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Obama is doing it again. He derailed healthcare reform in the first place by making bipartisanship more important than doing what was best for healthcare reform. And now he intends on replaying the same bad movie we'eve been watching for 8 months.
From the beginning of the healthcare debate Obama has proved that far from being ready to president from day one, he has been not just politically deficient, but has shown that he really had no committment to the kind of reform most Democrats and most people in the country were looking for.
With the public option, what most acknowledge as the centerpeice of healthcare reform and the one component that polls better than anything else, Obama threw in the towel to the town hall crazies and congressional Republicans to dodge the political heat..
Obama began the healthcare battle, not with conviction but with politics, hoping to doge political heat with the useless goal of bipartisanship even though Republicans made it clear they would do anything to defeat it and were ideologically opposed to the kinds of reform that were needed most.
When the town hall crazies got too crazy, Obama sent out Siebulus his HHS Secretary, to say that the public option was "only a sliver" of the healthcare reform and that Obama would be quite willing to drop it That is how hard Obama was willing to fight for the most important aspect of healthcare reform.
It took Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi and members of congress to drag Obama back into supporting the public option going on television to say that far from being a "sliver" it was the centerpice of reform and members of the House said they wouldnt pass a healthcare reform bill without it.
Since that time Obama has sold out the public option repeatedly depending on which way the wind was blowing at the time. He caved in to Joe Lieberman, instead expecting 59 other senators to give in to one, proving Hillary Clinton was right in the South Carolina primary when she said it took the expereince of an LBJ to get the Civil Rights Act passed and that Obama didnt have what it takes. A recent documentary showed LBJ telling a southern Senate Democrat who was standing in the way of the Civil Rights Act in 1964 that if he didnt vote for it, " I will steamroll you". The senator voted for it. But there has been no such conviction or strength from Obama.
Now Obama's newest initiative is the healthcare summit. According to the LA Times this is a political strategy to try to put Republicans in a box where they either cooperate on reform or be labeled "obstructionist". The stupidity of this strategy is breathtaking, since the Republicans have waved their obstructionism like a flag painting it as a heroic act.. It is their obstructionism that has energized the conservative base so what in the world is Obama thinking this will accomplish? Because it wont accomplish a thing.
This is just another political game, one we've seen before and Democrats and liberals are getting tired of. What needs to be accomplished can be done with reconciliation and doesnt need Republican support. But Obama is about politics, not getting things done.
The health care summit with Republicans has more to do with Einstein's definition of insanity -- doing the same thing over and over and expecting different resuls -- than getting anything done. And it wont get the public option passed which is really all that matters.
If Obama had any conviction, he would be paving the way for the public option to be passed using reconciliation. He would be pointing out that the Republicans used reconciliation 3 times during Bush's presidency to pass tax cuts which Democrats opposed to avoid a filibuster.
Luckily for the country there are Democrats that have the conviction needed to get it done and are ignoring Obama's side show with Republicans. They are pressuring Harry Reid to use reconciliation to pass the public option.
The benefits for everyone are enormous. The public option continues to be the most popular legislative proposal of Obama's presidency consistently polling close to 60% approval. If the Democrats pass the public option it will not only be transformative for healthcare reform and be the most beneficial piece of legislation since the Civil Rights Act, but it will also save the Democrats from heavy losses in the fall elections.
With the public option passing, the Democrats can beat back almost every Republican challenge and November will be a disaster, not for the Democrats but for the Republicans.
On the other hand if the public option is not passed, the bitter disappointment among rank and file Democrats and the 61% of independents that favor the public option will lead the Demcrats to massive defeats. And Republicans know it.
The number of signatures on the letter to Reid to pass the public option using reconciliation is now 22 Democratic senators.
If they succeed they will not only save healthcare reform, save lives, and transform the country's healthcare system, they will save the Democratic party in the fall. And that might be the only thing that can save Obama too.
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