what they’re saying.
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You wonder why people accuse each other of demonizing the other side? It’s because people like you form an opinion and then bend facts to support it. That kind of thinking is why people believe just about any made up story about their political enemies. You already hate him, so it must be true!

“remind the voters that the GOP is essentially the party of the top 2%.”

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You sir are full of crap. Please cite your sources for your claim.

“Well, we can politick for three months. They’ve forgotten I know how to politick pretty good.”

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This IS the only thing Barry Obama has done since taking office. He has been on non-stop campaign mode since he won the election in 2008.
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There is a time to “politick”, there is also a time to govern. The question is not if he is ‘good at politicking”, the question is can he govern?

When it all comes down in time, Obama has been very good with campaign slogans. “Yes we can”, and “Change we can believe in”.
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Totally non-substance. Zilch.
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What he has done so far;
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Healthcare – which will not only break the bank in the next 4 years, but will forever destroy our once great healthcare programs.
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Hmmmm….that’s it. Healthcare.
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Now where are the jobs again? How as the nearly 1 TRILLION spent on a rediculous stimulus program worked?
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A war in Afghanistan which they now will not talk about is blowing up in their faces.
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Oh, I forgot one. He IS very good at creating more of a racial divide. Perhaps next year, on MLK’s “I Have a Dream” speech anniversary, Obama can give the keynot speech. “Kill those cracker babies”

Obama has had his moments, especially in 2008.

That’s the understatement of the decade. And I stayed with HRC to the end. But even I can see that he ran an extraordinary campaign filled with more “moments” than any other politician in my lifetime has managed to.

During the primaries I noticed that Obama’s best moments were when he was alone on a stage. HRC’s best moments were when she was in conversation, with other candidates in a forum, in a town hall, or even in a NH diner. Obama’s problem is that Presidents – especially wartime Presidents in struggling economies – have to look like they are genuinely listening to people, not just speaking to them. In theory, he can do that in a speech, alone on a stage. But only if the speech is written well enough to express what people fill. Strawman arguments won’t work.

This is all a long way of saying, “Where is Jon Favreau?” Obama’s the President, he doesn’t have time to write amazing speeches like his 2004 convention speech or the race speech. But there are no excuses for his writing team.

Our mistake is to think that we are living in a nation where government by the people has the power to promote the general welfare. For the first time in our history, big politics, big business, big media, and big religion are all actively working together against the interests of the people.

What is your feeling on the quantity of Obama’s orders (surpassing those of Bush) to take out terrorist leaders in Afghanistan, Pakistan, & Yemen?

I know this is only one example, but he has brought more terrorists some sort of American justice than the previous administration did.

Word

“kill those cracker babies”

On second thought, I’m not sure I want to try to have an intelligent discussion with you. And to think, I was this close to trying.

You really are just hear to irritate people and spread hatred?

I think he meant they’re the party who works for the interests of the top 2%.
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They’ve conned plenty of other Americans into voting for them, of course. Gullible people like you, for instance.

This IS the only thing Barry Obama has done since taking office.
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Aside from passing a stimulus package that prevented a second Great Depression, securing the biggest financial reform since the New Deal, fulfilling a century of promises on health care reform, saving the auto industry, securing equal pay for equal work, laying the groundwork for DADT repeal, getting two liberals on the Supreme Court, securing credit card reform, regulating tobacco, forcing BP to set aside funds for the recovery in the Gulf, and removing combat troops from Iraq, you’re right, he really hasn’t accomplished a whole lot.

Let me just be very clear, Obama is a horrible public speaker. Palin is worse, and I have never heard Beck speak.

I have had the opportunity to hear great public speakers like Kalaam and Bajpai in person. You should check ‘em out on YouTube and see for yourself what great public speaking is all about. or search Indira Gandhi

+1. Besides, no one is listening any more. Obama could turn every Magnolia flower in the South into gold coins and all of Wingbeckistan would still hate his guts, how could it matter what he says? Likewise, iberals aren’t the slightest bit interested in his rhetoric – especially since it’s usually pathologically centrist and bipartisan – we’re watching what he does, period. Meanwhile, Independents don’t seem capable of telling the difference between sh!t and Shinola, only two years after “conservatives” finished dumping their latest load of excrement all over their shoes.
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He had a chance to rally the country after the Wall Street caused economic meltdown through both populist rhetoric and progressive policy. He declined to do either.

Oh good, another troll spouting nonsense. Welcome to the swamp.

“I think he meant they’re the party who works for the interests of the top 2%.”

.. as opposed to working for Union goons and ACORN types ..

.. I’m sure you think your sh!t doesn’t smell either

“He had a chance to rally the country after the Wall Street caused economic meltdown through both populist rhetoric and progressive policy.”

Very true. It’s up to the centrists to sell him and his team. He is their president, not liberals. If he adopts any liberal rhetoric now it will be even more cynical than the first time around.

“How do you speak to a nation that isn’t listening, Joe? When 40% of cable news viewers watch Fox News, and 40% of word of mouth comes from Fox News viewers, and Fox News refuses to cover positives from the President, what do you expect to happen”

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This is becoming a tiresome meme of the left. It’s not they aren’t listening (Although one could argue the Dems are listening to the public), they have heard the message and do not like it or want it.

Whether is was HC, the stimulus, bailouts or immigration, Obama and the Dems have ignored the people in the ever present liberal “we know better” attitude.

The result?

Republicans lead by 51% to 41% among registered voters in Gallup weekly tracking of 2010 congressional voting preferences. The 10-percentage-point lead is the GOP’s largest so far this year and is its largest in Gallup’s history of tracking the midterm generic ballot for Congress.

Gallup Poll

“I agree with the overall point – Obama could do more politicking”
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And give up his nearly full-time job of being the First Tourist!

Darkskinned? More like Darkmind. There’s no light in there.

We do live in a nation where it is possible, but not without willing participants… I still believe the internet is a vast resource, capable of allowing the change you desire. But if ignored, its also capable of empowering those large interests you named.
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The level of information that would need to be pumped into our society to get where we need to go is astronomical, and there are all sorts of things standing in the way, but it should be possible for a dedicated group.
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There are reasons sites like wikileaks thrive. People do want the truth. People do want responsible government. That just means the people who present the information need to be responsible, and those that are responsible need to find a way to be the loudest.

newfreedomdumbass: You’re the only one around here that’s full of crap.

.. if you can’t see, there’s is problem with the light @ your end, can’t help you buddy!

dark@ 3.3
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didn’t ACORN get fully vindicated?
didn’t it turn out that the full videos showed that the ACORN guy was entrapping the entrappers (like right afterwards, he called the cops on them?)
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Are you furthering a maliciuos lie?

Argumentum ad populum
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Anyhow, having had conversations with conservatives, even the likes of yourself, I do mean that there is an unwillingness to listen. I find when I do talk to conservatives, especially those that watch Fox News, they have made up their minds and won’t consider simple scenarios; it does depend on how you bring up the issue.
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If I wanted to have a conversation about health care and left politics out of it and discussed only the basics, never mentioned a party, I could have a conversation that was relatively in depth. As soon as politics came up in the discussion, whoever I was talking to would forget what I said. Why? Because they didn’t trust Obama. It was like they switched of the reasonable portion of their brain. In the most severe scenarios, it wasn’t an issue of trust at all, I was often attacked with insults. I was called a Liberal, when I’ve only recently considered being an independent having been disillusioned by the bush years and the consequences of of our policy.
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How can I have a constructive conversation with someone who is unwilling to discuss semantics of problems and results to poll numbers, straw man arguments, fallacious rumor, and at times open bigotry?
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I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure it out; but, every time it happens I’m reminded more of why I can’t consider myself to be in either party. Its too large of a blanket. People accept to many things blindly. I will acknowledge that I have grown more liberal in my views, but only on the political scale that exists. If anything I feel that I’ve made my own decisions, having read up on the ideas and listened to both sides.
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I just wish people like you could take a deep breath and start talking AND listening.
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As a fellow Pennsylvania citizen, I’m disappointed in the dialog we’ve had.

“It’s up to the centrists to sell him and his team.”
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A tragic miscalculation that (I’m guessing) bi-partisan Kabuki would win him the Village Scribes and the squishy middle along with it – and we can take the base for granted ’cause they got nowhere else to go. What they failed to grasp was this moment of lost authority of the legacy media and that Independents are our country’s politically vacuous (hello, they worship bipartisan centrism) moron voting block (that honor would go, hands down, to “conservatives” except they have the excuse of being brainwashed to the point of functional insanity by “conservative’ dogma). Perhaps they should have hedged their bets by, at least, not punching the hippies.

NewfreedomRod~
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Why haven’t you posted your address for me yet?
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you probably just haven’t gone back to losing honorably yet, right?

ACORN is still banned from getting the Federal funding ? Why do you think is that?

It seems like you went on a long winded diatribe of how you couldn’t talk to someone unless they were more like you.

The essence of you tirade is if you don’t tell me what you truly believe (politics, Obama by name) you could flim-flam someone into agreeing with you. Hmm sounds scarily like the 2008 Democratic campaign. Don’t tell them what you truly believe just give them the best features and things will get done before they know it.

Looks like you will have to live with your disappointment.

Ahem, http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/president-obamas-vacation-days/
Not that you will let facts intrude on your fantasies.

The DC impulse to find the point of equidistant space between one ideology and the other, at any point in time, rather than treating moderation as an ethical concept, has created it’s half way mentality, and nihilistic approach to political principle. The half way measures on the economy have succeeded in pissing off everyone but even the lousy public option would have excited liberals enough to keep them engaged. I don’t think they understand how much of a fissure resulted from shutting it and the Left out, totally, from the administration.

I really don’t think Obama’s problem is aesthetic in nature. A lot of people are trying to chalk it up to that. But I don’t think that’s it.

Nor, really, do I think it’s that he’s that out of step with America ideologically (although I do think he is).

To me, it seems really simple: the economy’s in the crapper, people don’t perceive it getting any better, and he’s the guy in the White House.

darkskinned: Again, not sure where you get that he is a horrible speaker. Agree/disagree with him all you want, but the New Hampshire primary “concession” (Clinton won) speech is one of the best pieces of political oratory I’ve ever seen.
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It seems cliched now (Yes We Can spawned from it), but watch the speech in full. Obama has the charisma/ability to be a very persuasive speaker, but he rarely seems to turn it on, especially since the election.

darkskinned: Are you an Indian(-American)?
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Just remember – Right now, the tea baggers are going after Blacks, Hispanics, muslims and gays.
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But dont worry. Your turn to be demonised by the wingnuts will come soon enough. Not long before you will be labelled as just another “raghead” by one of the wingnuts here.

that is pretty much it
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except that it is purely a perception problem.
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Economic collapse and the time table for recovery is just a natural process that we’ve seen many times before, and it takes time. But it IS happening, and pretty much right on course, if history is any guide. The press is doing no one any good when it talks about how the economy is “stubborn”, like it could just get back up if it wanted to, but it won’t.
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People need to understand that this was a massive collapse of infrastructure and it can’t be fixed overnight – or even in a couple years – any more than the Twin Towers could be rebuilt in a week.
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The only thing that O could have possibly done to give folks the perception that he had “fixed” the problem would have been to mount a massive CCC-like program, thus putting tens of millions of people to work for several years.
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Of course, that would not have been financially feasible while also bailing out the financial community’s CEO’s bonuses and the foreign (“sovereign”) banks heavily-positioned in our own.
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and the business community and all the “free market” folks would have gone bonkers about the government taking away private contractor opportunities.
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A no-win scenario

No, I was talking about how most conservatives I’ve come in contact with don’t talk issues unless they are personal, and the moment it becomes political they seem to revert to talking points. They talk poll numbers, emotions, bigotry, or just completely off topic stuff. And its unfortunate because its not that I can’t talk with someone who doesn’t agree with with me, its that they are incapable of a discussion once it becomes political. The interchange of ideas just stops.

Like it did here. So, you misunderstood me.

“they are personal, and the moment it becomes political they seem to revert to talking points. They talk poll numbers, emotions, bigotry, or just completely off topic stuff.”
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That’s funny that is usually the response I get from liberals. Every political disagreement that has come up with Obama has been met by the left with a resounding you are a bigot. It could not be his political vision most folks find detestable. It must be because they are bigots. Or check out any discussion brought up by Palin, Beck, Limbaugh, or Fox News and you want to talk about emotions and talking points.

Your arguments like most of the left is couched in how you want a rational discussion but you run right to the straight ideological nonsense.

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“And its unfortunate because its not that I can’t talk with someone who doesn’t agree with with me, its that they are incapable of a discussion once it becomes political”

You suffer from the same disease as Obama — Pointing fingers – its not me its them.

I never mentioned vacations

“I don’t think they understand how much of a fissure resulted from shutting it and the Left out, totally, from the administration.”
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To me there were three major betrayals of both principles and promises that must undermine at least heartfelt support from any true liberal: 1) FISA (as Senator), 2) no serious investigation of any Bush Administration crimes (and, more shockingly, a continuation/expansion of some of those same crimes/policies) and 3) the public option (not because it would necessarily have become law – we’ll never know – but because Obama claimed to support it and then quietly killed it behind the scenes). The coddling of the banksters would also fall into the betrayal of principle area but, not being part of his campaign and with the banksters you know, owning the Senate, I’ll let the other three damn him.

It was likely their own plan to follow the war mongering policies of the previous regime, that has kept them from pursuing war crime investigations of that regime, or dismantling FISA. Meanwhile, the right is planning to investigate the color of Obama’s shorts, as soon as they get the chance. One of the greatest disappointments of the Demos is their lack of spine when it comes to the right.

Wrong Mr. Obama!

You and Harry and Nancy have spent the first months of your rule posturing in front of any working camera, passing legislation that the majority of Amercians neither need nor want, handing out political plums to your special interest groups and cronies, staffing the White House with out-of-the-closet socialists, running up the national debt, bowing and scraping to foreign countries while apologizing for the very nation that has made your rule possible, and otherwise running America into the ground.

During that time, the Republicans have vainly been trying, against overwhelming odds, including the liberal loving mainline media, to put the brakes on run-away socialism and emperialism.

About all you got right Mr. Obma was the spelling of your name. But then, not advertising is bad advertising as long as they get your name straight…right?

Keep up the good work, and we will all be on relief, the country annexed by China for our, or your, failure to pay our debts, and Sharia Law will be the law of the land..

I don’t think You look very relaxed and funny doing such serious job he does.
And articles like this one..
hmmmm
seems, author just have nothing sensible to say.
Then have a break, and keep silence for a while.
stupid article, it really is

“About all you got right Mr. Obma was the spelling of your name.”
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Hey, at least someone got it right!

Hmm….I should’ve not deleted that other half of my reply there ’cause it is very applicable to kathy’s comment.
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Obama’s best speeches so far seem to be the ones where he contributed significantly to the writing process. As such, President Obama sounds a heck of a lot worse than Senator Obama because Senator Obama had a chance to actually write his own speeches. The conclusion from this is that (A) his speech writers suck and (B) his stumping during 2012 won’t be nearly as good as it was during 2008. That’s concerning in its own right….

talk about epistemic closure! what a great ‘debate’ between Derek and Shep. A few points: derek, he is the US president, not centrists, not liberals and not republicans. Shep you say you’ll keep an eye on what he’s done but mostly I hear you complain about what he hasn’t done. Did you read the Time article about how the Stimulus is changing america? Everyone of those ‘changes’ were on the liberal wishlist for many many years. when it comes down to it, it’s FISA (which happened before he was Pres), civil liberties (on which I agree there is much to criticise but it does seem that the criticism fails to recognise the s*it sandwich he inherited from Bush on those issues) and the public option – where he supposedly ‘gave it away’. What if he had come out at the beginning and said that “you know what, I want to expand healthcare coverage to an extra 30 million people, I want to enact stricter regulations on insurance companies so that no-one can be denied insurance, I want to implement an exchange where people can group together and shop around for the best insurance, I want to impose a minimium standard on health insurance and I want to give subsidies to people who can’t afford to get insurance to help them get it but in order to get this I have this bargaining chip called the public option which I am going to give away if it becomes necessary to get all the main things that I want”. Would you have signed on then? would you have thought that the public option was too high a price to pay for the additional numbers who will have access to healthcare?

Simply put, and this is not centrist or any -ist but plain fact, Obama has helped shepherd some of the most progressive legislation to law that any President has ever done. All the while he has kept a core campaign promise which was to seek to build consensus and disagree without being disagreeable. And during all of this he has had to put up with Republican demagoguery, insane expectations by some on the left and a constant chorus of sniping from his opponents, supporters and the media.

milascurtains

English translation…please.

“Look very relaxed”…doing what?

I don’t speak Janglish.