President Obama will lose the left if he loses a vibrant "Public Option"
By John Amato Tuesday Jun 23, 2009 1:00pmIt's real simple. If President Obama doesn't include a vibrant public option in health care reform, he will lose the left and will never recover. Is that what he wants? Does he want to be a one-term president? Does he want conservatives and teabaggers to control Congress?
I'm sick and tired of hearing his representatives tell me that Congress is writing the bill. He won a mandate to reform health care. John McCain's plans for health care were rejected by Americans. So why is he involved in a kabuki dance with all the weak-kneed Democrats like Blanche Lincoln, DiFi, Ben Nelson, Kent Conrad and all the rest of the corporate Dems? And why does Sen. Grassley matter at all? They don't care about American families and what's been happening to them.
Doesn't his team look at the polls? Americans are willing to be taxed for health care reform. What more does he want? There's a 20-point jump in the belief that the government can run health care, which is amazing. The polls aren't lying so what is President Obama doing?
Protests should be breaking out all over America about health care before it's too late. July 4th would have been a great day to have one.
President Obama wants a bill to sign in October. Great. But it has to be a good bill with a vibrant public option or health care will never be reformed and President Obama will see his popularity rise in Republicanland. I'm sure they'll all turn out to vote for him in 2012. The problem is that nobody else will.
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For Conyers H.R. 676 and let every Congressperson in this country know it right at their local offices.
Are you guys/gals ready for a fight?
What John says is true. Obama will be a one-termer if he screws the left. I'm already making plans to stay home. I won't make phone calls at night, knock on doors in the dark in rottweiler infested trailer parks. I sure as hell won't donate.
Can we make the difference between Obama being re-elected or not? Yes, we can.
The majority of what he's done so far is corporatist and shows he's more concerned about large campaign donors than the millions that sent him small donations. We need a primary contender who actually represents the Democrats and not who can raise the most cash from large donors. If that person runs with this issue of a solid public health insurance option, they won't split the Dem party, but strengthen it.
Corporatist would imply he is acting on behalf of the whole. Which is exactly what he should be doing. If you mean acting solely on behalf of corporations then you would be wrong on the facts.
It is just that most of you are too stupid to realize it.
It is "The Left" that got us into this shit with your inane ass kissing of the man, in lieu of all the flip-flopping and downright lies he made.
It is you, the gullible fools who fell for the "Lessor of two evils" horseshit, as always.
Don't you get it, yet, for God's sake.
R or D is the same stinking Corporately owned and controlled sycophantic party. left vs right is an illusion that keeps all you gullible idiots voting for the same stinking assholes over and over and over.
Obama is a dark Bush with a smile and social skills.
Obama is known for being a good poker player so I'll not judge him until the game is over. None of us know which cards he's holding or how he'll play them.
...or similar comments like, "he's playing chess and we're playing checkers", but based on his decisions in so many important issues, I'm really losing any hope that we are going to get decent health care reform. He seems to have hitched his wagon to "healing the nation" from our current divide rather than just doing what's right and telling the neocons to shut up and sit down.
I'll happily eat my words if I'm wrong, but...
we are in the same boat...
as having folded...
folded on secrecy, torture, doma, dadt, surveillance....
it defies reason that his tactic is giving ground up and recapturing it later. and that this somehow fits w/i the admin stated premise that he must act now while he has momentum.
really hoping that i'm wrong on this.
Obama is a one termer and will exit stage right to become a world speaker for Human Rights and Visions of Happiness. Always looking forward, he will end up much like Tony Blair. A lot of hot air and no true accomplishments. Cool and hip.
you look lovely in purple my dear.
According to Huffpo, DNC is losing contributions over "don't ask don't tell". As important as that issue is, health care is bigger and directly effects everyone.
start throwin' people under the bus, ya just can't stop.
The 6 things Obama has to do from a Robert Reich article in Salon
1. Go to the nation. You're not only a powerful orator; you're also capable of motivating, energizing, and mobilizing the American public. You must go on the road -- building public support by forcefully making the case for universal health care everywhere around the country. The latest Wall Street Journal poll shows that three out of four Americans want universal healthcare. But the vast majority don't know what's happening on the Hill, don't know how much money the medical-industrial lobbies are spending to defeat it, and have no idea how much demagoguery they're about to be exposed to. You must tell them. And don't be reluctant to take on those vested interests directly. Name names. They've decided to fight you. You must fight them.
2. Be LBJ. So far, Lyndon Johnson has been the only president to defeat the American Medical Association and the rest of the medical-industrial complex. He got Medicare and Medicaid despite their cries of "socialized medicine" because he knocked heads on the Hill. He told Congress exactly what he wanted, cajoled and threatened those who resisted, and counted noses every hour until he had the votes he needed. When you're not on the road, you have to be twisting congressional arms and drawing a line in the sand. Be tough.
3. Forget the Republicans. Forget bipartisanship. Universal healthcare can pass with 51 votes. You can get 51 votes if you give up on trying to persuade a handful of Republicans to cross over. Eight years ago George W. Bush passed his huge tax cut, mostly for the wealthy, by wrapping it in an all-or-nothing reconciliation measure and daring Democrats to vote against it. You should do the same with healthcare.
4. Insist on a real public option. It's the lynchpin of universal healthcare. It's one thing to give up on single payer, and say that a public option is the best feasible alternative. But further compromise would essentially gut any healthcare plan. Don't accept Kent Conrad's ersatz public option masquerading as a "healthcare cooperative." Cooperatives won't have the authority, scale, or leverage to negotiate low prices and keep private insurers honest.
5. Demand that taxes be raised on the wealthy to ensure that all Americans get affordable healthcare. Not even a real public option will hold down costs enough to make healthcare affordable to most American families in years to come. So you'll need to tax the wealthy. Don't back down on your original proposal to limit their deductions. And support a cap on how much employee-provided healthcare can be provided tax free. Yes, you opposed this during your campaign. But you have no choice but to reverse yourself on this. These are the only two big pots of money.
6. Put everything else on hold. As important as they are, your other agenda items -- financial reform, home mortgage mitigation, cap-and-trade legislation -- pale in significance relative to universal healthcare. By pushing everything at once, you take the public's mind off the biggest goal, diffuses your energies, blur your public message, and fuel the demagogues who say you're trying to take over the private sector. You have to win this.
to Number 3!
I think this is the gamble he's taking by risking losing the left. The republicans are literally a laughingstock...for the moment. If the next election were held today the R's could really only run Bible Spice and maybe Jeb. Obama's a smart guy. He knows he has a mandate for health care. It doesn't seem possible that he could blow it but I'm already hearing "lame duck" muttering...from the left. I'm not there yet but the clock is ticking.
Stomp their asses in the ground and, then, forget them.
cram progressive legislation down their throats while the GOP is weak and leaderless.
If he doesn't take advantage of this very RARE opportunity...then we've been had.
That's where he lost me. That and his justice department basically putting gays in the same category as pedophiles and dog fuckers.
I'm a New Yorker and I even voted for Obama in the Democratic primary over Hillary. Talk about buyers remorse.
The DoJ's job is to defend Federal law? And that maybe the three cases they cited in the brief were the only three that were pertinent to the case (which, by the way, isn't about sexuality, but about the rights of states to deny recognition of marriages performed in other states? And, btw, what do you and/or Aravosis think might be more legitimate examples to cite?)? And, lastly, don't you think that by citing three cases that were decided before Loving v. Virginia and Lawrence v. Texas that the lawyers at DoJ might be sandbagging the defense of DOMA?
He's already lost us -- Public Option is crap.
We need Single-payer.
Rescind the Congressional Health Care Program - NOW!
It's gold-plated and diamond encrusted (we pay for it) . . . and we get NOTHING.
*
You're not getting single-payer.
Obama, like McCain and the rest of the lowlifes in the Congress, is bought and paid for by the medical-industrial-pharmaceutical-insurance-complex.
I know it.
My husband's father is a doctor (administrative end of things - no practice for decades). His wife said at the beginning of this public debate that "America's not ready for universal health care." She was concerned with the lack of medical professionals to carry the immediate and enormous load that will occur. This is a valid point - but NOT enacting health care will not solve this. This has to solve it self AFTER we have a health care program in place.
Regardless -- They both now fully support the idea of universal health care. The public debate has helped some (when not filtered by the media).
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It's Single Prayer.
Pray to God you don't get sick.
n/t
With all due respect, Obama never said he was for a single payer plan during the elections. All along it was the public option, based on what Massachusetts has right now.
Am I wrong here? I read his health care platform, it was far from single payer to begin with.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpAyan1fXCE
Listen to what he says. Nothing has changed.
He says first we have to take back the House (done) we have to take back the Senate (done) and the Presidency (done). The republicans are the weakest they have been in 50 years. If not now, when?
If not now... Never.
Yep, you are right. He never campaigned on single payer.
I live in MA & I can tell you that Obama certainly didn't campaign on what we have, which is mandatory insurance from a private carrier.
I realize that Obama & Deval Patrick are friends & allies, so Obama touted what Governor Patrick did. However, it amounted to tinkering with the fatally flawed legislation that Willard Romney rammed through. Rates are certainly more affordable than they would have been under Romney or any other Republican, but that doesn't mean they're truly affordable. Also, what sense does it make to financially penalize those of us who earn the least?
Beware of mandatory private insurance - it sucks.
on MY table!
Public option...
Nuts.
How about ending the war in Iraq?
Is anyone aware that it is still raging?
as long as there is profit in bloodletting, the corporatists will say little and do less to stop it.
that goes for Obama and the rest of our corporatist government.
Change - my ass.
If millions of people didn't go shopping for a week, maybe they would here that.
You've always had the power to do it, kind of like Dorothy.
(EVERYONE) Stop buying for 5 days and every corporation will be on it's knees. That's all it would take to get the attention you deserve.
They will milk this issue, healthcare, right up to the next election then it will be vote for me and I will promise you universal healthcare. Then you will be fucked a second time. The true morons are the sweaty masses and all their whining and crying. Vote for change, transparency, and no fucking wars, my ass. You got suckered admit it.
they will herd the public into a 'free speech zone' and be on their merry corporateering way.
As long as the majority of us continue to embrace without question the economic system promulgated by these disgusting corporatists, we deserve whatever we get.
"Free Market Capitalism" is not the only way for humans to be economic creatures. Fear of the unknown, and ENORMOUS societal pressures to conform, will undoubtedly keep us mired in a system that benefits less than 500 people worldwide at the expense of more than 6.7 billion of us.
Also, as long as we continue to ignore the ginormous elephant under the rug (overpopulation), we'll fail to see exactly why health care is about neither health nor care.
As a died-in-the-wool Liberal, Obama pretty much lost me when he appointed Rahm and Leon. Those were roadsigns of how things were going to go. In THAT respect, I haven't been disappointed....still better than the "McCain Option"
..center left but a centrist. Calling him liberal is not quite accurate.
but it isn't. Nothing I've seen will keep Obama's supporters from turning out in '12. Not enough people know about the public health insurance plan option or what makes a good or bad one. He'll sign something in the fall and his supporters will love it b/c he signed it.
Robert Reich did us all a favor and penned this piece.
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how could he lose the left? where would we go? the nut jobs on the right are not an option and splitting the "left" would give us a President Romney or...oh no...President PALIN.
That deception is what the Republicrats are counting on.
I agree. I'm sure as hell not sitting out an election and I'm also not going to vote for the likes of the Republicans we see now.
...and backing a third party, progressive candidate? The more I see, the more I wonder if Nader wouldn't have been better than I believed.
Why would you think that Nader is anything but a champion for the citizens.
The Corporations have tried to take him down for forty years and they never found even one speck of dirt to use on him.
They hate him, but all they have is propaganda. For many people that is all it takes.
The Congress would be having fits with someone like Nader, I certainly HOPE there is someone else LIKE Nader because he is growing old. Like Chomsky.
That person would be in the bully pulpit every opportunity to let American citizens in general understand that the Congress was trying to screw them over and over again.
That would have an effect.
Until the the CIA or NSA assassinated him which they would no doubt try to do.
President Palin.
make me nauseous and wobbly in the knees! :-0oooooo
The Republicans to split. (1) the Right-Wing Crazies and (2) the Fiscal Conservacrats. Guess who wins in 2012?
The left will have ZERO pull in the next election.
Don't get sick.
The Re=Thug Health Care Plan . . .
"Why don't you just hurry up and DIE!"
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the Republicans are not the only ones who want us to hurry up and die.
If we continue to wolf down the bipartisan red herrings pelting us from Dems and Repubs alike, we'll continue to miss the bigger picture--which is exactly what they want.
Not much of a choice.
I don't get this idea of 'losing the left'. Losing the left to whom? or What? There's no alternative right now. He's the only game in town. Does this mean that he would lose the left to apathy? To inaction?
The right has nothing to offer now. Let's not blow it by whining. The political reality is, we'll never have the health care system that Europe has, and that our Congress is broken.
That's part of what happened to Gore in 2000.
Can't afford that again...
It's shameful that people don't understand nuance in sports. There are 10 moderate Dems. in the Senate, who are in the pocket of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry. If the were like Republicans, and voted in unison, we'd get healthcare reform. They will not do that, so the majority suffer. It's not his fault.
Just as the gay community is upset that he didn't include healthcare benefits for their partners in his most recent edict for gay state dept. employees. His spokesman said the he didn't have the power to do this and that Congress has to do that. Yet, we repeatedly hear him being accused of "not going far enough."
"There are 10 moderate Dems. in the Senate, who are in the pocket of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry."
Then, Obama needs to play hardball, name and shame them in townhall meetings and speeches until they wither under the heat and pressure.
There can be no mercy, nor pity on that one.
Period!
... I mean, it's starting to get across to people that idiots like Beck, Bill-O, Limbaugh, et al have NOTHING to contribute.
Fine, let 'em rant, free speech and all that. But let's use OUR free speech to shoot them down at every turn. Present facts, counter the 'Obama doesn't have the votes' nonsense.
Why doesn't he have the votes? Is what he's asking for so repulsive, so impossible, so expensive that we simply can't see our way to undertake it? When taxpayers have funded over $700 BILLION in corporate bailouts, office remodels, multimillion dollar bonuses, corporate retreats?
It's simple - private insurance and the free market is well and good, but if it cannot provide healthcare for Americans, the alternatives are to regulate it or offer a public plan.
And I don't want to hear the hand-wringers in Congress who were busy wailing about how we should close the borders to prevent H1N1-infected immigrants from bringing the flu here. If you can't provide healthcare for Americans, you'd better get used to pandemics.
Well said.
Which is a National Strike, planned for July 6th, the Monday AFTER the holiday. Instead of going to work or buying things, call/write/email your congress-people, as well as the Blue Dogs, and tell them who holds ultimate power in America: The Voters.
This idea was first posted at DKos.
What a powerful statement this would be! Surely this has gone beyond DKos and C&L??
I hope the vast majority of us participate! Please help get this information out on the net!
..many people are PAID for the July 4th holiday. However, if they are absent from work on the day before or the day after the holiday, they might lose their holiday pay. If you can afford to take off, fine but taking a day off where a lot of people can lose a day's pay doesn't seem practical.
I listened to Ed Schultz's show and heard Obama's comments on the efficacy of public health care form and a question from the media, asking, of course, wouldn't a public plan drive the private insurers out of business. Coz you know, the private insurers are what matters here. Damn the people! Obama finally spoke with honesty and with directness about how the private insurers always brag about the market delivering quality healthcare and that the government can't do anything effectively, less more deliver healthcare. He finally asked the right question in the right format, why is it the market works for private insurers but a public option in the market threatens the private insureres, and why is the government fails at everything, but somehow they are a threat to private insurers.
Finally an intelligent answer to the cackling from the right and corporate types. Obama finally took a firm position in favor of the people, and good on him, as Thom Hartman would say. Now, he has to take the fight straight to the right and corporate prostitutes who are standing in the way of real health care reform. He needs to call Baucus, Conrad, Nelson, Lieberman, Landrieu, Pryor, and any other corporate Dem and call them on the carpet. He should threaten to support any challengers to their candidacies and let them know, the people want this, the people deserve this, and to let them know their job is to represent the people, not the rich and powerful. He needs to tell them corporations have had it exceptionally well the past 30 years, and now it is time for the Congress to take care of the rest of America.
The Audacity of Hope lives!!!
playing chess... is he preparing to take their queen with his rook? The reich wing thinks chess pieces are just funny looking checkers. Lets see if President Obama is getting ready to take it to the people.... HOPE
Another good answer about the insurance industry would have been:
"What has the health care insurance industry done for you recently?"
Oh Snap!
Unngghh. Liberal Blogs have officially jumped the shark.
Way to go Fonz.
People still haven't learned how Obama is a new kind of politician. Americans still yearn for that LEADER they can blindly follow. Obama is not going to be that kind of leader.
Basically, Obama is always doing what I heard LBJ did with Dr. King concerning civil rights. He told Dr. King that he agrees with him, now go out and make him do it. This is what Dr. King did.
Obama is too smart to do otherwise. How many times have liberal leaders led the charge to find no one behind them supporting them?
If you want a public plan option bad enough, go out there and make Obama do it. This really means, go out there and put your money where your mouth is and start calling your congressman, senator, etc.
Get er done!!!
the problem, though, is that a lot of partisan dems, centrists and some liberals are trying to follow obama blindly.
this is (supposedly) a democracy, we should act like it.
Yer dead on. Unfortunately, too many people would rather bitch on a message board than actually e-mail their elected officials. Shitting on Obama is going to get exactly zero done.
A very apt example in LBJ and King. If you're going to lead a parade you've got to know they're still behind you.
Not much of a leader then is he? If he just waits to FOLLOW others' leads?
While the LBJ story sounds romantic, its only because it has a somewhat happy ending. What if King wasn't able to "make him do it" and LBJ did nothing? Would you still think it a good plan?
You may be right Amato; protests may be what it takes to get anybody's attention.
I realize that writing your congress person is about as effective as writing the CIA for the Zapruder films. I feel like it just gets sent to the shredder with a snuff and a glance.
But anyway, I figure if enough people do it, maybe she'll listen. I basically wrote to DiFi saying I will not be voting for her if she does not vocally advocate and demand that a public option be included in the bill. It's not even enough for me to just see her vote for the public option. I want her out there on the front lines fighting for what Democrats have fought for since...I don't know? 1960 and probably even before that? I told her that because I'm a California resident I will be watching her close on this issue and if she runs for Governor or for her Senate seat again in 2010, I will not vote for her unless I see her out there on CNN and MSNBC advocating for a public option for healthcare. I'd ask that all of you take 10 minutes from posting a comment on here and write, fax, call your Senator and House Rep. Do it more than once. Make like a scene out of a cheesy movie where a newsroom/police station has their phones ringing off the hook because the Joker is destroying Gotham city. Because that is what is happening right now. The green haired, purple suited villains that are the healthcare industry and lobbyists are making sure their voices are heard in Gothington D.C....we need to at least try and circumvent their evil plans.
"I realize that writing your congress person is about as effective as writing the CIA for the Zapruder films"
Yeah, especially since they're owned by Time/Life.
The CIA doesn't do domestic surveillance.
Ughh. Conspiracy nuts..
The CIA doesn't do domestic surveillance.
Codswallop!
Of course they do domestic surveillance. Not publically, of course. They don't openly admit to it. Or the NSA either.
But you're delusionally out of touch with reality of you vbelieve the spy agencies of the USer govt don't do pretty much whatsoever the fuck they wanna do...
This isn't relivant to this post. I made a shitty analogy...pipe down.
Ahh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...whoo! That's a GOOD one!
n/t
They don't like negative stuff thrown their way,...
Regarding the Town Hall Forum from the White House on Health Care. Ask them to include "Single Payer...Medicare for All" in the discussion. Here's the link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Site/page?id=3271346&ca...
And here's the schedule for tomorrow's "Conversation":
“QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT: PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICA”
ABC News’ Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer to Moderate a Primetime Conversation with President Barack Obama about the Future of the Nation’s Healthcare System
Special Edition of “Primetime” to Air from the White House Wednesday, June 24th at 10pm ET
“Questions for the President: Prescription for America” will continue on “Nightline” at 11:35pm ET on Wed. June 24th.
“Good Morning America” and “World News” to Originate From the White House on Wednesday
...if he's playing frickin' Parcheesi with the king of Siam.
No public option, no more support for any Democrat, ever.
They kept saying "elect more Democrats!"
Well? The Democrats have more power now than any one party should EVER have and they're STILL looking over their shoulder and checking with John Boner for permission to wipe their own taints.
So, to be clear: no public option, no support for any Democrat. I don't care which borderline psychotic Bush brother the Rethugs run next time. I don't care what kind of regressive "contract" they take out on 'murka.
Just because enabling mommy doesn't hit you as hard as abusive daddy doesn't mean we have to keep reelecting her goddamn useless ass.
No public option, no support. Period.
No repeal of DADT, no support. Period.
No repeal of DOMA, no support. Period.
This is interesting:
http://change-congress.org/?partner=sticker_e
Obama won. The Republicans lost. Since when do the losers tell the winners what to do??
Mr. President, we want healthcare. Now.
When the "winners" are Democrats.
He doesn't think he needs to reply to the agenda of the left because, as ever, the only option the "Left" has if he ignores or disses (or fucks) them is to stay home. And he's right.
Why ya gonna call? Puke-busters?
He might lose the left. He certainly deserves to if he signs a bill without a strong public plan. But then where do we go? There is no viable third party. We might as well just hand the White House back to the Cons on a silver platter.
Even if he betrays us on healthcare and continues to govern from the right, Obama won't see his popularity rise in Republicanland and they won't vote for him. Republicans are too partisan for that. Clinton governed from the right, too, trying to appease the bloodthirsty, Limbaugh-fueled Republicans, but they still opposed everything he did, even though, as Ann Coulter admitted once, they liked his rightist policies. Post-1980 Republicans are thoroughgoing obstructionists, so Obama will never have the support of the right, and he will lose what counts as the left in the US if he continues to govern in this manner. He'll end up with only DLC Democrats like Feinstein on his side, which means he probably won't get a 2nd term.
Did anyone actually listen to what the president said today about healthcare reform and public option? Might want to check it out.
Him no walkee-walk the talkee-talk, much.
If Obama really wanted universal health care, he would be on the stump. He'd be proposing things, not just letting the Corpses and the Congresscritters do it.
Him no wanna see change. Him just wanna see what LOOKEE likee change...
Much safer...
Obama's done a lot of nice talking so far....but the old quote is: "by their ACTIONS we will know them"
way too much trouble. Apparently.
At what point can I say, "I told you so."?
I was banned from this site when I objected to Obama's willingness to appease the republicanistas during the democratic primaries. I was surrounded with irrational Hillary hate and irrational Obama love. Anyway when the site was redone my ban was lifted.
Sometime I dislike always being correct.
I voted for Obama, but what was the alternative? McCain???
(FYI, I was Kucinich supporter.)
I wonder...
WWHD?
What would Hillary do?
She's cut from the same corporate cloth as Obama.
Nothing would be different.
Rationalize all you want. But here are some questions to consider. How does Obama's health care plan stack up to what he laid out in the primaries? What did Hillary's health care plan look like in the primaries? Does Hillary have a history with health care reform? Can anyone really be surprised by all this?
Hope and Change...and you all fell for it. I used to say this during the primaries... When Obama speaks of hope and change it rings just as hollow as when republicans speak of freedom and justice.
Any one who is like Kucinich is portrayed by the media as a whack job. Kucinich wants us out of the middle East now! He's crazy. Kucinich has more sense than 99% of these people controlling our government.
Very often the people who comment on this blog simply amaze me. Do you really think you represent any sort of major voting block? In the last election Obama got 66,862,000 votes, John McCain and Sarah Palen got 58,319,000 votes. The people can call that a land slide all they want but in my opinion that is a razor thin margin. There is a whole bunch I do not like about how the first 100+ days of the Obama administration is going but in 2012 there is will be another McCain or Palen, or some other right wing nut case with good chance of winning and moving this country further and further into a Fascists state with theocratic and corporatist leanings and I will gladly vote for Obama. There is no third party to challenge the 58,319,000 votes that McCain got and not to vote for Obama in 1012 will just strengthen the insane right wing ass hats. I call and write my Representatives 2 or 3 times a week and the results are many times not what I want but I am not giving up and take my vote go stomp off like a 3 year old.
It would be better if we all strongly supported a REAL progressive in the 2012 primaries. Then we'd know how big a voting block we have.
And if Obama continues to cave in to the repigs, I'll bet we'll have a fairly big group of pissed off progressives voting against him. I know I'll be one of them.
that O will have some actual opposition during the primaries. Pretty doubtful at this point, but good idea.
it could serve to move him away from dino's positions ... courting liberals/progressives ... or is this just a fantasy?
Mandatory Public Campaign Finance is really the only way to start see any kind of real change. This is a government bought and paid for by special interests. When the majority of our Congress is considered upper class in terms of income, how can we expect legislation to be enacted that is meaningful for the rest?
Incumbents should not be allowed to raise money for their campaigns. Instead, the amount the incumbents receive will be determined by how much their opponent is able to raise for the election race. This would limit the amount of influence any one group could have based strictly on the amount of money they have.
when Obama is anything but...
He is much further to the left than Republicans, but he is not a left winger- i'd peg Obama as a centrist, just slightly right of center -
(In contrast, Bush and McCain were radical right)
In this country, we have 2 right wing parties- Democrats are right of center, and the Republicans are RADICAL right wing..
Anyone who is truly on the left, like Dennis Kucinich or Jesse Ventura are dismissed as nuts by the so called 'liberal media'.
"he will lose the left and will never recover."
If the dems cant deliver on this and after all the caving on everything else they've done, I will either 1. Not vote 2. Vote Ind. 3. vote for my enemies.
so he won't say or do anything to further alienate Republicans...
Pres Obama is far better than the mildly retarded GW Bush, or the yellow toothed war mongering hobgoblin John McCain- but Obama is a dispointment because he is not an 'agent of change'.
He's better than the alternative, but I feel he's turned out to be just another politician who tells voters exactly what they want to hear...
well said.
Go, read and listen
playing hardball with those blue dogs. Feelings may get hurt but they won't dare oppose him come election time.
...think it is coming. And even when it does, it will still be delivered with velvet glove...over iron.
I hope so, anyway.
with about eight Democratic senators. Nine if Franken is seated. It is true that as de facto leader of the party he has considerable say in future election strategy and who he supports. That's a pretty big stick if he cares to swing it.
He explains it quite well and then backs off...Do you trust the Senators to do the right thing? I don't.
Democrats only care about the left during primaries.
72 percent overall want a public option. Even the majority of conservatives by a decent margin want it. Any politician who says they don't look at polls are lying. They all do. They have to know what promises they're going to break come election time.
This health care joke proves that a very select few politicians actually work for the people on either side of the aisle. The majority work for the corporations. Face it people, they got theirs and don't give a shit about us.
The Senate Finance Committee is dominated by these "Centrist" Democrats. Bipartisanship was necessary when both chambers of Congress were evenly divided with Democrats and Republicans. However, this is no longer the case and considering that 3 out of 5 Americans support the Democrats to get it done on healthcare, bipartisanship doesn't mean shit in this debate.
Strip away the mantle of "bipartisanship" and the naked truth is exposed.
To get this done, here are the members that need to face relentless pressure to pass what the public wants:
MAX BAUCUS, MT
JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, WV
KENT CONRAD, ND
JEFF BINGAMAN, NM
JOHN F. KERRY, MA
BLANCHE L. LINCOLN, AR
RON WYDEN, OR
CHARLES E. SCHUMER, NY
DEBBIE STABENOW, MI
MARIA CANTWELL, WA
BILL NELSON, FL
ROBERT MENENDEZ, NJ
THOMAS CARPER, DE
There is a potential strategy to the way things are going. Let Congress take the lead and basically do what they've been doing. With any luck the public starts getting seriously ticked off at Congress. Then Obama steps in, sides with the people, and "pulls Congress's butts off the fire". Of course, the other place to go from here is that Obama and the Congress sell us out to the health companies. We won't know for a while which way it's going. In either case, the best move for us is to scream bloody murder. In the first scenario we build up the tidal wave of public anger that Obama will use to knock some sense into Congress. If the second outcome is the one that is currently planned, it might well force it to be abandoned—remember that Bush "thought" he had a mandate to privatize social security and public outcry pretty much sunk it.
First, it isn't "real simple." The true left, the people who will actually abandon Obama and not vote for him in 2012, is a very small group. I consider myself one of the "left" and Obama has already lost me, and whether I return depends on more than just health care reform (even though I desperately need the public option).
Right now, there is still a remarkable amount of blind apologia going on among so-called Democrats and liberals. They've conjured up an amazing array of bizarre double and triple twist stealth tactics to explain some of Obama's more horrendous actions. Oh, he's arguing X, Y, or Z in court because he has a secret plan to have "it" (where "it" is state secrets, detainees, DOMA, etc.) all overturned at some point in the future, when, of course, he could go a long way toward overturning it, whatever it is, right now. Those people, commonly seen as being on the "left" aren't going to abandon Obama over the public option, especially if they, like most Americans, already have health insurance.
Further, in this country when push comes to shove there is no more powerful voting motivator than the lesser evil, and I think it's fair to assume that Obama will be the lesser evil for everyone left of center in 2012, in part because there are no sane Republicans left with any chance to get the GOP's nomination.
The idea that he'll be popular in Republicanland is laughable. They're going to hate him no matter what. They haven't spent all this time calling him a communist, socialist, Muslim terrorist just to vote for him because he signs a bill without a public option in it. That's never going to happen.
I agree that there will be a significant number of people who will be very upset with Obama if he fails on health care, but I don't agree that all of those same people will abandon him in 2012. That's not the way politics in this country works. And Obama knows it. That's why he isn't worried about all the campaign promises he's broken. He knows in 2012 the GOP will nominate some batshit crazy Right Wing loon who has sold his or her soul to the fringe to get the nomination. When faced with that, most of the little duckies will line up (as they always have) and piss and moan about having to vote for the lesser evil -- but they'll do it.
I think you really exaggerate the impact this will have. People are getting worried, but most still have a workable health care setup. Even if many of them are just one major claim away from discovering how to spell rescission, most of them won't have that claim between now and 2012 and will remain convinced that they are still OK.
I think the other thing that is going on here is fairly simple -- Obama isn't the person he convinced millions of people he was in 2008. He's not progressive. He's not a liberal. He has an incredibly strong conventional streak and he's very much a centrist. He's already given away most of farm in the health care debate without even being pushed. I hope he comes out and pushes hard for a strong public option. If he's smart, he'll realize that without it there is no meaningful reform. But he may not be smart. Sure he's intelligent, but that hasn't stopped him from doing some really stupid things already (like taking single payer off the table).
If President Obama wanted a public option a tenth as much as I do, he'd be willing to send Republicans and spineless Democrats to Gitmo to get it (hell, I'd send them there just because they deserve it). But when you come down to it, the public option is an incredibly weak substitute for single payer -- which is what a true progressive would be willing to fight and die (electorally speaking) for. Obama has admitted it would be the best system. So, why not fight for it, and then, if it really can't be done the public option would be a huge compromise. The Democratic Party is so worthless I could imagine half of them refusing to go along with single payer, but, you know what? Most of them are going to get re-elected during their next election even if they don't support the public option, because the choice will be between them and a bunch of reactionary, racist idiots.
Most of your points are pretty damn accurate, but if the economy is still garbage, unemployment high, and corporate assholes still pocketing billions in bonuses, Obama will have his butt kicked to the curb faster than a Glad garbage bag. Won't matter who is running against him.
The economy is another matter. It will be a true wonder to watch the American people re-embrace the crooks and quacks on the Right because the economy hasn't turned around. Like John McCain would have fixed the economy. Excuse me while I have a stroke.
Your logic is correct for most of those in Congress, but some will lose over this.
If there is no single payer, I will not vote for Obama or any other candidate that does not campaign for one. I have worked on many Dem campaigns, I will not work for anyone that does not support single payer. I am only one person, but I know many people who feel the same way.
Some people who want real reform are moderates. My uncle is right leaning but he voted for Obama because of health care. If this fails he will vote Rep next time for sure.
This may turn out to be the Democrats equivalent of the abortion issue for the Righties. They stuck with the GOP even though they knew, eventually, that they weren't going to get what the wanted. I don't think that not getting single payer or a public option will doom Obama with the Left. Not if you mean people who will actually get out and vote. That could be a problem, but I don't think it will be.
Not when we see who the Republicans will run. Not when we realize that we may feel like jilted suitors, but that the guy we've got is still so much better than what the right-wing fiance would be.
Not when we realize that there will probably be another Supreme Court nomination in the fold.
No, we'll suck it up, we'll be petulant, we might close our pocketbooks.....but hopefully will reopen them to support specific legislators...
Enough said. End of story. Utter and complete fail.
I listened to an interview with Rahm Emanuel last week and he began to flip flopp on single payer option.
I immedately emailed the DNC:
Dear DNC,
For once I wanted MY President to stand up for me and support the single payer option and not the Big Corporations. If President Obama did not support single payer option then I would not support him any more.
I got a BS email back about how President Obama is committed to providing health care options to all Americans.
The sad part is, the Republicans know Obama will lose support if he doesn't provide a single payer option and they are doing everything they can to make sure Obama doesn't get single payer option.
Lets put it to a vote. Let the people decide.
But watch out for election fraud.
BushCo punked the fundies to get their votes in order to do the corporatists bidding. Obama punked his base for the same reason. The Dems and Repubs are two sides of the same coin and Obama is turning out to be just another George Bush in blackface.
That's what I want. That's the one I choose.
But, realistically, that's a very tall order. Obama is facing strong opposition from the GOPers and some in his own party. He simply doesn't have the votes right now.
Of course I can see that this is the result of lobbyist's buying politicians. That's a plain as the nose on your face.
This is just an example of what he's up against.
Use the bully pulpit Mr President. You won on a Mandate!
Use it!
As I said before. Have a special election on this topic. Let the people decide. Call your representatives.
Get rid of the Blue Dogs and Dino's in the next election.
This is one time that I wish HRC was in the Senate.
She would come in handy in the Senate on this one.
Well said, John. This is EXACTLY how I feel about it. This is one of the key reasons Obama was put into office. If he doesn't reform health care with a public option, then I will consider his whole presidency a failure - and I also will find it rather pointless to root for Democrats. This is a real test for Obama and the Democratic Party - can they overcome greed and corruption to do the right thing, or are the Democrats and our President just more of the same? Honestly, even from a personal perspective - I'm not exactly poor, but I'm tired of how most of us have to go so far as to even make career decisions based on health care coverage, while we don't even know whether we'll REALLY be protected if we get truly sick. The situation in this country is terrible, and we need real reform. We spend obscene amounts of money for wars, etc. and we can't even shell out the money to pay for health care? The politicians in office today are a complete disgrace if they don't get this passed.
RALLY FOR HEALTH CARE ON JUNE 25TH!
Where: Washington DC, gather at the Washington Monument on the National Mall. We'll walk to the Upper Senate Park for the Rally which is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. (view map)
When: June 25, 2009, 10:00 a.m.
http://1payer.net/
I mean the working class families that don't pay attention to the details like we do...They are working too hard...
but if this is the tact the left is going to take...you will lose
you will
and the left will not have a prez in the white house for another 20 years
20 years...
Hell...when has the left EVER had a president in the whitehouse?
the left would like a new bush
KEEP CUTTING OFF YOUR NOSES TO SPITE YOUR FACES
ITS CONGRESS YOU TWITS
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING THE DEMS BECAME REPUKES
IF YOU LIVE IN CALIFORNIA, AND YOU VOTE FOR FEINSTEIN, PELOSI OR BOXER, THEN YOU ARE A SHEEPLE
About the "left".
Duh!!!!
Wake up, John. You are smarter than this.
Yes. Obama is caving on Single Payer and yes he is losing a significant portion of the left who knocked on doors and made Nov a reality in an utterly FUTILE attempt to woo the right who will hate him no matter what he does. He hasn't learned that yet.
Unless we Dems and Progressives have a better choice waiting in the wings for a 2012 primary that can actually beat the GOP dreck has to offer and Obama, then we had better shut the frick up and do two things:
1. Elect BETTER Democrats at state and local levels. Rid our selves via the voting booth of the "services" of DiFi, Reid, and any others who stand in the way of true reform of health care.
2. Face reality that Obama is who we have and we are going to have to make him see our way by getting off our fat asses and getting out into the streets. By using technology to join together in public rather than sleazy escapism and stop buying the products and services that support the right wing smear machine.
America deserves better and we have to demand it. This is no time to be complacent or bitter and throw up our hands in despair. Nothing comes easy. Look at the civil rights movement to understand that. I've said this time and time again.. America doesn't need more Democrats...We need BETTER ones!
Obama is getting so close to losing my support...and ours was the only house on the block with an Obama sign. In both 2008 and 2009 my wife and I participated in layoff - unemployment - COBRA, etc.
We had to cancel COBRA because it took half of the unemployment checks. My wife got a new job earning about $10K less than before and with a health insurance plan that has a $2,300 deductible. Yesterday, she was notified that July 1 her salary will be reduced 3% in an attempt to prevent layoffs.
A public option health insurance package that concentrates on wellness and rewards good behavior could be a boon in many ways.
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