Posted on 12/16/2009 11:37:05 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
President Obama is about to accomplish what many previous Democratic presidents have tried to do, and failed. At least that's what the White House spin would be, and it will largely be echoed throughout the Democratic Party. No, they will say, the health care reform bill won't have a public option, but it will extend coverage to millions of people and provide a framework to build on for the future. You would expect the liberals who put him in office to be thrilled. They're not.
Here are a couple of highlights from the liberal blogosphere:
Taylor Marsh (Huffington Post)
"Pres. Obama is desperate for "a win" on health care (and everyone, especially Joe Lieberman, knows it), because he took for granted that it would be easy to get it done. Naive doesn't even come close to the President's miscalculation, but that's what happens when you stand too long looking into the reflecting pool."
Dan Riehl (RiehlWorldView)
"Several times the legislative bodies called out for leadership. But there was never any - not even once. Does he want a public option, or does he not want it? You couldn't even answer that question today with any genuine conviction other than perhaps, well he'll give it up if it means getting a bill.
From a hallmark agenda item to a bill, just any bill will do? That's failure writ large. And the failure is Obama's and no one else's to own, even if he'll try to massage the message, or slink away from it, somehow.
And any bill he does get will prove to be a disaster, more likely to anger both the Right and his Left base than it is likely to make anyone happy at all. If there's any one word to sum up Obama's first year, even if he does get a bill, any bill - it's failure. And Barack Obama is the failure's name."
Jane Hamsher (FireDogLake)
"Instead, President Obama cut sweetheart deals with medical industry stakeholders (let’s stop pretending that Rahm doesn’t work for him) and insisted that all the power in the Democratic Congress be given to its most conservative members to deliver on it. Joe Lieberman didn’t get here by himself — the day Harry Reid said reconciliation was “off the table,” Joe had the keys to the kingdom.
The “public option” was a way to keep as much money as possible from being channeled into the “too big to fail” insurance companies, who continue to merge and consolidate and will use it to lobby to further empower themselves. It was a strike against a “shock doctrine” effort to mandate payment to private companies, and preemptively privatizes the system.
The list of Obama's transgressions against his base continues to grow: sending more troops to Afghanistan, possibly asking Congress for authority to indefinitely hold detainees at the "new" Guantanamo and losing the public option."
I'm not surprised that he has disappointed many of the people who once supported him (it always happens), but this level of enmity so soon into his term is surprising. In order to win the nomination in 2008 and overcome the Clinton machine, Obama had to build up the hype to ridiculous levels. There was not nearly as much expected from Bill Clinton or George W. Bush from their supporters (especially in the first year) when they were elected. It culminated in Obama's famous June 2008 "rise of the oceans" speech where he claimed the Democratic nomination:
"The journey will be difficult. The road will be long. I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations. But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people. Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on earth. This was the moment—this was the time—when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves and our highest ideals. Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America."
I think that many liberals who are disappointed at least expected that if he lost the public option he would go down swinging (although some probably thought he would achieve all of his campaign pledges easily). By 2012, he might think he has plenty of progressive achievements: regulating carbon through the EPA, quasi-universal health care, closing Guantanamo. The left might look at all of that and see: failure to get cap and trade passed, a giant health insurance industry giveaway and simply moving Guantanamo to a different location.
If troops are not being removed from Afghanistan by late 2011, I would not be shocked to see a primary challenge from a liberal hero untainted by the Obama White House (Alan Grayson and Howard Dean come to mind). Meanwhile, of course, Obama will be derided as a socialist by every Republican candidate. Obama is still a very adept politician and excellent campaigner, but his political team has to be very concerned by the growing disappointment at the grassroots level.
The day Obama lost his mojo.
Now I know that mojo=liberal base. Thanks for the clarification.
It is the nature of “rats” to turn on each other when a feeding frenzy is about to occur and that is what they are doing in Congress since the election.
Who gives a damn about Jane Hamsher (Hamster)? She’s a lousy blogger who gets her thrills on the internet or with a cucumber.
Liberal base? How about far-left, marxist/socialist America-haters who are delusional, arrogant, and down right dumb? Oh, sounds like the Boy-King too.
I’m not amazed (nor shocked or appalled) at the vitriol coming out of the “liberals” -Left. This is their stock & trade, their real personna, examples of their dementia, and a sign of how mentally ill they really are.
If you have ever tangled with the hardcore Left (liberals as pussies compared to a good psychopathic red), you know who they are and what they are so this series of attacks on Obama are SOP for them.
Loved the old saying that “Communists eat their own”.
Let’s sit on the sidelines and cheer on both sides of these wackos. Go Pelosi, you wack job. Go Dodd, you crook. Go Barney’s Frank (you add the rest of the line).Go Harry “I Wish I had a brain” Reid.
Hey, Maxine Waters, get that beaver off your head.
Arriana Huffington - how do you like what your blogsite has become - a bastian of hatermongering, anti-semitism, and psychocentral?
Encourage the Left to tear themselves apart. Our job will be to shoot the survivors in the November elections. Take no prisoners, rape the cattle, shoot the women, shave the men, or whatever. Damned. I’m beginning to sound like a domestic Taliban. Gotta lay off the cheese after midnight.
Obama is a narcissitic, arrogant, delusional fool and so are his followers and left critics. Let them destroy themselves. It is getting to be quite a show.
Sit back, pop a soda, pop some popcorn, and order pizza. It’s gonna be a long and beautiful, calory-filled year.
Bon appetit!
I was reading some of the comments over at Huff-N-Puff and they are BIG TIME PO’ed at Obama and Harry Reid.
Many are threatening to withhld their votes for Dems in the next election if they fail to pass health care with a public option.
LMAO, ToTheMax!
That was great!
As each day passes.....I become more and more disgusted with what America has gotten herself into.
To think that the majority of Americans voted for this evil man.....is really depressing.
It’s possible that we have gone over the edge and that there is no going back.
I don’t know what Republican candidates will call Obummer, but perceptive conservatives will know (and say only if the circumstances are just right) that BHO is not a socialist, not a simple communist, not even a run of the mill Marxist, but a Stalinist who must either become the Ruler of this nation by way of a stealthy but bloody coup, die trying, or flee before the anger at him boils over.
I went to the listed blogs to give them a hint or two of how we see the Buffoon-in-Chief, but after reading a few lines, gave up on feeding their their folly, and stayed just a little while to LMAO at them!
I don’t think he’s lost them yet, but he’s on the verge.
That’s surely a defeatist attitude you harbor.
Believe me, my brother is about as hard core left as they come. They think nothing of doing what they need to do to accomplish their own ends. And there is absolutely no reasoning with them-no matter how rational you are. Ask a simple question like, “How are we going to pay for health care?” and they’ll respond, “We just need it.” They are hateful (look at Sarah Palin) and liars (look at Climategate). Every Democrat in Congress is just like this including the Blue Dogs. Anyone who believes you can rationalize with these people (like Graham, McCain, etc.) don’t understand them and are naive to a point of being a threat to this way of life.
These Democrats are all socialists, hell-bent on achieving their own end and they have showed their spots over health care. What stands between the conservatives who understand and the left are the RINOS who believe the Democrats are simply nice people who have a different view. That is why it is important to get rid of the both the Democrats and the RINOS. Jim Robinson is absolutely right in his position on the RINOS in my opinion. We need hard core conservatives who understand what the opposition REALLY stands for.
“As each day passes.....I become more and more disgusted with what America has gotten herself into.
To think that the majority of Americans voted for this evil man.....is really depressing.
It’s possible that we have gone over the edge and that there is no going back.”
I agree with you. It is why I am happy that I no longer have to live in the USSA.
It has been my contention that at least half of the population has reached the “Peter Principle”.
Many have no concept of just what Obama is.
Everything about his life, except where he was born, is
available for the reading.
One will not, however, hear one word of it from the Marxist MSM.
2010 will be an indication if America has any hope left.
I agree.
2010 is the last opportunity to redeem America....People just don’t want to admit that the devil is real and that he is ALIVE and that HE IS A MARXIST.
Additionally, folks will not admit that the dark side has grown considerably in strength these last 20 years.
I am having a great time tonight on the libtard sites stoking them up.. I know it sounds stupid but it helps me relieve stress.
FINE,
Call me a damned racist BUT I will work tirelessly to defeat this marxist jive ass unAmerican marxist punk.
I can go on but I’d get put BACK in time out.
It is hard to have a Communist Revolution without the Firing Squads.
I peaked over at DU the other day. They’re certainly not happy with the HCR bill. They seem to be siding with Dean...scrap the thing. From what I could gather, from a quick overview, they believe the bill will, in the future, cause the loss of the majority in 2010, and of the WH. Obama is being derided on many threads.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.