Drum on Obama’s and Congressional Democrats’ Testicles
Kevin Drum has the following blunt advice on what should happen next with healthcare reform: Time to Grow a Pair.
This really is a defining moment for both Obama and the Democratic Party more broadly. So far both have failed miserably: the party is in a state of meltdown, surrendering completely to a resurgent Republican narrative, refusing to fight for anything it believes in, and caving in to a truly toxic combination of electoral fear and narrow interest group parochialism. For his part, Obama seems either unable or unwilling to rally his troops. I’m not sure which. But the American public really needs to hear some conviction from him, and so far they haven’t. He’s remained aloof from the healthcare upheaval, pivoted on financial regulation in a way that looks driven more by politics than by core beliefs, and has just generally sounded more chastened than reinvigorated.
This really needs to turn around fast. Another week like this — hell, another day or two like this — and we might as well start measuring the Oval Office drapes for the upcoming Cheney/Palin administration. It’s time for everyone to take a deep breath and grow a pair. Today would be a good time to start.
I happen to think Drum is exactly right. It’s not clear from this excerpt, but what he (and a lot of other smart people) are calling for is for the Democrats in the House to just pass the Senate version of healthcare reform, to avoid sending it back to the Senate where a 41-vote Republican minority could kill it procedurally.
I’m really not sure what’s going to happen. I think Obama means well, and has the ability to make (some) things happen. But I don’t know if that’s enough to turn things around in the face of the demonstrable collective cravenness of the House Democratic caucus.
Update: The same message, in video form, with beer and bikinis. Now how much would you pay?
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Sometimes getting nothing is better than getting something bad. Make of that what you will.
January 22nd, 2010 at 3:50 pm
Update: I kind of want some beer now.
January 22nd, 2010 at 7:10 pm
On increasingly rare occasions I slip over to one of my old haunts, I descend with a little more grace and a lot less speed than I did in my youth and invariably there is the poor sap struggling, nearly in tears with his friends a couple hundred yards below him impatiently imploring him to hurry up, go faster, calling him a pussy, the friends finally give up and move on(.org) leaving the fool to flounder and ultimately fail. These were the same friends that a short memory ago told him he was good enough for the black slopes when he had really only mastered the greens and was only marginally comfortable with the blues.
My guess is this young man Obama will continue to be frustrated while those in congress say “go ahead, we’ll stay over here on the blues where we’re comfortable”.
January 24th, 2010 at 7:43 am
Obama needs to distance himself from the entire healthcare issue before Pelosi and company dump it in his lap. Whatever the merits or relative problems of the Healthcare Bill, it’s pretty much over, and a deep liability for whomever ends up holding the bag. The Administration needs to focus on jobs and credit card reform, which are two issues of real concern to practically every American. Barack Obama was not elected because the public was clamoring for healthcare reform; he was elected – Iraq aside, for the moment – because the economy was a mess, preditory lending practices were casting thousands of Americans out of their homes and nobody had a job. To use a medcial metaphor, the Obama administration making healthcare reform the over-riding issue at a time when the county is in this bad an economic shape is like an emergency room doctor making a big deal about a patient’s cholestorol while ignoring the gaping chest wound that’s gushing blood all over the floor. This is pretty much a no-brainer to most of us who aren’t bloggers, but I guess we all can’t be as brilliant as Kevin Drum and the liberal brain trust who advised Obama into this quagmire.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Yes, it is the bloggers’ fault that Obama’s performance has been disappointing. Thanks for the laugh.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:23 am
I think many in the public see healthcare reform as a distraction because it’s taken so long. They should have just passed meaningful reform last spring and moved on to the next items, such as jobs and financial reform as LB said above. Now it looks like they spent months and months for nothing while the economy still struggles.
They were severely out manoeuvred by the opposition and they’re in for a pounding in November if they don’t get their act together, and fast. The base has absolutely nothing to be excited about. Nothing.
January 25th, 2010 at 6:25 am
And that commercial pretty much says it all.
January 28th, 2010 at 11:49 pm
NL, this looks like the CBC:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtGSXMuWMR4&feature=player_embedded
(saw it on boing boing)