Posted on 11/02/2010 5:14:49 AM PDT by markomalley
"We can run on this," David Axelrod, President Obama's chief political strategist, said nine months ago as Congress debated Obamacare. On Tuesday, the president's party appears poised to lose control of the House and to be reduced to dependence on Vice President Joe Biden's tiebreaking vote to retain vestigial power in the Senate. Axelrod's advice surely ranks among the worst campaign miscalculations in American political history. And it is indeed difficult to account for an error of such magnitude without thinking that Obama and Axelrod ignored what they surely could see with their own eyes.
The evidence was certainly there for everybody to see early on. A clear majority of Americans expressed doubts about Obamacare in 2009 as soon as they became aware of its central feature: putting government bureaucrats between patients and their doctors. Their doubts solidified into determined opposition during 2009's long hot summer of tempestuous Town Hall meetings. The opposition grew stronger still as the months ticked by despite repeated "new" efforts by Obama and his allies in Congress and the liberal mainstream media to "sell" Obamacare.
It appeared that the Obamacare drive stalled in January when Massachusetts voters put Republican Scott Brown in the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. But House Speaker Nancy Pelosi persuaded Obama to ignore chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who counseled stepping back, and instead to push forward against all opposition. There followed the Cornhusker Kickback, the Louisiana Purchase and other corrupt closed-door deals to buy critically needed Senate votes. Then came Pelosi's infamous "Deem and Pass" rule that forced an up-or-down vote in the House with little debate and no floor amendments even as thousands protested outside the Capitol. Obamacare was thus passed into law, and the opposition began demands for its repeal.
Worried Democrats might have taken solace on the campaign trail in September from Sen. Charles Schumer's July promise that voters would become Obamacare supporters as the measure's initial "benefits" took effect. Instead, the polls showed consistent majorities month after month supporting repeal of Obamacare. Obama said over and over that Americans would be able to keep their private health insurance, but in October thousands of people working for major companies like Boeing and McDonalds discovered it was a hollow promise. As the campaign entered its final weeks, the only Democrats talking about Obamacare were the few who had voted against it.
So here we are. Rasmussen Reports says 58 percent favor repeal of Obamacare. The Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds that 55 percent of voters favor congressional candidates pledged to repeal Obamacare. Facing such bleak prospects, Democrats now can only dream of what might have been had Obama listened to Emanuel instead of Pelosi.
The Democrats were willing to throw away their majority to achieve their ideological goals. They’ve put in place the means to get to a single payer system. They’re drawing the opposite lesson from this from what every one else is drawing. The political blood-letting is worth it. Obamacare can’t be repealed. And they’re willing to bet that they can revive it the next time they’re back in power. The heavy lifting has already been done.
Axelrod you magnificent idiot!
“Bammy is the best thing to hit DC since the New Deal. Obamacare has two generations worth of horse trading in it for the K st crowd and Congress.
Both ‘Bammy and ‘BammyCare will be with us for quite sometime yet to come....unless the DC equation is totally re-written.
Exactly, I’ve been noticing the whistling past the graveyard act as well. I say GOOD FOR THEM! That attitude will lead to more ignorance of what ‘We The People’ want, and more November slaughters in the future. It will also continue the steady decline of the MSM.
It was an exercise in raw power by Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. They knew the overwhelming majority of the people were against it, yet they enacted it anyway, without even knowing everything that was in it. Today hopefully starts payback time.
GB58:
It will take multiple runs up the hill to repeal Obamacare. The initial vote in the House and (hopefully) the Senate will tell America exactly where every elected rep in DC stands on the issue. Those who vote against repeal and must stand for re-election in 2012 will place a huge bullseye on their back for angry Americans to take out in the primaries and on election day. This alone will scare the RINOs and milquetoasts into voting for a repeal.
The dems have 20 senate seats on the line in 2012 including Ben Nelson. How many of them will vote to repeal just to save their skins?
If Obama vetos a repeal and the vote in the house and senate is close enough, they can vote to overturn the veto. That’s when we really see who walks the walk and who is just talking the talk (i.e., it’s okay to vote for repeal as a dem if you KNOW the Pres will veto - but if there is a vote to overturn the veto every voter is looking at you when it really counts).
Plus, we get the added bonus of an Obama veo firing up the right wing to oust his backside in 2012 and elect a President who will sign a repeal into law.
Win the battles - win the war.
Obamacare was the last straw. The whole thing started in Bush’s term when both Democrats and Republicans wouldn’t listen to us re immigration reform, the Dubai ports deal (they finally got that message), cap and trade and TARP.
Then came the bailouts and Obamacare and they just refused to take into account anything we said. Phone lines were jammed, fax and email boxes overflowed, town meetings were packed, but they just ignored all of it and voted against the will of the people.
It was any distinct issue that triggered the outrage - it was a decade or more of elitism and arrogance.
When you consistently govern against the will of the people, you better brush up your resume, because they are going to toss you out unceremoniously. This is pink slip day.
But it is mainly because Americans are sensing theyr lost of freedom!
Never Retreat, Never Surrender!
Burn them to the ground, for it is better to die free than live as a slave!
Do not play games...
I am 58 too, and my brain cells are not dying by the millions...
You do know you are right!
Don’t forget the “taunt walk” conducted by Pelosi with her “giant gavel”.
“Yeah, we just shoved it down your throat, and you can’t do anything about it. We’re out here to try to provoke you to a violent act so that we can do what we really want to do - punish you with the power of the state for disagreeing with us.”
I DO have the answer for you.
There may be a way to thwart this strategy, but I still believe it’s a good one.
Have Congressional staff comb through 0bamacare,
finding the most egregious regulations and freedom encroaching rules.
Put these, INDIVIDUALLY, into repeal bills, and post them on the internet for all to see.
Pass them INDIVIDUALLY, and make 0bama veto them (exposing him), or pass them, repealing egregious parts of the law.
Yeah, I thought the same thing. Emamuel was in there for it all along.
UNLESS OBAMACARE IS REPEALED, OBAMA WINS. Socialized medicine puts us on the glide path to becoming a socialist state.
“Medicine is the cornerstone of the arch of the revolution,” Vladimir Lenin.
Valid point. But get the vote in the House so we know who’s with us and who’s against us.
84% of the American people told them we were happy with the healthcare we had.
They said, “No, we have something better for you” - whether you want it or not and of course it is not good enough for US just YOU.
Because of that cavalier attitude toward our very lives, they have and will be my mortal enemy from that day forward.
You are correct. They paid the price for their beliefs. They voted as Communists. Repeal is imposssible immediately—but implementation can be delayed until we get a president who will sign the repeal. If we do not defund it, and win the White House, our Republic is doomed. I will be looking for other places to invest because America will resemble Venezuela.
COURAGE IS NEEDED. And we need Republicans who are willing to fall on their swords. The MEDIA ONSLAUGHT WILL BE FORMIDABLE!!!!! We’ll see.
“safety in numbers just like a herd threatened by predators. “
Yes and we know how that ends:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU8DDYz68kM
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