Thinkprogress
For much of the healthcare debate as the town hall meetings got contentious and Republicans attacked, Obama laid on the ropes and covered up as he absorbed blows from Republicans, conservatives, and even Democrats unhappy with his lack of leadership and salesmanship in trying to get a health care reform bill done.
Obama sold out the public option every other day when the going got tough and the news media proclaimed it dead. It took the congress wresting control from Obama to save the public option and take control of the debate where Obama is now little more than a spectator.
Obama is now trying to claim this was all part of a grand "hands off" strategy that is now paying off, and theNew York Times, showing a gullibility that could make it a laughing stock, seems to have swallowed it whole.
Obama's handling of health care so far has been a lot more dope than rope -a-dope.
And he is now scheduled to meet with Senate Democrats to see what he can do to move things along. But given his track record, there wont be much of an impact.
While Obama was ready to ditch the public option, sending out his HHS secretary to say the public option was "only a sliver" of reform and wasn't necessary, Pelosi, Howard Dean and a number of Democratic House members made it clear that Obama's position was irrelevant and that a public option was the centerpiece of reform.
It took the House to pass their version and it took Harry Reid in the senate to craft a senate bill with an opt out clause for states which got moderates on board and passed the first hurdle. That idea came from Reid not Obama.
Obama, in trying to take credit for the health care bills getting this far by claiming it was part of his grand "hands off " strategy,insults the intelligence of most people but obviously not the New York Times who swallowed it.
Throughout the debate Democratic members of congress had complained privately about Obama's lack of leadership and it has been chronicled here in this column for months -- giving no direction, no "broad principles" as the White House now claims, no lines in the sand no direction and most of all no backbone.
The health care bill has gotten this far in spite of Obama not because of him. And while the press insists on calling this Obama's top domestic priority, its been a top Democratic priority for 30 years. Obama just happens to be President with a Democratically controlled congress and so now is the time to do it.
For the most part Obama has done more harm than good during the debate, willing to sell out the public option as soon as he started feeling a little heat from Republicans, only to recant when Democrats made it clear they wouldn't support a bill without it.
Obama is no LBJ and, unlike the civil rights act of 1964 where LBJ was able to cajole southern Democrats standing in the way of the bill to support it, Obama has no such legislative skills and despite the hype, no skills in being able to either bring people together or to draw a line in the stand and stick to a principle and see it through.
The senate version now contains an opt out public option that 56 Democratic senators support. If Obama has any skills at all, he wont allow 4 Democratic senators to derail the bill or see it watered down. There are many things a skilled president could do in this situation including letting Blanche Lincoln know that there would be no Democratic support in her close re-election bid if she filibusters this bill. Other arm twisting, threats, or promises could be made to the other three. Lieberman could be threatened with being stripped of his seniority. And if Obama doesn't do these things, Reid just might.
In the end there is always budget reconciliation to get this bill through and since it will only take 51 votes and in the end that might be what Reid does. But the last thing any Democrat should count on in terms of getting the legislatiion through, is Obama.
Comments
Excellent article. All liberals should know by now that Obama is in the enemy camp.
So what's new......this administration and this President are an embarrassment to this Country. Hopefully we can all survive his tenure.
It is like a bunch of kids in the candy store for the first time and they can't keep their hands off of anything. And their only rationale for any of it is Change. A pretty sad bunch of Chicago thugs now in the Whilt House.
Passing the Civil Rights act of 1964 would be as difficult as OBama passing a law banning abortion with the support of half of the Democrats or Mitch McConnell passing Healthcare with the support of Half the Republicans. 80% of the Republicans were in favor of the 1964 Civil Rights act, just like they had been in 1957 when it was first proposed by Ike, and the only thing that prevented it's passage in 1957 was an attempt by Northern Democrats to create unity with Southern Democrats. The votes were easily gotten. Healthcare has universal opposition by Republicans and weak support among Democrats. LBJ wasn't tougher than Obama, it was just an easy bill to pass.
I attend a college that's loaded with the extreme left. They couldn't get enough of Obama during the elections, but my my have things changed since then.
They did a solid job of defending him, but him bowing out of the public option seemed to have been the final straw. Face it, the hard left now sees Obama as nothing more than another W. The moderate-left now sees him a puppet to big business.
This mans's approval ratings are going to be in the mid to low 30's by next summer.
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