Tag Archive for 'barack obama'

On the Money

Published 6 months ago in politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

This about sums it up perfectly (h/t AmericaBlog for this):

President Obama is so wrapped up in his desire to be a different, more conciliatory, beer-summit kind of leader, he ignores some verities.

Sometimes, when you’ve got the mojo, you have to keep your foot on your opponent’s neck. When you’re trying to get a Sisyphean agenda passed, it’s good if people in the way — including rebellious elements in your own party — fear you.

Civil discourse is fine, but when the other side is fighting dirty, you should get angry. Don’t let the bully kick sand in your face. The White House should have impaled death panel malarkey as soon as it came up.

Wanting to set a post-partisan tone in DC is noble, but to have a real post-partisan environment, you need the other side to play ball, and these people don’t want to play ball. When you have that sort of situation, there’s only one real way to handle it. You need to stand up and proclaim loudly, “I want to work with the other side of the aisle, but the obstructionists on the other side have decided to put short-sighted political gain ahead of the needs of the American people, and for this reason, I am directing Congress to forge ahead with this important legislation, whether or not the Republicans want to come along with it.” Tell me that wouldn’t make a statement. Too bad Rahm Emmanuel is calling all the shots from inside the WH and he certainly cares more about what the Blue Dogs think than the people who actually worked to get his boss elected.

Then again, if Obama really did that, DC might explode, and you know the Villagers will never allow that.

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We’re Boned

Published 6 months, 1 week ago in politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

In a recent post over at AmericaBlog that asked readers to offer their opinions on how Obama is handling health care, I offered this point-of-view:

I sum it up as follows: We wanted a leader and we ended up with an idealist. The thing that bothers me is that the Obama administration has become SO hung up on this idea that the legislation has to be bipartisan that he’ll let the Republicans tear it to shreds as long as he can say it was a bipartisan bill.

Well, it looks like the terrorists have won, as today, we hear this:

As to the fate of a government option plan to compete with private insurance, [Obama senior advisor David] Axelrod suggested the controversial concept is gone but not forgotten: "The spirit that led him to support a public option is still very much at play here and so you know he wants competition. He wants choice. "

So we pretty much know the public option, the only real chance that a non-single payer system really ever had in making costs come down without sacrificing care is dead. If it’s not, this is the greatest rope-a-dope ever, but I doubt this. I think what’s really happening is that our Idealist-in-Chief has decided that in order to craft his “bipartisan” legislation (that all the Republicans will vote against anyway, lest they anger St. Rush), he’s scrapping the real reform out of the bill, and the crap we’re left with will be marketed as a real win for the rest of us. Except that, as usual, the only winners here will be the insurance companies and the politicians whose pockets they line.

I guess I’m just a bit sad about this because I stupidly bought into the idea that Obama was going to be a different kind of president. Someone who was going to stand up and fight for things and really deliver the change he campaigned on. While there is still time for him to change all of this, it’s looking more and more like instead of an advocate of real change, we’ve gotten an idealist who has decided his legacy needs to be bringing “bipartisanship” back to Washington, even if it means sacrificing his ideals.

Is it any wonder the Republicans are laughing all of the way back to the ballot box? In January, it seemed like they were a party lost in the wilderness for years to come. Now they look like they could conceivably retake at least one house of Congress next year. Therefore, let’s face the facts: unless things change dramatically, we’re boned.

Will Democrats ever learn?

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Technology is Grand

Published 1 year, 1 month ago in politics and technology. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

You think your camera takes detailed pictures? Check this out. This was taken by some really sophisticated camera equipment is 220 photos stitched together to make a picture that’s the equivalent of 1400 megapixels. You can really zoom in on it to see some neat stuff.

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Hope Dawns Anew

Published 1 year, 4 months ago in politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

I won’t lie. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so proud to be American.

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The First Time

Published 1 year, 4 months ago in politics. 0 Comments Tags: , .

The Chicago Tribune:

Obama is deeply grounded in the best aspirations of this country, and we need to return to those aspirations. He has had the character and the will to achieve great things despite the obstacles that he faced as an unprivileged black man in the U.S.

He has risen with his honor, grace and civility intact. He has the intelligence to understand the grave economic and national security risks that face us, to listen to good advice and make careful decisions.

When Obama said at the 2004 Democratic Convention that we weren’t a nation of red states and blue states, he spoke of union the way Abraham Lincoln did.

It may have seemed audacious for Obama to start his campaign in Springfield, invoking Lincoln. We think, given the opportunity to hold this nation’s most powerful office, he will prove it wasn’t so audacious after all. We are proud to add Barack Obama’s name to Lincoln’s in the list of people the Tribune has endorsed for president of the United States.

Keep in mind here that the Tribune has never endorsed a Democrat for President. Ever. In 161 years of publication. Let that sink in and then realize what it means for the world. I thought so…

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