President OBAMA should be firebreathing Harry TRUMAN, or are we too "sophisticated"?!1

[UTUSN]

First of all, he might have charged forward by providing the background that universal health care has been a Democratic ideal and goal since HST himself -- and that he GOT IT DONE or at least a beginning of it, and that he doesn't get credit that would be lavished on predecessors for this and other things like getting BIN LADEN. Then instead of backing into the rationale that not only is the website side of things complicated but so is BUYING INSURANCE itself, he should have used the comedienne/POUNDSTONE point that internet problems are not to be confused with the PROGRAM ITSELF. And forget about "sending messages to Congress," since they are petty tinpot potentates out for their own fiefdoms.

Or are HST and his times too simple for us?!1


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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-3445_162-57611512/paula-poundstone-on-aca-hey-were-used-to-tech-problems/

[font size=5]Paula Poundstone on ACA: Hey, we're used to tech problems[/font]


(CBS News) If there were an Oscar for Best Performance by a Website, it certainly wouldn't go to the one that goes with the Affordable Care Act. But is that a reason to discredit the health care law as a whole? Contributor Paula Poundstone has a letter for President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

I want you to know that I am still with you on this health care thing. The media would have us believe that it has lost support, which makes no sense.

Most of us agreed that we loved the idea of people with pre-existing health problems being able to receive coverage. It is simply not possible that technical challenges with the website could cause voters to turn off on that idea.

Anybody who has ever used a computer knows, that privilege goes hand-in-hand with frustration. Why would we give up on the affordable health care law because of that?

If we were ordering something from Amazon, we'd keep trying for months. Heck, if we were having cable installed, we'd take the day off work to wait for the cable man. We're no strangers to struggling with websites. Why would that make us give up on a law that makes some insurance policies provide preventative medicine with no co-payments?

Technology is fraught with frustration. I had a double-tweeting problem for a while, but I didn't give up my Twitter account.

My toaster lost its timer, but I still make toast.

It took me days to put the video I made of the first Thanksgiving up on YouTube, but just look on my website, sir. I triumphed!

Heck, when I first hooked up my computer, I spent hours on the phone with a guy at Verizon, who said his name was David (but I don't think his name was David), and it was unbelievably frustrating.

I cried.

I'm telling you I actually cried.

I reached the depths of despair, but I never gave up.

If "David" couldn't break me, how could it be that I'd already throw in the towel on a law that makes it possible for my kids to remain on my family policy until they are 26?

Maybe it'll work, and maybe it won't, Mr. President, but I sure want it to, and if I want it to anywhere nearly as bad as I wanted my DVD player to work with the same remote as my big screen TV, I don't want to, but I can, suffer through a few more glitches in the healthcare site.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. 20

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[Laelth]

1. It's just not his style.

I agree with Poundstone that the website issues are irrelevant. Nobody expects software to work well straight out of the box. Microsoft has us well conditioned in that regard.

That said, I have been waiting for five years to see some fire-and-brimstone populism out of this President, and I have resigned myself to the idea that I am never going to get it. It's just not his style, and, I have to admit that if I had been forced to combat the "angry black man" stereotype all my life, my style might be similar to the President's.

[UTUSN]

2. You excellently nailed it and why I both like him and get exasperated.

The best is that he has kept his eye on the agenda, albeit within the bare limits of the possible, while we had to spend all of our energy defending CLINTON (instead of on the AGENDA), who squandered the presidency both on his personal indulgences and on triangulating with the Rethugs. That said, I was originally a strong Hillary CLINTON supporter during the '08 primaries up until OBAMA clinched the nomination, then became his strong supporter even more than his original base turned out to be, and I will support Hillary CLINTON if she runs unless a better candidate (Dem, of course) turns up, but I see her as a magnet for scandals and targeting.

[monmouth3]

3. One of the many things HRC said during the BENGHAZI!!! hearings was "What difference does it make?"

I was surprised and a little relieved she didn't way what the hell difference, but that's neither here nor there. She was angry, frustrated, and didn't care who knew it. I appreciated that.

[UTUSN]

5. Me, too. A rare moment (among all politicians) of telling-it-like-it-is. n/t

[Whisp]

6. You might want to read this. I found it explained a lot about Obama and how he handles things.

http://odewire.com/50875/obamas-hawaiian-state-of-mind.html

Obama’s Hawaiian state of mind
March 1, 2010, 10:00 am
How his Hawaiian upbringing shapes the way Barack Obama governs—and what it means for the U.S. and the world.
James Graff | March 2010 issue

But Obama came to the White House infused with the spirit of a place very different from the rest of America. Hawaii, where he was born and attended school from the fifth grade to high school graduation, still celebrates a cultural heritage radically foreign to that of the rest of the U.S. And it has shaped the 44th president just as it does everyone of whatever ethnicity who grew up on the most remote, diverse and exotic state in the Union.

The West has already accommodated multiculturalism into music, culinary tastes and cinema. But to have a figure to which so much “foreignness” adheres as U.S. president marks a singular moment in American political history. The rest of the world registers it, too. Like it or not, America’s president is also to some extent president of the world. In Obama, the world has a leader who is not only open to other cultural influences and other points of view but has direct experience of them. The world is watching to see how much difference that will make.

In Hawaii, Obama was imbued with an islander’s sense of shared purpose. He grew up in a place less given to an “us versus them” mentality and more attuned to “we,” a place defined less by America’s frontier ethic than by the enormity of the Pacific Ocean. If Obama manages to keep that legacy alive, he could recalibrate America’s role in the world—and the world’s attitude toward America.

[Laelth]

7. Nifty. Thanks for the link. n/t

-Laelth

[HijackedLabel]

4. You can't be someone you're not.

No matter how hard you try.

I've made countless mistakes trying to do so.