(Crossposted from IowaDemocrat)
I may change my mind later, but tonight that speech hurt really bad. Sure, it was full of the erudition and grand language the President is so good at, and it sure energized the base – which I don't understand!
He called me, and the core of his original support, us, the “Left.” And, he put us in the same box with people like Rep. Joe Fucking Wilson, birthers, deathers, and the rest of the crazy right. We are not part of the problem! They are, and he knows it.
He has clearly misunderstood the depth of the problem we face in Health Care, and he blithely wrote off the best possible solutions before the debate started. Now he wants me, a guy who understands the issue from both sides – patient and provider – to apologize for telling him to try – at least TRY – for a real solution. He has refused.
He also misunderstood and misread the politics. He let a do-nothing congress write a jumble of bills that no one understands and then has the nerve to tell us it's “his” plan, and I'm supposed to sell it to my neighbors. Bullshit! It's a fucked plan, and he ought to know it.
I won't sell it. I can't sell it. Period.
Where in that speech did he say that the public option is essential. Nowhere. He said it was a good idea but only a small part of the total package. Well, no, no, no, no, no, no!
It's the only part of the package that has a chance in hell of actually working, and he won't even let me sign up for it unless I quit my job and my wife quits hers! That is unforgivable.
We've been played by a master.
I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not.
My Republican friends have been telling me for two years he's Jimmy Carter all over again. They just might be right.
3 Comments
we are on the same wavelength
How can the public option provide competition when Americans who already have insurance are not allowed to choose the public option? My private insurer can raise my rates by more than the rate of inflation every year, and I have no recourse.
desmoinesdem Thu 10 Sep 7:50 AM
Devil's Advocate
The “real solution” is whatever can pass the Congress.
Discuss.
american007 Thu 10 Sep 11:26 AM
and whatever "can" pass Congress
depends a lot on which members of Congress the president leans on. I am looking for signs that Obama is using carrots and sticks to get reluctant Democrats on board with strong health care reform. Mostly I’ve seen Obama leaning on Progressives to accept further compromises (when the public options in HR 3200 and HELP bill are already watered down substantially).
We’ve seen Obama and his staff work hard when they really want something done. Sweeteners were added to the Iraq/Afghanistan war supplemental funding bill in order to win Progressive votes. In fact, Cash for Clunkers was one of those sweeteners (had originally been attached to the climate change bill).
Obama was on the phone last fall urging senators to vote for the Wall Street bailouts. No talk about “not adding to the deficit” there. I want to see him working toward the best possible health care bill.
desmoinesdem Thu 10 Sep 12:26 PM