"Americans thought Obama was a moderate. He certainly sounded like one. But now he is attempting to remake one seventh of the economy in a quick march of party-line votes. In the process, he has alienated independents in large numbers -- even in Massachusetts."
And so the pendulum swings.
Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
▼
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
40 comments:
You own views are appreciated, especially if they differ from mine. But remember, commenting is a privilege, not a right. I will delete personal attacks or off-topic remarks at my discretion. Comments that play into the tribalism that has consumed this nation will be declined. So will comments alleging voter fraud unless backed up by concrete evidence. If you attack someone personally, I expect you to identify yourself. I will delete criticisms of my comment policy, vulgarities, cut-and-paste jobs from other sources and any suggestion of violence towards anyone. I will also delete sweeping generalizations about mainstream parties or ideologies, i.e. identity politics. My decisions on these matters are made on a case by case basis, and may be affected by my mood that day, my access to the blog at the time the comment was made or other information that isn’t readily apparent.
Democrts are unhappy with their own party because there is not enough promised action...Democrats are overwhelmingly disappointed with concessions in the anti healthcare movement. The fact that 1/7 of our economy is based on death and sickness and we are the only country even with an industry like that is not healthy. We should be producing and manufacturing things and most companies can't because they can't afford to compete with foreign healthcare systems that are cheaper and more effective. When your nation's economic health depends on the lack of physical health for its citizens, you're on a doomed path.
ReplyDeleteWorst financial crisis in 80 years, your administration spends the year humping the legs of banks, and as more people are losing coverage to unemployment than will be covered in the first 3 years of your plan, you decide to talk about mandating people without employer coverage to buy insurance in the private market and now you are scratching your head on why your party lost a seat in the 2nd most liberal mecca of the union.
ReplyDeleteIs the email I sent to the President tonight.
The winner ran a harsh anti-Obama campaign and won easily in a communist state. Obama is Jimmy Carter with arguably lighter skin. He'll end up making GW look impressive. It's rewarding to watch this phony lawyer's agenda go down in flames. Mmm, mmm, mmm. Cue the brown shirted zombie school children ...
ReplyDeleteLast night Juan Williams said on Fox News that no matter what, the White House will move forward with the Health Care bill. His comments were challenged, but he was steadfast in his belief no matter what the public wants,
ReplyDeletetheir thoughts will not matter.
Bad time for Democrats. Support for health care is waning among Dems because they're seeing that even after all the effort to get Obama and a majority in Congress, the interests of Wall Street and big corporations are still put above the small businessman, the middle class, and the working man. There is frustration that whether you vote for a Dem or a Rep, you'll still get screwed so why fight to get a Dem in power? It's easy to to be a Rep, fight for the status quo which is zero economic growth ever since 2000 and a healthcare system that is economically unsustainable. Dems are just crawling back into bed and putting the covers over their heads and now the Cosmo centerfold won.
ReplyDeleteHow is a "Cheyney-like teabagger's" (Sen. Charles Shumer's description) win a victory for the center?
ReplyDeleteI never thought I'd say this, but Democrats should follow Bill Clinton's example. He knew (or learned by 1994) that the majority of the American people did not favor liberal progams and above all else realized the state of the economy was paramount.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, there is a shadow party within the Democrat party who are idealogues, which includes Pelosi, Reid, and yes, Obama. I believe they would not care if they lost re-election so long as a left agenda was advanced.
but he was steadfast in his belief no matter what the public wants,
ReplyDeletetheir thoughts will not matter.
I agree, the Democrats know what you want better than what you do.
.
Massachusetts practiced diversity a little last night. Hopefully, they'll come to like it.
Anon 12:18: 1/7 of our economy is based on health care because we have made a free choice of the relative importance of health care. Why on earth do you think you can tell me where to spend 1/7 of my personal property. And I'd bet that if government got out of the health care business, that number would be 10%.
ReplyDeleteThe American people have belatedly realized that the Obama Presidential Campaign was a total fraud and they are acting on this new knowledge. Although his senate record, writings and commentary and personal associations clearly revealed a person far to the left politically of the American mainstream he ran and was portrayed (with the almost total collaboration of the media) as a moderate.
ReplyDeleteObama would be wise to again pretend to be a moderate, otherwise more of what we saw last night is down the road for the Democratic Party. I predict that because he has become intoxicated by the slavish press devotion and endless praise he will fail to make the necessary political adjustments. I don’t doubt for a minute that this very intelligent man now believes in the infallibility of his own judgments. It is possible to be both brilliant and stupid.
Scott Armstrong
Bernie -
ReplyDeleteScott Brown ran on a platform of tax cuts; stopping the fraud known as Cap and Trade; not giving legal rights to terrorists; and stopping healthcare.
You describe that as the center, I describe that as common sense. Those are also the positions of every conservative I know.
Perhaps it's time we all stop believing the lies the liberal media and liberal left uses to define the "right". The "right" is the center, and it is where the majority of us are in this country. It's time we take back the country.
Hooray! Let's get psyched for ever escalating health care costs! I can't wait to continue paying higher and higher rates to for-profit insurance companies to cover the millions of uninsured people!
ReplyDeleteI don’t doubt for a minute that this very intelligent man now believes in the infallibility of his own judgments.
ReplyDeleteI think his attack on the banks last week was a failed attempt at trying to divert attention from his policy failures. His an attack was an admission he's not playing well in Peoria anymore.
.
Simple truth is, a man who gave a speech before the SEIU and voting present does not a leader make.
.
It still baffles me as to how people had seen him as a political moderate or center.
the majority of the American people did not favor liberal progams
ReplyDeleteDidn't those same people just overwhelmingly vote for this president and his programs a little over a year ago? Word of the day: fickle.
Coakley was lame and made too many gaffes.
ReplyDeleteCoakley ran a lousy campaign, Brown ran a great one.
ReplyDeleteI hope that unlike 1994 health care stays on table because changes have to be made, but I can't tell you how happy I am that the current bill is dead. It was a disaster in the making.
The Banker
Ain't it cool?!!
ReplyDeleteAnd Scott, you don't have to push the "very intelligent man" meme in order to appease the lefties you want to accept your point. It is a false claim that Obama has not proven by deed or transcript.
The myth that he is super duper smart, along with his Il duce chin-in-the-air persona, is what the electorate bought into hook, line and sinker.
Looking To Escape,
ReplyDeleteIt is called Kool-Aid and, apparently, there is an inexhuastable supply.
Stay vigilant.
For the first time in my adult life -
ReplyDeleteI am not "ashamed" to say I went to the liberal University of Massachusetts at Amherst!
Cambridge voters acted stupidly.
ReplyDelete"Hooray! Let's get psyched for ever escalating health care costs!"
ReplyDeleteCentral, The Senate bill, you may recall, does very little about that.
Everybody agrees on the need for reform. Congressman Dent believes there is agreement on as much as 85% of these reforms. Why couldn't Obama have crafted a measure on which there is agreement, at least for starters? I voted for him bc I thought he was willing to work with both parties and advocated transparency. He broke those pledges. Instead of change, he represents the same business as usual that we had under Bush or when Republicans were in charge.
The American people have made very clear that they do not like being misled. it is not so much the health care reforms, which no one really understands, but the pure partisanship and "ram it down your throat" tactics.
It's a shame that Obama the President is nothing like Obama the candidate.
The "very intelligent man" just 1 minute ago said that 5 billion dollars, if invested in education, would cover the cost of a college education for half a million students."
ReplyDeleteDo the math, and then tell me where that college is.
Who needs intellect when you've got confidence AND gravitas.
Il Duce! Il Duce!
Many of us believe that President Obama is exactly the manifestation of candidate Obama we expected. His airy rhetoric and voters' deep hatred for Bush so mesmerized the majority, they failed to investigate the details.
ReplyDeleteNow, the hangover is on; with the full effects of Obama's breathtaking debt, sustained high unemployment, handouts to unions and banks and big pharma and big insurance, secret meetings, backroom deals, and support for a wildly unpopular health care scheme.
He was still blaming Bush as late as last Thursday at some event. This, from the man who promised his spending stimulus scheme would keep unemployment from reaching 8%. He made a bad economy exponentially worse by exploding our debt and weakening our dollar. He owns it now and is the only one in the country who apparently doesn't realize it. Massachusetts voters certainly do.
Clinton quickly overcame his tone-deafness, as many governors are quick to do. Senators are elitist and detached and have traditionally made poor presidents.
My expectations of Obama have been precisely met.
RYLOCK -- ARE YOU THERE? RYLOCK -- RESPOND!
ReplyDeleteWE NEED YOUR SPIN RYLOCK!
GEETING ARE YOU THERE? GEETING -- RESPOND!
RISING SUN, COME IN OVER! KWIATEK, COME IN!
OH, GOD THE ENTIRE LIBERAL PLATOON HAS BEEN WIPED OUT!
Anon 10:58,
ReplyDeleteWhy the caps?
Rylock, aka Ryan O'Donnell, aka Mr. Independent, has already claimed, on his own blog, that this has nothing to do with Obama and that the Dem just ran a poor campaign and Obama's approval ratings are through the roof and blah, blah, blah.
Inasmuch as the Republican candidate made health care reform the issue in this race, and really ran against Obama, I disagree.
This election is an indictment of Obama's first year as president. The CHANGE that people hoped for, never happened. Instead of bringing people together, they are further apart than ever. Even now, Dems are plotting a way to ram legislation down our throats before the Republican can be seated.
The economy is in the tank, and Obama tinkers with cap-and-trade and health care "reforms" that will end up costing us more money.
If Obama has any sense, and I still think he does, he will get this message and try to do better.
Thank you for not blaming that on me, O'Hare.
ReplyDeleteIPP
Congressman Dent believes there is agreement on as much as 85% of these reforms. Why couldn't Obama have crafted a measure on which there is agreement, at least for starters?
ReplyDeleteOn one hand you said there was 85% agreement and on the other you decry the fact that there is no agreement. By the way, do you think an 85% concession is fair? Ever hear the phrase "elections have consequences?"
I decry the fact that NONE of the suggestions advanced by Rs, some of which were reasonable, were considered. They were shut out of the process.
ReplyDeleteWhen the heart rules the mind.
ReplyDeleteOne look and love is blind.
When the heart rules the mind.
President Obama is what you will find.
(and policies such as Cap and Tax)
Polling in Mass is showing that Brown's win was a protest message from Dems that Obama isn't going far enough. Progressives have seized on the chaos and the polling numbers above to argue that the message voters sent was that Democrats haven't been bold enough. So far, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Senate to put the public option back into the health care bill and pass it using the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which only requires 50 votes plus the vice president. Very similar to why Norco Council went REp
ReplyDeletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/20/obama-backers-more-commit_n_429673.html
"So far, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Senate to put the public option back into the health care bill . . ."
ReplyDeleteBut there's like 80 or 90 million voters in the country.
Obamacare is as dead as his promise to keep unemployment from reaching 8%. Progressives are a laughing stock who've finally been properly marginalized. Just like the Daily Kos poll that showed a dead heat, they are in denial and look foolish. Phone your office. It's time to govern from the middle or be governed by the other side in less than a year.
ReplyDeleteI just spent three days in Massachusetts on the phones, knocking doors and driving the polls. Let me tell you folks, I spoke to hundreds of the voters up there personally. Healthcare and growth of government was the dealbreaker. I heard it firsthand.
ReplyDeleteSo...speculate all that you want! I was there, I spoke to the people, and, as an old campaigner, the excitement for Brown was amazing. The people there felt that they had a voice for the first time in a very long time.
I decry the fact that NONE of the suggestions advanced by Rs, some of which were reasonable, were considered. They were shut out of the process.
ReplyDeleteThe 85% of the bill they did agree on were all Democrat ideas? I can believe it. But if so, what does that tell you about the GOP's desire to address the problem? I think they'd rather the entire system blow up than allow this President to succeed. I'd say the same thing about the Democratic minority under Bush too.
Lady Rep - You were there and spoke to those predisposed to Brown's candidacy, right? Your anecdote hardly tells the whole story. Look at the polling data. Specifically, Obama voters that voted for Brown.
ReplyDeleteO'Hare's best buddy, Sam Bennett, was a talking head on Hardball tonight. She was on talking about the Mass Senate race.
ReplyDelete" Anonymous said...
ReplyDeletePolling in Mass is showing that Brown's win was a protest message from Dems that Obama isn't going far enough. Progressives have seized on the chaos and the polling numbers above to argue that the message voters sent was that Democrats haven't been bold enough. So far, more than 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the Senate to put the public option back into the health care bill and pass it using the parliamentary maneuver known as reconciliation, which only requires 50 votes plus the vice president. Very similar to why Norco Council went REp
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/20/obama-backers-more-commit_n_429673.html"
Please keep believing this.
Scott Armstrong
Sam Bennett on Hardball? That almost makes me want to order cable.
ReplyDeleteTo CS:
ReplyDeleteI was there and I spoke to voters from all three demographics (R, D, I). I spoke to a 73 year old woman who is a life-long Dem. She had been in a car accident in December and has only been out of the house for therapy since then. Going out to vote for Brown was her first trip out of the house for anything but therapy. She was very worried about what has been going on in DC. I have any number of stories like that.
Keep justifying whatever you want. I spoke to all.
My thoughts on Senator-Elect Scott Brown's election win.
ReplyDelete