Question: Could it be that Obama is acting more like a Senator than a President...

[WCGreen]

He was handed a mandate and he wishes to negotiate...

Believe me, I want the guy to win, I want national health care for all even though I have gone through that threshold into Medicare.

At first I believe he was going to set parameters and then let the legislators fill in the details.

But now he is out campaigning for this nebulous health care plan that is in constant flux.

I'm just wondering how can he effectively convince people of a plan that is nothing more than an idea.

This let's the other side fill in the blanks with all sorts of scary stuff.

I wasn't able to watch or listen to the town hall meetings today and maybe I am just tired of all the attention being given to the opposition and hardly any to those in favor of health care reform.

But now we have a news void that will be filled by Washington Insiders from both party's more interested in scoring point than explaining what will actually happen.

[TheKentuckian]

1. I'd call it acting more like a President than a monarch

but people of good conscience can differ.

[Uzybone]

2. +1

[WCGreen]

3. I beleive he should have come out with more than some nebulous goals...

A president is not a prime minister.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Keep calling them nebulous

Maybe you'll be convincing at some point if you just repeat your clever little word.

[WCGreen]

22. Give me a break...

The whole idea of a publically funded health plan has been all but dropped from the Reform. Can you explain in simple terms what it is that the health care plan will do and how it will do it?

Whose taxes today are going up?

How is it going to be paid for?

Which CBO report should be believed?

That's what happens when three or four plans coming out of several committees ask the CBO to pass fiscal judgement.

What are we defending?

An idea?

A Concept?

Do you have talking point to combat the talking points of the other side?

Tell me, please. I want to know...

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. That's exactly right...too many DUers want a Daddy

So long as it's a democratic daddy.

[WCGreen]

24. Man you really misunderstood the idea...

Setting some definate parameters to work within is not acting like a despot.

[alcibiades_mystery]

27. The parameters are there

They are just not iron fisted enough for you. That's too bad.

As for me, I'm going to wait until the process is worked through, and I suspect we'll end up with something that makes all this teeth-chattering nonsense irrelevant, just like all those concerns about losing the election last May and June and July and August and September and October. I'll take smugness over endless trembling any day of the week.

Definite.

Implement.

[WCGreen]

30. I really hope you are right..

But I feel as if this one is slipping away...

Maybe they can get something that is a starting point toward a single payer plan, but that is all but off the table now..

[alcibiades_mystery]

32. Isn't it always slipping away

Like when we were doomed in Pennsylvania.

Pffft, I say.

Some people can't win for losing.

[WCGreen]

35. I was pretty confident durring the election...

BTW, did youu watch the Clinton plan evaporate right before your eyes like I did...

[alcibiades_mystery]

37. They were like a bull in a china shop

On the other hand, it's easy enough to do an analysis of that effort, since we already know its outcome. This one, not so much.

[Odin2005]

42. We need to use the summer recess to pressure our congress-critters and...

give Obama time to have Rahm pull arms and whack kneecaps.

[Odin2005]

41. Case in point: the Chavez apologists.

They have no problem with authoritarians as long as they are OUR authoritarians. If this were the 30s they would be proclaiming Huey Long as the second coming of Christ.

[and-justice-for-all]

4. I am glad he was a Senator first...

it gives him an edge because he knows how the shit works.

[WCGreen]

7. that's true but he it still seems to me as if they are having a hard

getting a hold of the process...

i don't know, sometimes I feel that Clinton tried to shove it down the throats of the Legislators. He really didn't have any allies and he clearly didn't have the mandate that Obama has.

It seems to me he is depending too much on allies in the Senate as well as Rahm.

[and-justice-for-all]

11. Maybe it is a strategy we just are not use to seeing..

after what the repukes did for 8 years, anything different from that is going to appear to be alien..

What appears to us as one thing, my not necessarily be how it handled on the inside..but who knows, I am to much of an optimist I guess.

[WCGreen]

18. Even Johnson, the last Seantor President, resorted to executive mode

when he took over the oval office...

Being president is not the same as being a senator.

I know that Obama wanted the House and Senate to "own" the issue so that they would feel more comfortable defending Health Care back home.

I don't think the Obama team believed that the House and Seante would be going home for recess without having a bill passed.

They are going to be minds changed over the recess.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Wowee! It's hard to pass comprehensive health care reform?

What the fuck did you think it would be?

[WCGreen]

20. It would have been a hell of a lot easier if he had not thrown the process

to the House and Senate.

Look I know he wanted all the members to be vested in the end plan so that they could vote for it with confidence. A great concept but hard to impliment.

[alcibiades_mystery]

21. Oh, would it have?

:rofl:

[WCGreen]

23. Smugness fits you well...

[alcibiades_mystery]

26. Why thank you

[nevergiveup]

5. If Obama doesn't hit the stump

for health care reform now, by the time there is a bill, if there is one, the public will be turned totally against it because of the media bias and right wing propaganda. There are indications that the Repubs are already winning with their fear tactics. Obama doesn't really have any choice but to hit the road. There will always be negotiations with an issue as monumental as this one. Obama can not play the roll of a dictator.

[WCGreen]

8. I'm glad he is hitting the stump...

But the paln he is trying to sell is nebulous...

[depakid]

6. More like he's always done, throughout his career

He's been a conciliator and consensus builder.

In some contexts, that style works very effectively. In others, it's an invitation to be plowed right over.

Effective leaders- like players at most any game, know when and where to use each set of tactics.

When to position- when to fight tit for tat.

And when to go on the offensive, and make some enemies pay.

[WCGreen]

10. I agree and I thought he was taking that tak...

[Historic NY]

9. He might want to switch to Emperor mode, since he has to herd cats.

[pinb1212]

15. I'm worried this August recess will be the undoing of health care

A month with no movement in policy.....Passing a Senate bill and a House bill now would make a vote in September a lot easier.

[4lbs]

16. Well, since he's no longer a Senator, he doesn't craft legislation anymore. By law, he can't even be

on the House or Senate floors while they are in session. Nor can he be present for any committee meetings.

Thus, he pretty much has to tell the American public what he supports, and push Congress to pass legislation that covers that. If they don't, he can either sign or veto what they pass.

[depakid]

17. So, no leader's ever presented Congress with priority legislation?

:crazy:

[WCGreen]

19. There is reality and then there is the real world...

[ruggerson]

25. I can't believe some of you think anyone actually buys this argument

[WCGreen]

28. Really,,,,

I understand that they don't want to make the same mistakes that Clinton made but they have (had) a mandate and momentum and that is all but evaporated by trying to let the legislative bodies deliberate.

They can still win this show but Obama has to show more leadership.

History will not lay blame if health care reform fails on Congress, they will blame Presient Obama...

BTW, why did he choice Rahm as his COS if he wasn't going to use him to shape the legistlative agenda.

[alcibiades_mystery]

29. Oh.

Noooes.

A trap.

We've heard all this doom-saying before.

Everything's all OVER now!

Whatever. Talk to me when there's a bill, or not. Then your Monday Morning anxieties will pass as actual analysis.

[WCGreen]

31. There are four or five bills right now....

A couple of Senate Committees are marking up legistlation...

[alcibiades_mystery]

33. No shit

Talk to me when something passes or fails. Clearer?

[WCGreen]

34. What trap are you talking about...

I didn't say it was all over...

i think he depended to much on the process instead of trying to stay a head of it...

[alcibiades_mystery]

36. I'm saying you're

doing analysis before there's anything substantial to analyze.

The "trap" was a reference to the thousands of similar trembling analyses offered during the election season.

[DailyGrind51]

38. We need more "FDR" and less "Jimmy Carter" from President Obama!

[Orsino]

39. Electoral mandates have nothing to do with the opposition he faces in Congress.

The Legislative Branch dances to the tune of its big-money donors. President Obama has to negotiate for anything they oppose.

[Odin2005]

40. No, he's acting like a president, not a dictator.

Geez, this BS notion that presidents are like elected dictators is very dangerous and disturbing.

[malletgirl02]

43. Exactly

I agree with you. Also, I would think DUers would be glad Obama is respecting his constitutional boundaries.

[Bodhi BloodWave]

44. Thats his main problem with some posters on here

Some people want him to basically mow down the constitutional boundaries on subjects they support, but if he even dares touch the boundaries on subjects they don't care about or oppose then they will be standing on the front lines yelling at him about being another bush or whatnot