Posted on 09/20/2009 7:54:47 PM PDT by mathprof
President Obama intends to keep wooing the public to support for his health care goals in a scheduled Monday night appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Polls suggest he has had mixed results so far.
Most critical, however, is his private effort to persuade one person: Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine.
And that effort appears to be going very well.
Ms. Snowe has not endorsed either Democratic health care bill in the Senate. No Republican has.
But in an interview, she offered a surprisingly robust endorsement of Mr. Obama’s skepticism about expanding government too much, his willingness to accommodate different views and his assertion that Washington must act now after decades of failure.
Those views directly contradict the assertions of Republican leaders, who accuse Mr. Obama of pursuing a radical expansion of government, spurning dialogue and unduly rushing to enact his agenda. Ms. Snowe’s analysis of the discrepancy: she has maintained traditional Republican principles over 30 years in Washington, while her party has moved past them to the right.
“I haven’t changed as a Republican,” she said. “I think more that my party has changed.”
The significance of the Obama-Snowe relationship lies not in the prospect that the president will replicate it with many, or even any, other Republicans. To achieve his objectives, Ms. Snowe may be the only Republican he needs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
ROFL. The GOP will fund her campaign just like they did for Chafee.
The only way to beat Snowe is if someone runs 3rd party. If that causes the Dem to win, so be it.
It's not going to matter whether she votes for it or not, because
# 1. Too many Democratic Senators are behind in the polls right now, even in strongly Democratic states like Connecticut, for every Democratic Senator to vote for a bill that most Americans are adamantly against.
# 2. There are some 50 Democratic congressmen in the House, who won in Republican districts in 2008, and face almost certain defeat if they make the mistake of voting for this horrendous bill. They are not going to turn themselves into Kamikaze pilots and commit political suicide for the greater glory of “The One”.
I was hoping Senator Johnson would remain weak and need to be replaced.
Most importantly, most people in Maine do NOT buy this program.
ping
I hope the GOP, Snowe and others are smart enough to pretend they are interested and say “oh yeah that sounds good” then just drift off.
Obama and the Dems are going crazy because the Dems have the votes but they are not gonna vote for it.
Hairy Reid is probably toast in 2010 and no way he is gonna touch this. His only hope ion Nevada is for the economy to pick up and under Hussein - it “ain’t” gonna happen.
GOP just stand aside and let the Dems flounder. I think this is the best thing the GOP has done in ages - nothing.
LOL! Kamakaze pilot House Blue Dog Dems! LOL!
Yeah Hairy Reid may be toast in Nevada and he is not gonna vote for it. Hopefully - I think they made such a mess of this that no matter how much lipstick they put on this pig and even make major changes - Dems are not gonna vote for it.
The public is FURIOUS and the economy gets worse by the day. Meanwhile Hussein keeps doing his muslim and marxist bosses biddy. Now he wants to bailout newspapers.
You know I gave you the benefit of the doubt at first, but with comments like this I am now convinced that you are a Democrat shill.
John Harwood is the ultimate biased “correspondent”. He’s the main reason I watch FBN over CNBC now. His ugly mug turns my stomach.
So much for bi-partisanship. Obviously the NYT no longer cares for that. The game is to get any votes, even if it’s one Republican (even 0 Republican, as long as the votes are there) to pass this monstrosity.
Harwood has proven himself to be a reliably liberal D-Bag (especially since his departure from the WSJ), so I think the chances of this being complete BS are good. Snow is on record as saying she won't be the only Republican to vote for this.
Having said that, I'm not entirely convinced she wouldn't bolt the GOP for (temporarily) greener pastures - and maybe a committee chairmanship if it's offered - in the Dumicratic party. If Obama can't get Snowe, he won't be able to get the handful of Dem senators, from the redder states, that he needs to jam this through just using reconciliation, to say nothing of getting the 60 he needs to bust a filibuster.
I’ve been a member here since you were in diapers.
She’s doesn’t need a promise not to run a rat, she’s sickeningly popular. The rats know she’s with them most of the time so always wins in a landslide.
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