I just finished reading the Frank Rich piece in the New York Times.
This piece is disturbing, it talks about these crazies walking around with guns slinging on them, but he takes the ridiculousness of Barack Obama and his constant niceness towards the very Republicans that have stabbed him repeatedly in the back.
Again, if there is a teachable moment here for being nice to someone who continues to stab you, let me know, because I just don't get it.
Even now the radicals are taking a nonviolent toll on the Obama presidency. Obama complains, not without reason, that the news media, led by cable television, exaggerate the ruckus at health care events. But why does he exaggerate the legitimacy and clout of opposition members of Congress who, whether through silence or outright endorsement, are surrendering to the nuts? Even Charles Grassley, the supposedly adult Iowa Republican who is the Senate point man for his party on health care, has now capitulated to the armed fringe by publicly parroting their “pull the plug on grandma” fear-mongering.
Well, with staff like Rahm Emanuel and Jim Messina, no wonder Barack Obama is where he is at.
Let's talk about them for a minute.
I am from Chicago, understand the "fuck you get out of my way", mentality of a Rahm Emanuel. He was a young gun, rising star with the Clinton Administration and from there this is the problem. Emanuel is still STUCK on the 90s and how Democrats were then. He has not come to realize the change, power and progress we Democrats have made. That is the real issue here.
Barack Obama is listening to a Chief of Staff that is on the 90s, Clinton Adminstration mode. That worked in the 90s, but this is 2009 and not only has this country voted for a black man to be POTUS, but we voted for CHANGE, PROGRESS. The shit that Emanuel is doing in the White House is disastrous. You don't have the President of the United States continue to compliment, praise the very Republicans that are tearing him down in the national press and on television, DAILY. What the fuck kind of shit is this? Again, this is 2009 not 1993. For the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States repeatedly having him go out there and praise the very persons who are determined to undermind him at every turn is looney and I am being nice.
Emanuel like Clinton never respected or cared about the left, it is true, though Clinton learned a hard lesson from the primaries about the POWER of the left. So, if Emanuel don't care about the left and how WE put Obama in the White House, it is not a shock that he gave the left the big finger of "FUCK YOU". In return, Emanuel got the pressure from the left like he never saw in his life while working for Clinton. But he remains on the course of "loving the Republicans and working for any bill that have their stamp of approval, though the Democrats have 60 in the senate and majority in the house, it really does not matter, getting that stamp of approval from the Republicans in the senate is the major goal". Can I type, "Go blow yourself Rahm?"
Jim Messina worked for Senator Max Baucus and it does not take a rocket scientist to put 2+2 together and come out with a 4. He is the point man for the "bipartanship lovey-dovey bill" and he is the one saying, we are almost close and he is the one telling Rahm and the President that we MUST HAVE A BIPARTISAN BILL, that it will look good for the President and country. Yes, a bipartianship bill would look good, but this White House must have forgotten that we are negotiating on strength not weakness. We, won the White House and Congress, not the Republicans, but we have to listen to the Gang of Six to get a health care bill passed? From Robert Reich:
Last night, the so-called "gang of six" -- three Republican and three Democratic senators on the Senate Finance Committee -- met by conference call and, according to Senator Max Baucus, the committee's chair, reaffirmed their commitment "toward a bipartisan health-care reform bill" (read: less coverage and no public insurance option). The Washington Post reports that the senators shared tales from their home states, where some have been besieged by protesters angry about a potential government takeover of the nation's health care system.
It's come down to these six senators. The House has reported a bill as has another Senate committee, but all eyes are fixed on Senate Finance -- and on these three Dems and three Republicans, in particular. But who, exactly, anointed these six to decide the fate of the nation's health care?
It is these folks in the White House that Obama is listening to. Sure, a health care bill will pass, but will it mean anything? Does it matter that we must have Republicans who have repeatedly dissed President Obama on board? Don't these White House folks get it? The Republicans are not going to vote ANYTHING Obama. Yet, we continue to see our President yuckin' up to these Republicans, though we are the power in Washington, D.C. Are the Democrats that dumb? Apparently, the ones in the White House are because we just don't matter:
Obama's brain trust has decided the base doesn't matter. Rahm Emanuel, Jim Messina (and probably Jim Margolis) have focused on the false promise of bipartisanship, which has required scaling back what we were led to believe was Obama's agenda. They're obviously the smartest people in the world and think the rest of us are stupid and wouldn't notice. But, we have. The numbers speak for themselves. Many of us in the base aren't happy.
I am one of those on the left that raised over 12K for the Obama Campaign under the grassroots fundraiser, I am one of those who knocked on hundreds of doors for the Obama Campaign, I am one of those who was swinging a big stick over here EARLY at Daily Kos for the Obama Campaign, I am one of those who worked across state lines for the Obama Campaign, and I am one of those who are PISSED at the Obama Administration.
I am one of millions who took a chance on change, not this weak milquetoast performance that I am witnessing out of the White House.
This is 2009, not 1993 and millions voted for change, not this tap dance we are witnessing from the White House. Change also means bringing forward THINKING along, not this 1990s shit we are witnessing from Rahm and Friends.
I am a Democrat and will vote Democrat, but the Obama Administration got voted in by millions who never voted before, millions who were cynical in the process, millions who left the Republican Party to vote for Obama, millions of independents who voted for Obama. And ALL these millions knew Obama's position and wanted CHANGE. Obama Adminstration, what are you afraid of? If this White House can not get it together, why should the millions that voted for you, vote for you again?
Yes, I am pissed. And yes, Obama White House, get it together....
P.S. Guess where Rahm is on vacation?
Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is fishing in Montana.
And this is coincidence?
Cross-posted @ Daily Kos
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Steve W · 814 weeks ago
As a formerly proud member of Obama's base, I am not so party oriented as the author. I could stay home and I have stayed home.
i knew Jim Messina, informally, before he first landed his job with Baucus. Unlike Jim; I still want a single payer health care system. The fact that my life's quest didn't get a seat at the table isn't OK.. I didn't expect that the holy grail would be served up. Only that my aspirations and dreams would have a venue. But I am not welcome because I am not worthy. I'm shit.
The crony capitalism apparent in the health care reform arraignment is about as corrupt as it gets. From Max to SEIU, to AHIP to Rahm, all I've seen is self serving, greedy arrogance and fear. The only saints and heros have been the single payer advocates. Unpaid, unrepresented, and unheeded, the uns in the single payer outcasts represent the whole gestalt of the Obama campaign, a spirit that is rare and fleeting and that can't be replaced from the store.
The big chill has set in and it's only the beginning. What a waste.
factpluscontext · 813 weeks ago
frustrated · 813 weeks ago
I just lost my health insurance as of yesterday. I have serious skin in the game. I think you need to chill the f* out and stop wallowing in outrage over what has not yet happened, just because the president isn't doing his strategy aren't the way you think he should.
I am amazed that one one learned any lessons from the campaign. All that hand-wringing and OMG why isn't he doing XYZ, always people upset he is being too nice, not fighting back all that stuff. And the same S*** now, and I don't understand why.
Except I think I do understand. Without cyclical freakout and outrage, the left (broadly speaking) has no spirit, no animation, no way to act in the world. That's fine when it leads to positive action, and some of that has been happening and that's good.
But it is nasty when it leads to this kind of self-righteous deadening "Let's feel angry at them and sorry for ourselves and each other" thing I see here in this post, in the first comment from Steve W and all over the place on the progressive blogs.
Hello, I don't have health insurance. Is it too much to ask that you and those who agree with your approach here get over your delicious (to you) self-centered drama and try to remember that people are hurting and in danger and that political work requires discipline. Is that too much to ask? Is it too much to ask that you all center yourselves in the reality of the actual country you live in and remember this is not some liberal fairyland made to your specifications (and I say this as someone who is a supporter of single-payer and worked on that cause at the state level in the late 1980s at the state level). And rememember that the candidate you supported TOLD you this, but apparently you decided not to listen?
Oh and also? The story that it is Rahm and not the president who is actually in charge? That is racist and anti-Semitic. Racist because it suggests that the Black man who over and over and over again has shown his amazing skill as a leader is ... not actually capable of real leadership in this. That's a typical pattern, questioning that he is really the leader, after all a Black man can't really lead well, right?
Also, the focus on Rahm is anti-Semitic in that it serves that story that Jews are in control where they should not be and that that situation causes harm.
You all are so deep into your own story that you are moving toward being no more reality-based than the right. And that's saying something.
Rudy · 813 weeks ago
That behavior is common among whites and sometimes among blacks. People tend to declare a Black person who has been placed in a leadership position a failure before they can even get started.
All this bitching didn't just start, it's was going on throughout his entire campaign. One minute, he is a genus and the next he's an idiot. It is very unfair and stupid.
Maggie Knowles · 813 weeks ago
I work in real estate and I remember how lenders sold those loans to folks. They lied to people to get them to sign on the bottom line and told them they would be able to refinance out of those terrible loans later. Obama likes to say that everyone had a hand in the economic downturn, from Wall St. to Main St., but I remember we never had problems with loans 30 years ago like we do now. What's the difference? 30 years of deregulation, Reganomics, and the Financial Modernization Act signed by Bill Clinton, brought to us by Phil Gramm and other republicans and democrats.
GOLDMAN SACKS-USA gave Obama almost $1 million in campaign contributions. Henry Paulson, former CEO of GOLDMAN SACKS-USA, arranged for the big bank bailout and made sure that GOLDMAN SACKS-USA was 100% reimbursed for their losses from AIG. AIG got their money from U.S. Taxpayer.
What did Obama do? He hired executives from GOLDMAN SACKS-USA in his administration and the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Treasury. He's hiring people who caused this mess to be regulators now. That is hiring the fox to guard the chickens. Unless I'm missing something here...
I love President Obama, but if he doesn't step up to the plate and get a strong, robust, Medicare-like public option in health care reform, that will be the end of my support for him. It's too important an issue, it's quality of life, it's life and death for many Americans.
I think former Governor Howard Dean is doing a fantastic job of supporting health care reform, he says you can't have health care reform without a public option - he's right!. I wish Obama had chosen him instead of Sebelius for DHH (read somewhere he didn't because Dean and Rahm don't gt along). Howard Dean is fighting alot harder for the public option for ordinary Americans than anyone else on this issue in the media. I know there are so many people working so hard for this and it would be VERY HELPFUL if President Obama would fight more forcefully for them in the media. Give ordinary folks some hope.