Obama brought a cake knife to the healthcare gunfight (Salon)

[Becky72]

by Gene Lyons
Sept. 3, 2009

Excerpt:

If President Obama expects Congress to pass a healthcare reform bill worth signing, he'd better grasp that "bipartisanship" is a means, not an end. After eight years of cheering themselves hoarse over one catastrophic Bush blunder after another, Republicans will start dealing with reality only when they're afraid not to. Right now, it's their talk-radio/Fox News-hypnotized base that's got GOP congressmen running scared.

The White House ought to have learned from unanimous Republican opposition to the economic stimulus. "There's no question in my view that Bush was the most fiscally irresponsible president in the history of the republic," David M. Walker, Bush's own comptroller general, recently told the Washington Post. Now he tells us. After helping their hero literally double the national debt, GOP congressmen then became stern "fiscal conservatives" in the face of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Many knew better, but they also knew the White House had the votes. Striking poses cost them nothing. Stimulus money found its way into their districts anyway. Remarkably, Obama failed to get the message. Seemingly preoccupied with the president's image as a transformative figure, the White House keeps trying to negotiate with people who seek his political destruction.

On healthcare reform, Obama has mainly his own high-minded fecklessness to blame. To alter the cliché, he hasn't just brought a knife to a gunfight, he's brought a cake knife. The GOP's armed for war; he's showed up with a multilayered birthday cake of a bill hardly anybody understands...

Read it all: http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2009/09/03/cake_knife/

[villager]

1. "Fecklessness" thy name is "Demoratic party"

Indeed.

[xchrom]

2. indeed. -- we'll see if he can pull cake out of this on wednesday. nt

[Teaser]

5. it'll be fine

we'll get a decent bill. Not even slightly worried we won't.

[rockymountaindem]

3. He's right about messaging. They've got "death panels" and we've got "medicare reimbursement rates"

One of those things is going to get people excited.

[Raine]

4. Where's that "gun" he was supposed

to bring when they bring knives. :argh: I love Obama but I'm sick of our side not getting tough with these thugs.

[jefferson_dem]

6. Ya, but Obama is at 55% in the latest Gallup.

I find it rather telling that you (Becky72) only like that poll when it has the President down a notch.

That being said, Obama will deliver the best possible health care reform bill that's possible.

Not that that would make you the slightest bit happy...

[Becky72]

7. I criticized the media for focusing on Obama's falling numbers too much

And I brought up what very few, if any, have brought up here lately: Republicans in congress have a 12% approval. That's why kneejerk reactions aren't good. You should have read the whole archive.

But the intention is to imply that I'm some sort of troll, by saving cherry-picked threads in order to pounce at a later date. Hence the strange change of subject from health care approach to Gallup approval.

But cherry-picking doesn't work.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8621036

[jefferson_dem]

8. Props for that, and I stand corrected.

Cheers!

Note that my entire post was not about Gallup. :hi:

[Becky72]

9. Thanks

I'm also defending Obama in a separate thread where someone tries to say he's headed towards Bush' territory in the approval department. I think the OP exaggerates grossly.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8624862&mesg_id=8624862

[Cha]

10. Yeah, all the handwringers are ready

to give up on President Obama but I'm not.

[Phx_Dem]

11. Maybe they should wait until the gunfight is over to

see who's still standing.

If Obama wins a gunfight using a cafe knife, he IS the fucking Messiah, and my money's on him.

[Spazito]

12. Exactly!

I vaguely remember the same media forecasting the same kind of thing during the primaries and yet again during the election. Each time they were proven wrong.

[Phx_Dem]

13. ...

:fistbump:

[Enrique]

14. a pie knife in his case