Posted on 02/26/2010 3:31:56 AM PST by Scanian
Yesterday's health sum mit was mind-bogglingly, soul-achingly, sand- poundingly, metaphysically and ontologically boring.
At one point, I could swear, Sen. Mitch McConnell was counting fibers in the carpet just to stay awake.
Of course, real negotiations never happen in front of cameras, because to cut a real political deal in public is the political equivalent of cutting your own throat.
But just because the scripts were written beforehand doesn't mean that everyone's lines worked.
Obama opened by striking a pose of plausible fairness and open-mindedness but grew more and more snarky and less presidential as the event wore on. His condescension to Sen. John McCain -- "We're not campaigning any more, the election's over" -- pleased everyone who already loves him and nobody who doesn't.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
For the average person (not political junkies), this was a borefest.
What a great idea! Expose the nutbag president to SIX hours of TV reality. Damn hard to control all of the soundbites produced by this marathon. They won’t be talking about this mistake for long!
The fool hasnt stopped campaigning since he took ofice.
Merely another presentation to market a tyrant in a tie.
Of course, real negotiations never happen in front of cameras, because to cut a real political deal in public is the political equivalent of cutting your own throat.
IMHO, cutting deals out of sight of public view will have the same effect as cutting . . . throats . . . self-slit or not.
From all sides of the electorate expectations were too high, considering the lack of close connection of Congress with the people who elected them.
Too bad.
Looks to me like Democrats . . . mostly . . . lost the opportunity for true 'reconciliation,' and may pay the political price come the mid-term elections.
We'll see.
R.
Overall you are right but the Six Minutes of Paul Ryan was worth watching they could have called it right there it was over. That Guy was great
I call BS.
Pardon my dissent but I disagree with (most) of this.
The first three hours were very good drama. The only reason to call those first three hours “boring” are if your team (0bama and his minions) was losing, as in being made to look like a fool.
And I’m not talking about interesting just for political junkies, either. This is the POTUS talking about the most controversial subject in several generations, literally has life, death, health, taxes, bankruptcy and our very freedoms at stake, and the opposition is viewed as weak and ineffectual. The stakes couldn’t be much higher in this game of chicken.
But the weak, ineffectual underdogs came out swinging and bloodied the nose of the King of the Hill. There was confrontation. There was conflict. There was laughter (stifled but still there.) It ended up with the powerful majority led by their charismatic moderator being humiliated by their own ridiculous stories, their lack of serious responses to challenges and their increasingly panicked and emotional leader.
Sorry, this “boring” stuff is sour grapes propaganda re: the first session. After that I agree completely. The cable stations understandably stopped covering it in its entirety.
I think they could have done much better on Obozo’s nose job. The Republicans should have sat every doctor in their ranks at that meeting. Tehy could preface every rebutal to him with, “well I am a doctor and these are the facts as I know them from personal experience.”
Yes, you are entirely right. My post is written from the point of view of our expectations of the pubbies which was really, really low.
But they came through. Lamar Alexander started off GREAT and the bench was deep. Even McCain got a couple good, hard shots in. That was a surprise.
Kudos Pubbies!
This is distressing news. The 0bama minions are out there saying they are "so close" to the pubbie position that, in just a couple weeks, it will magically make sense to go ahead with reconcilliation because the pubbies are just not going to "be constructive."
John McCain, are you paid to undermine our side?
I'm fuming over this news but thank you for it.
I thought McCain came off as a submissive. He is at the knees of the “president”.
He attempted some limited puffery but was scolded like a child.
He sat there and took it like a slave to a master.
I am a political junkie and even I couldn’t stand it!
I’m glad that we are able to get such good analysis here on FR from people who have stronger stomachs than I.
That event was nothing more than Obama playing Kommunity Organizer via Alinsky and set a dangerous precedent in usurping the separation of powers by treating the legislative branch as a wing of the executive branch.
I can understand why 0bama supporters were bored. ‘Rats monopolized more than two-thirds of the summit, only offering predicable sob stories about health care woes, (and recycled false teeth.)
President Obama spoke for 119 minutes,
other Democrats for 114 minutes,
and Congressional Republicans for 110 minutes
What is amazing to me is the mis-informed reporting by all the Fox News talking heads and ‘journalists’ who seem to think Senate reconciliation is the next step in the process.
Exactly.
This "oh that was boring" drivel is also a way to say no to future dislpays of 0b0z0's incompetent narcissisism. Everybody knows he came off as ignorant, petulant and un-repentant.
They really *don't* want transparency if it involves The One trying to do something useful. He never succeeds. They will fight tooth and nail to keep him OFF the tube for these events.
I watched the entire event and agree with your analysis.
Correction: I agree with Paulycy
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