Watching President Obama speak about healthcare yesterday two things came to mind:

[bertman]

1) the President was back in campaign mode, trying to sell something to America using the same faux passion he used when he sold us on HOPE and CHANGE;

2) If this issue is so critically important to Americans why is the President just now becoming so enthusiastic about it?

[shraby]

1. Could it be because anything he is for the right wing is

against and that causes the mighty wurlitzer to go into action?

[bertman]

3. If this healthcare reform is so important to him, why is President Obama not holding

a televised speech to the nation from the Oval Office, explaining his position, exposing the fallacies, laying the blame for death panels on the Insurance Cartel bureaucrats, and letting the American people know that he is going to fight for their interests and not the interests of those who make their money off NOT providing health care?

Why is he giving the "mighty wurlitzer" the opportunity to ignore him when he speaks to a few thousand cheering supporters during the middle of a workday, instead of speaking on prime-time TeeVee in the evening after having given ample notice that he will be delivering a Presidential address on a topic that is near and dear to 90% of Americans?

This is BASIC stuff. It's not some esoteric mystery that the President has to solve. His handlers know how to market him and his policies. They are experts. What they are NOT is pro-major healthcare reform FOR THE PEOPLE.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. shudda cudda wudda ONE DAMNED YEAR AGO.

You hit the nail on the head, on all fours, like a 2x4 to the cranium.

[EC]

10. Didn't he spend 7 hours on TV just recently

pitching it? Maybe I was watching something else, but I was sure it was Obama...

[bertman]

12. Maybe you're retired or have a night job so you can watch daytime TeeVee. Most Americans

are otherwise occupied during the weekday time slots that the "bipartisan health dustup" occurred. What most of us got was sound bytes.

Big difference in a prime-time nationally-televised Presidential Address To The Nation, and a weekday media event that most Americans did not see.

[EC]

16. It replayed many times.

My job has been cut down to 2 days a week for now, so yeah I did get to watch it...but if it had been one of my work days, I would have watched it later.

[bertman]

20. Replayed. Okay. But you realize that has far, far less impact than the actual speech. Right?

[jefferson_dem]

2. "...using the same faux passion he used when he sold us on HOPE and CHANGE;"

Nice.

...

:eyes:

[bertman]

6. I'm interpreting the eye roll to indicate that you think my comments were not appropriate.

If so, I urge you to watch the speech again. The parts that I saw--excerpts of the President making his case--looked like Campaign Obama. The "passion" that the President showed was speechifying at its finest, but not something that seemed to be rooted in deep belief.

Think about it. You are the President. 40 million of your citizen-constituents are without healthcare. Many of them are sick, homeless, bankrupt and cannot even get a doctor's visit or medicine. The other 250 million-plus of us are being fleeced by the for-profit Insurance Cartel that demands we pay them for insurance "protection" that we may or may not get to use (or they will NOT pay for) when the time comes.

The nation is wallowing in debt and this healthcare problem is contributing to it at a rate that is unsustainable even in the short term.

The President should be showing OUTRAGE instead of his standard mild displeasure.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. another possibility:

The Obama brain tRust made a conscious decision to keep their hands off, letting congress do its thing. That went off the rails in early June, as was painfully obvious to all.

By July, Obama made two speeches, one of which included his demand for a bill before the august kindergarden recess. Other than that, he returned to the peace and quiet of his Rose Garden, and did nothing. Nada. Not one step. Not one phone call. Not one invite to any GOP or Democrat, any senatwhore or congresscritter. It turned Congress into AWOL. Assholes WithOut Leadership. Right then and there, Obama should have been giving the same damned talk he gave yesterday. Instead, he wasted close to a year.

I think, when historians take a close look at this segment in time, that the real reason why we have HCR at all here and now, March, 2010, is not because Obama realized that he needed to change his style and political approach, nor that Nancy Pelosi woke up (she never went to sleep on the issue), nor that Harry Reed stamped his size 3 AAA ballet slippers. The real reason why HCR is still alive was because of us. Not just DU, Firedog Lake, MoveOn, or dKos. But all of them and more. There was nonstop pressure. We kept the issue alive with diaries and messages. We kept calling our reps and senators. We wrote letters, faxed, even called them repeatedly.

If it were not for netroots, there would be no HCR.

If anything, Obama's re-energized efforts are not due to some shake up within the Oval office, but because we "fucking assholes" have been demanding accountability, leadership, and effort from the WH. They will never admit it. But time will tell. We forced this issue.

Now, we have three other problems ahead of us. Taxes. Immigration. Global climate change and the environment.

Unless we want to repeat the same shit that we saw for a year over HCR, we best start putting pressure out there. Now.

[bertman]

7. Beautiful, ChairmanAgnostic!

"AWOL"

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I'm glad you mentioned immigration as one of the big three problems ahead of us. If this economy does not pick up in a big way--and soon--there is going to be some serious shit going down regarding illegal immigrants. And no one is talking about it yet. At least, no one that I have read or heard.

[ProSense]

8. So you believe the netroots deserve

the credit for the health care reform bill?

If it were not for netroots, there would be no HCR.

If anything, Obama's re-energized efforts are not due to some shake up within the Oval office, but because we "fucking assholes" have been demanding accountability, leadership, and effort from the WH. They will never admit it. But time will tell. We forced this issue.

Which netroots?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. To quote my heroin of dee dei, "All of them." Wink, wink!

No, seriously. The liberals and progressives of this nation put pressure on Congress and the WH. Had we not done that, we would have seen the whole idea of health care disappear.

Remember, just a few months back, when the Insurance lobbyists were dancing to champaign, bragging that they had killed health care? dancing on their graves never felt so good. If I were a betting man, I would put a lot of money on the future passage of health care. Four months ago, I would have thought differently.

[MarjorieG]

9. Can we stop from blaming everything on Obama's motives. Cheap shots, faux and real anger.

Not helpful and misplaced.

[Lord Helmet]

11. +1

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. I am sorry, but I do not understand.

What motives are you referencing? I view Obama as a pragmatist who lost a year unnecessarily. He lifted no finger to push forward Health Care. Only recently has he been energized, and by the reaction of crowds, polls, and pols, it was about time.

[MarjorieG]

17. From reports, he's been engaged, juggling extremes, and other agenda.

Many in Congress wanted him to tout for them, giving them cover, and they were all over the map. A pragmatist, Obama didn't want to lose all of this over progressives wanting what hasn't been possible for decades (see Kennedy talking partnership with insurance not Medicare for all, long before Obama), and also having to deal with industry tools like Lieberman, Nelson and Bayh.

[denimgirly]

15. Yes his speech was a bit insincere but at least he's trying put a nice spin so the masses dont storm

the walls. He is a master salesman and possibly one of the few people who can sell a half-baked bill to the people. I give him credit..he's good.

[slipslidingaway]

18. And if this was so important to Americans why not have a real discussion. n/t

[DailyGrind51]

19. In July, it might have actually gotten something passed before the August recess!