Obama: "I'm a fourth-quarter player."

[HeresyLives]

The U.S. ambassador to Canada, David Jacobson, a friend of Barack Obama's from Chicago, is fond of quoting the U.S. president saying of himself: "I'm a fourth-quarter player."

Well, in the great American health-care debate, it is very late in the fourth quarter, and about time Obama got into the game as he has in the last week, hitting the campaign trail, ditching his teleprompter, taking off his jacket, rolling up his sleeves, and returning to the ringing rhetoric that took him to the White House.

Rather than talking over the heads of the American people, as he has for the last year, he's asking them to send a message to Washington: We want health reform now.


http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/fourth+quarter+Obama+finally+comes+play/2691132/story.html

[DURHAM D]

1. The team captain should have had his head in the game for the prior three quarters.

Instead he benched himself for almost a year.

[timeforpeace]

2. He was practicing his sloganeering.

[HeresyLives]

3. I dunno, it allows everybody to thrash it out.

And people get to vent and be heard and all that, then when the crunch comes, and everybody's sick of hearing about it, he steps in.

[Gman2]

6. There are a lot of irons in the fire, and he gets slammed for spending ALL his time on HCR.

[HeresyLives]

10. Well it's what people concentrate on.

In the meantime he's had a lot of other things going on, the economy, education, immigration, Iran, Israel and so on.

[RaleighNCDUer]

11. And when he came in he pointed his team at the wrong goal posts. nt

[deaniac21]

4. Number 21 Barak Obama coming in at QB for the Big Pharma and

Insurance Industry Wildcats! Go Team Go!

[Yeahyeah]

5. So we have to wait til 2013 for change?Or 2016-2017?Or 2013 and 2017?

[kiva]

7. Imagine what we might have gotten if he'd begun playing in the

first quarter instead of trading off actual health reform for insurance reform.

[Lorien]

9. I think that he got exactly what he wanted

he just had to wear us all down first.

[RaleighNCDUer]

14. That's 'trading off actual health reform for insurance subsidies.' nt

[Lorien]

8. So he wasted a year of our time to wait for the "forth quarter"?

I guess the insurance industry really must have made that worth his while. :eyes:

[Gman2]

13. There is a necessary process. You cannot just cut out all the parts you dont like.

[Prism]

19. Why not? It worked for the Senate

The Senate did nothing but cut out the parts they and their industry campaign contributors didn't like. It was their one contribution to the whole process.

Oh, wait, you meant cutting out parts that aren't good for the American people.

Well, yeah, you cannot do that sort of thing. It would be total madness.

[Gman2]

25. We do what we must, whenever we must. ad infinitum.

[Fla Dem]

12. Well, when the star player doesn't contribute for 3 quarters he makes it more

difficult for the rest of his team. In the meantime the other team is running up the points and making your team look feckless. If that was his strategy, then it was stupid.

[joeybee12]

16. He made it a win-win for the Repukes...if it passes, they blame

the Dems come mid-terms for the still high cost of healthcare, if it doesn't pass, the media paints it as Obama can't get legislation passed.

[Gman2]

17. Who gives a shit what the repukes will do. They dont DO anything, just complain.

[earth mom]

15. Yeah-while he plays for the corrupt corporation team.

:puke:

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

18. So Are the Washington Generals

:eyes:

[Prism]

20. It's easier to throw a game in the fourth quarter

Once you know the score, you can decide whether or not you have to totally pooch it, or if the game is going poorly enough to let it slouch across the finish.

Luckily, the first three quarters were spent losing in earnest, so the fourth will work out just fine.

I'm sure the President is terribly relieved.

[WonderGrunion]

21. Ali called it "Rope-a-dope"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rope-a-dope

Rope-a-dope is a boxing fighting style commonly associated with Muhammad Ali (who coined the term) in the Rumble in the Jungle against George Foreman.
Technique

The rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes, and allowing his opponent to hit him, in the hope that the opponent will become tired and make mistakes which the boxer can exploit in a counterattack.

In competitive situations other than boxing, rope-a-dope is used to describe strategies in which one party purposely puts itself in what appears to be a losing position, attempting thereby to become the eventual victor.

[ShortnFiery]

24. The only "dopes" IMO are the people who don't believe that this is EXACTLY where

the leadership of BOTH parties wanted to be at this point.

I honestly believe that this whole gyration, for the most part was CAREFULLY orchestrated between the parties, the insurance cartel and BigPharma.

We, the American People, are the DOPES if we genuinely believe that our vote counts for anything other than the players' jerseys for one big corporate duopoly TEAM.

[Nikki Stone1]

22. It's not a sport, Mr. President.

.

[ShortnFiery]

23. No, this "play" has been planned out for a long time in certain circles to include the

clutch containing The Administration, Insurance Cartel and BigPharma.

Everyone is playing their roles swimmingly as we approach The Last Act before the people are, once again, FINANCIALLY SCREWED.

Do you ever wonder what condescending things the political elites say about "the chattering classes?"

We got PLAYED again by both parties: