Olbermann: Markos on Health Reform - 'Deliver on a Popular Policy You Campaigned On'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 03:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R4i4Hj77Us   Posted on YouTube: September 05, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: September 05, 2009 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 2132

 
MSNBC Countdown w/ KEITH OLBERMAN - 4 Sep. 2009: Keith interviews DKos founder Markos Moulitsas on the state of health care reform. Poll numbers favorable to public option high and broadly consistent.

MARKOS: Well, it's a lot easier to demonize in a campaign of lies and fear, if you paint the public option as a communist liberal plot to kill your grandmother... To me what's interesting is the American people have sort of rejected that campaign of lies and fear. It still enjoys broad public support, not just among Democrats, not just among independents, but also a significant minority of Republicans.

- snip -

KEITH: What is the victory for them? What are they getting out of it? As I suggested before, it seems to me that if the Republicans make significant gains on this, on the final bill, it's not gonna make them feel 'well, this is a great President, we're gonna support him the rest of his term, we're not going to run anybody against him in 2012.' They're just going to view this as blackmail that worked, aren't they?

MARKOS: Oh, absolutely. I think it emboldens the Republicans knowing that the White House is weak, that they negotiate from a position of weakness, even when dealing with legislation - with policy - that is incredibly, incredibly popular with the American people. We're not asking the Obama administration to do the impossible or the unpopular. We're asking them to deliver on a popular policy on an issue that they campaigned on. Deliver on your promises. Shouldn't be that difficult.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. Well, there you go.

People LISTENED. It was a BIG DEAL. They DIDN'T WANT Romney care. They rejected Hillary's mandates. They thought McCains non-plan was a non-plan. They BELIEVED Obama when he CAMPAIGNED ON: Public option "similar to Medicare" as well as Government negotiation on drug prices, as well as a banning of policies like prior conditions and rescissions.

Somehow this is all a big surprise to the White House

[Why Syzygy]

17. Oh, the 'government' negotiated drug prices alright!

They gave the drug companies every right of way! :mad:
This is almost as big a rip off as Bush's Iraq war.

[babylonsister]

2. Exactly. nt

[theoldman]

3. Tonight even Bill Moyers told Obama to get a pair of balls and stop playing nice.

When a nice guy like Moyers gets tough you know that Obama has been going in the wrong direction.

[Why Syzygy]

18. I don't know how the hell

he thinks he can make it (Obama) without his liberal base. I ain't no figging soldier! I'm a peace-nik.

[Mojorabbit]

4. I still find it difficult to believe

that we are in the position we are in just now. The lack of control of the framing itself is appalling.
This should have never been allowed to get to the place it is now.

[Eric J in MN]

5. Well put by Markos M. regarding...

...we're only asking Obama to keep a campaign promise for a popular policy.

[gopsucks1]

6. I don't get it.

How can you expect Obama to get it done when he does not have the votes. He promised that he would fight for it but if you don't have the votes you don't have the votes. I just don't see what more he can do except what he is doing now. Continuing to negotiate. Continuing to try rally his supporters and asking for their help. Doing town halls. Listening to congressmen.

Too many people have unrealistic expectations! What do all you whiners expect? That he should get Mafia on them having Rahm send all the blue dogs and all the GOP dead fish. Making them offers they cannot refuse? Putting horses heads in their beds or telling them that either they vote yes or get their brains blown out?

[rollingrock]

7. He would have the votes

if he pushed hard enough for them. But he never even put up a fight, which is why now he has nothing.

[gopsucks1]

9. BULLSHIT!

Define "put up a fight". He has met with everyone, listened to everyone, townhalled, press conferenced. He has criticised the hypocrisy over and over again. Explain HOW he has not put up a fight? You think a prez should be out ther calling them names and starting fist fights?

If I believe in something, I will fight for it with all I have. But I do not demand all or nothing. I would rather get something than nothing. Professional liberals want the fiery debate. They glory in defeat. The hardest job for a politician today is to have the courage to be a moderate. It's easy to take an extreme position.
- Hubert Humphrey

A Liberal is a man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel.
- Robert Frost

[rollingrock]

10. Obama excluded the single-payer physicians advocate group from the town hall discussions

made backroom deals with the pharma lobby, and told the progressive caucus to sit down and shut up.

yeah, that's a real good fight you got there.

[gopsucks1]

11. Proof? Link? Hearsay and opinion blogs don't count.

[rollingrock]

12. I'm not going to do your homework for you

these things have all been reported in the mainstream press, especially the NY Times and LA Times.

[gopsucks1]

13. Ha! You got NOTHING! n/t

[rollingrock]

14. It's called Google

learn to use it.

[rollingrock]

15. Obama's own doctor

an advocate of single-payer, explains how he was explicitly barred from attending Obama's healthcare forum.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wsPZsEYuok

[Why Syzygy]

23. +1 . That's an awesome interview. nt

[Why Syzygy]

20. It isn't hearsay

Guess you don't pay attention :freak:


(CBS) While much of the health care debate has been carried out publicly, some very private negotiations have gone on too - between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry. So private, neither side will release all the details, yet they potentially involve millions of Americans, reports CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson.
(...)
But news of a backroom deal riled even some fellow Democrats, including a key committee chairman Henry Waxman.

"We're not bound by that agreement," Waxman said. "We weren't part of it and we feel strongly that the drug companies shouldn't get off with a windfall at the expense of our seniors."
(...)
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/08/10/eveningnews/main5231143.shtml


Eliminate most of the GOP slant, and the truth is that the 57% figure is actually lower than the percentage of Americans who support a full single-payer national health insurance program, as fifteen years of polling by the New York Times have consistently shown--and this despite the obvious cartelist skew of the Times, which like CBS and CNN and most other media has shown a strong bias against single payer in its reporting--or rather non-reporting. In this regard the Times is rather like the Obama White house, which has admitted to making an $80 billion backroom deal with the pharmaceuticals cartel, but which shut out mainstream single-payer advocates like the Physicians for a National Health Program from Obama’s health care summit.
http://www.examiner.com/x-19087-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2009m8d19-Majority-demands-strong-public-option-in-health-care-reform


Rahm Slammed Dems Attacking Other Dems As “F–king Stupid,” Sources Say

The Politico’s Jonathan Martin reported this morning that Rahm Emanuel warned leaders of liberal groups in a private meeting this week that it was time to stop running ads attacking Blue Dog and “centrist” Dems on health care.
http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/health-care/rahm-slammed-dems-attacking-other-dems-as-f-king-stupid-sources-say/


It's all there. You can apologize to rollingrock now.

[Why Syzygy]

19. Hubert Humphrey?

You're quoting HUBERT HUMPHREY? :rofl:

The middle ground you so ardently support is a CORPORATE victory. Aren't you sick of playing dog to the corporations? Not even just a little?

Welcome to DU :hi: ..I'm sure you will be very popular here.

[raystorm7]

8. Administration of past eight years should be proof enough.

[TheEuclideanOne]

21. Wouldn't he have the votes if he went for a straight majority?

[snake in the grass]

22. He can start playing hardball and...

...lose the "Mr. Nice Guy".

First of all, publicly and frankly call out the Republicans on their own admitted commitment to obstructing any bill that comes down. This will definitely come in handy in 2010, when we can point out that the GOP preferred politics over policy. Furthermore, it would help if he gave them the finger in the nicest way possible. They are in the minority. The citizenry elected Democrats overwhelmingly for the policies they campaigned on in 2008. No one, but a small few, want more of the same feces, the GOP has been peddling as pearls for nearly 30 years. Republicans qualify anything coming from the Democrats with the moniker of death. This needs to be addressed aggressively and the Republicans need to be called liars. This isn't simple name calling, as the facts support the accusation. It needs to be shown that the GOP is only interested in maintaining the status quo and increasing the influence of the insurance industry over the common citizen, and this needs to come out of the President's mouth. When the CEO of an insurance provider is collecting millions of dollars in bonus money, the people need to know where that money is coming from. If health is allowed to remain a commodity, people are going to die. Straight up. Twenty-two thousand Americans die every year for lack of health care. That's over seven 9/11s every year. Now, we could afford to pump nearly $4 trillion into a middle-eastern quagmire, justified through those attacks, but we can't afford $1 trillion over the next 10 years? Give me a fucking break!

Secondly, President Obama needs to show non-compliant Democrats exactly where the hammer hangs. Take Harry Reid into the office and tell him to finally start showing some spine. If he is incapable of it (and I suspect he is) gather together 31 progressive Senators and have them to elect a progressive as Majority Leader; no whining, no discussions. Just get rid of Reid's worthless ass. For non-compliant, Rethug-like Blue Ball Democrats, there is an even simpler solution. Tell them, individually and to their sorry, back-stabbing faces that he, as the President of the United States, will campaign for the inevitable primary challenger. Better yet, threaten to campaign for the Republican and watch how quickly their sphincters start to twitch. Forget the bipartisanship. Republicans are only interested in a zero-sum game of making Obama look weak. Push for cloture on the Kennedy Health Care Bill (now run by Dodd; it's not perfect but it will do for a start). Portray any opposing Democrat as someone who is fine with 22,000 deaths a year and make them feel the fucking heat.

I was a Kucinich supporter during the primaries and was disappointed that he had to drop out. As a California resident, I voted for Hillary simply because I know the Clintons will take a hydrogen bomb to a gun fight and I didn't know much about Obama. The whole hope thing didn't really impress me, but I was most definitely impressed by the way he defeated the Clinton machine. I considered I might be wrong about him. The way he scrapped the Clintons and still came out with a perfectly clean vest was a brilliant piece of political engineering. It was awesome and I was proud to vote for him last November. I'm slowly getting the impression that he is like other Democrats. They'll passionately go at each other's throats, but will trip over their dicks to submit to the GOP. I'm tired of the chess analogies. We can't wait until 2050 for this match to play out. I'm holding back a bit in anticipation of his upcoming address, because I'm hoping that he has smelled the coffee and is not going to wait until his approval rating is 40% before he starts to scrap.

The GOP is in this to win by any means necessary. If they are not met, they will pull it off again, and I think we can all agree that that is something we do not want.

[Why Syzygy]

16. "Good soldiers"??

No . nuh-uh . No Way . I'm not a SOLDIER! We were supposed to have FEWER soldiers, not a militarized citizenry! This is going to sink Obama. And he deserves it. What a freaking rip-off.

:mad: