Angry Liberals: Why didn't Barack Obama fight?

[debbierlus]

More than anything else in Barack Obama’s presidency so far, health reform has exposed a get-a-deal-at-any-cost side of Obama that infuriates his party’s progressives.


And as Democrats tried to salvage health reform Tuesday, some liberals could barely hide their sense of betrayal that the White House and congressional Democrats have been willing to cut deals and water down what they consider the ideal vision of reform.


“The Senate version is not worth passing,” former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told POLITICO, referring to plans to strip the latest compromise from the bill, a Medicare buy-in. “I think in this particular iteration, this is the end of the road for reform.”


Dean said there are some good elements in the bill, but lawmakers should pull the plug and revisit the issue in Obama’s second term, unless Democrats are willing to shortcut a GOP filibuster. “No one will think this is health care reform. This is not even insurance reform,” he said.


The White House pushed back hard at liberals’ complaints Tuesday, with Obama talking up what’s in the plan but not saying a word about what’s been left out:


A single-payer plan, a public option, a state “opt-out” of the public option, a trigger and a Medicare buy-in — all ideas pushed by Democrats and blessed by Obama at various times but now gone from the bill.


But it’s not just the liberal base that’s feeling unsettled. Obama has also proved frustrating to moderates, who simply wanted to know where Obama’s core principles on health care stood, all the better to cut a deal to the president’s liking.


Time and again, he rebuffed Democrats’ requests to speak up more forcefully about what he wanted — a strategy that allowed Obama to preserve maximum flexibility to declare victory at the end of the process, no matter what the final bill looked like.

More: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/30648.html

[joeybee12]

1. Please note that he also isolated moderates by standing on the sidelines...

...Obama doesn't want to get his hands dirty, and since politics is a blood sport, get ready for more and more disappointment down the road.

[debbierlus]

3. I am at the point where I personally can't stand to listen him spew his milque toast

Stand in the middle - stand for nothing rheoteric designed to shield him from political retribution while he sells out to the corporate powers that be

You can almost see the strings.

[Shagbark Hickory]

15. +!

nt except to say that I used to look forward to his weekly sat morning addresses. Now I don't listen or believe a word of it.

[quiet.american]

18. Then, seriously -- what are you doing here.

Besides spreading consistently destructive drama.

[bertman]

23. Because there are OTHER Democrats who give me hope for change even if the President

has proved to be a centrist conciliator to Big Whatever--Pharma, Insurance, War Industry, Intelligence, Wall Street. Still better than the other party is about all I can say right now.

[laughingliberal]

25. +1 nt

[quark219]

50. +1 N/T

[AzDar]

27. This isn't "Obama Underground".

[pundaint]

29. Perhaps he's standing up for Democratic ideals

Remember when being a Democrat had some implication for social justice? Well before this became politics for sport, the Democratic used to be politics for People.

[donco6]

40. If There weren't more of me than there are of you-

I'd wonder that myself.

[olegramps]

43. Very one of my friends who are Democrats without except believe Obama sold us out.

I am afraid that it has become CHANGE THAT YOU ARE A FOOL TO BELIEVE IN. And YES WE CAN bow down and kiss Lieberman's ass and suck up to the Health Care Insurance and Pharmaceutical Industry. Honest Abe must be rolling in his grave. Damn good thing for our fellow African-Americans he wasn't running the show back in the 1860's. He would be kissing Davis' ass in worship of bipartisanship. There is a time to take a stand and in my opinion he failed us miserably.

[marketz]

44. Obama

What did you expect?

[atreides1]

2. Translation

"Time and again, he rebuffed Democrats’ requests to speak up more forcefully about what he wanted — a strategy that allowed Obama to preserve maximum flexibility to declare victory at the end of the process, no matter what the final bill looked like."

He sat on the fence!!!

[Javaman]

42. First thing that needs to be stated...

Obama is not a liberal, he's a moderate.

So don't ask us, ask the moderates.

[quiet.american]

4. So now we take our cues on what we're supposed to think from Politico.

No thanks.

[bertman]

24. Certainly not as a rule, but in this instance they are right on target.

[inna]

5. KR. And btw, I just saw this - Obama thanks Lieberman!

Obama thanked Lieberman privately for his statement issued earlier Tuesday pledging support for the bill as long as the Medicare expansion and public option were eliminated from the bill, Lieberman said.

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/1209/Lieberman_spoke_acknowledged_Dem_anger.html

[dana_b]

13. uhhh..

:puke: but at this point, I'm not surprised.

[jillan]

That is one of those things I wish I never saw - never knew about.

It's just too painful.

[pundaint]

31. Pain, yes, but turn it into resolve to vote on action, not hope

It's time we stop reflexively renew the power of congressmen who don't use that power in our service. Everyone of these guys get more than three times the average American family income all perks and benefits included to do one thing Represent the Interests of the American People. We must be Real about our understanding because the Corporations who would subjugate us aren't swayed by emotion, they cover their bets on both sides of the aisle. If the politician isn't aggresively pushing your agenda he's working for someone else while taking your salary. Kucinich pushes mine, Sanders pushes mine, but I'm in Ma so I must vote against my incumbents.

[Triana]

6. "allowed Obama to preserve maximum flexibility to declare victory at the end of the process"

So - is this man's EGO worth more to him than having a decent, MORAL healthcare system in the U.S.?

Apparently so.

[pissedoff01]

7. Anything for the Mission Accomplished banner

and the heck with the hoi polloi.

[Triana]

8. Apparently so...

..Pfft!

[rucky]

9. Obama made it political, too.

I guess that's what politicians do.

[pissedoff01]

10. Fighting is Hard Work

Photo ops are more fun

[Zodiak]

11. I hate that this comes from politico

I hate twice as much the fact that I agree with it.

[inna]

21. The author is Jane Hamsher, the founder of Firedoglake and

one of the most progressive voices on the blogosphere. I guess, she published in Politico simply to get more exposure/reach more readers.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

12. I'm sure Obama is very proud of himself and

patting himself on the back over his skill as a bipartisan leader. He's in for a very rude awakening come next November.

[avaistheone1]

35. Yes, he recently gave himself a B+.

[Bette Noir]

37. The teacher gave him a C-, but he changed it.

[jesus_of_suburbia]

38. SOLID B+, not just a regular B+

[frebrd]

14. So I guess once Congres passes its.......

stripped-down, toothless, meaningless bill, Obama is going to appear on the floor of Congress in a flight suit with a banner above him that says "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED".

Right?

[democracy1st]

16. he's a fraud I've been saying that for months..Goldman Sachs owns this admin

[quark219]

49. +1 You, sir, are 100% correct. N/T

[kenny blankenship]

17. "the ideal vision of reform" WHAT???

No, the ideal vision of reform was ruled out the moment they knifed Single Payer. Just because you have a single payer system mind you doesn't make your system ideal; there are different ways of implementing Single Payer and some ways are more efficient than others. But any "ideal" vision of reform that is actually achievable by a real society must start there. And they tossed it preemptively without allowing a word of debate in its favor.

No, what they FLUNKED at was producing A BARELY ACCEPTABLE vision of reform, and they have produced a corporatist nightmare instead. What they flunked at is the inadequate, non-workable placeholder for real reform, called "the Public Option", that they made us accept--take it or leave it--when they started this legislative process. We took it because we stupidly accepted their word that they could get this shoddy substitute plan passed, and because they suck so much that was all we were told we could expect from them. It was that or nothing they said. So we accepted and resolved to be happy.

Then they went back on their word, and they knifed the Public Option too. Just like they always planned to. Then they knifed the pathetic substitute for their Public Option as well. They kept the forced payments on everyone to insurers. They kept the pipeline to the Treasury for insurers. They showed what mattered to them the whole time, at the end. Corporations rule, people are chattel.


That, dear Politico fuckstick, is why they FLUNK at governance. That is why they are betrayers of the Democratic Party's principles and constituents, and that is why they can go straight to Hell.

[Waiting For Everyman]

19. "Good job, Brownie." n/t

[GeorgeGist]

20. Answer ...

Obama is a Coward.

[Mithreal]

22. Vague, one of his greatest strengths and weaknesses

[avaistheone1]

26. Your last paragraph was priceless and explains Obama's chess game in a nutshell.

"Time and again, he rebuffed Democrats’ requests to speak up more forcefully about what he wanted — a strategy that allowed Obama to preserve maximum flexibility to declare victory at the end of the process, no matter what the final bill looked like."

[maryinthemorn]

28. yes,

[RainDog]

30. too bad he really wants to protect corporate motherfuckers and not working Americans

because this health care bill is like Christmas for the insurance industry - some of the most disgusting motherfuckers in this nation.

if you never had to defend a DOCTOR'S ORDER for health care for a loved one against some insurance hack who said things like.. "we don't pay for spa vacations" (for someone who was dx'd bipolar, who had tried to kill himself, who had a history of problems) then you really cannot appreciate what a total piece of shit this bill will be for the American people.

I am so disgusted I could spit.

[WT Fuheck]

32. Obama is a bust.

He hasn't made a good decision since the stem cell thing LAST Winter.

[scentopine]

33. democrats are the new republicans - traditional democrats have no representation -nt

[avaistheone1]

34. That's my take as well.

Traditional Democrats are being driven away, and being replaced by the centrist Democrats who are nothing more than a bunch of corporate shills and war mongers much like the neocons.

[nightrain]

36. recall the Huffington Post article from this summer that proposed

that Obama's character abhors conflict.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-bromwich/character-of-barack-obama_b_251186.html


For me, this article could explain much.

[Myrina]

39. ... then he's chosen the wrong career field.

n/t

[nightrain]

47. yes, perhaps he is better suited to academic pursuits or ?? because the actual

work of politics and real community organizing means working through conflict, not avoiding it or skipping over it.

[Skittles]

41. now we can see why Hillary fought so hard

[kctim]

45. So what could he have done

that would have been effective?

He doesn't have the votes for single-payer, so thats not an option.
He doesn't have the votes for a "robust" so-called public option, so thats not an option.
He can't FORCE people to think like him and still be a Democrat, so thats not an option.

That leaves only two options left:
1. Pass something to try and reform the system
2. Do nothing and wait and HOPE that the people will elect progressives in moderate areas in 2010, something that will NOT happen.

[RufusTFirefly]

46. Pres. Obama has been a huge success. And he definitely isn't a coward.

Some folks are just a little confused about who he has been working for all along.

"Hope and Change" is about as meaningful as "Coke Adds Life."

[glitch]

48. Yep, we're not going to buy the "Bush Defense" of incompetence.

Not that I bought it for Bush, either.

[FunMe]

51. Because Obama is part of the OLIGARCHY that put him as President

It is more than obvious that Obama is a corporate whore. He says one thing and does another.

He NEVER intended to help We The People.

But here's the good news: they are beginning to realize that we are not blind. And thanks to new sources of information like the "internets", more people are awakening to the fact that Obama is simply a fraud and liar put up by the ruling oligarchy.

It's time to fight back and retake our government from these EVIL sub humans.

We can! (oops wrong word, sounds so fakey after being punked by Oba).

I know we can do it! If we stand together and fight these evil forces and put our support to the true progressives, we will take our government back. Hard work, but we can do it.

[Marr]

52. He *did* fight. He fought very hard, behind the scenes,

to screw you over for his donors.

I don't buy their transparent garbage about "compromise" and "bipartisanship" for a second. From the beginning of this whole thing it's been obvious that they were kneecapping the left and doing everything they could to force the debate to the right. I don't think they ever intended to be as obvious about it as they have been in the last couple of weeks, but there you go.