Obama Care

Well, the President did his "sales pitch" tonight, and candidly I think he did an excellent job at that. As to content, he gave a few minor points to the conservatives, but on balance he simply resold his previous views. He simply did not change the content issues, and he continued the bizarre charges of misrepresentations. That is the totally absurd part of his speech. He uses the marginalizing strategy of the Alinsky cookbook, and attempted to create a demon in the conservative right, by attributing to the right statements that are themselves misrepresentations of the "rights" views. 

If you did not read Sarah Palin's OpEd piece in the Wall Street Journal today, you should. There clearly are those on the left to keep trying to marginalize her and accuse her of being an "airhead" (not serious intellect) and they are going to end up in the same box they found themselves with Ronald Reagan. This woman has principles, and she speaks from principles. She does not need to be an intellectual elite, all she needs to do is argue her views from a position of core values. When you listen to what she says, it is impossible to say she is a "flake," She is spot on, having government panels to make judgments about appropriate care, is precisely correct. These will ration care, or at a minimum, make judgments that are not medical but rather cost effective. That is potentially tragic for all of us, eventually. 

I think Obama failed tonight, but most importantly, he made it clear he needs to back off his radical agenda and get real. I think that it is clear he will be backed off even further. The fact is, he was as partisan as he could be, and still use the "I am the great non-partisan advocate." A total fraud, and I think that Americans will see through the pathetic partisan perspective. 

Comments

[Jay Stone]

Just from a political strategy viewpoint, it is my opinion that the President has made the wrong speech at the wrong time. Where does he go from here? No way can he do another joint session of Congress. In my experience, Presidents wait till the appropriate moment to fire their biggest bullet. The bill isn't even written yet, it hasn't passed either house. Details haven't been worked out. And here the President is threatening that now is the time to commit to it...commit to what? Democrats are watching VA and NJ, both states who voted for Obama. Now both of them look like they are going to elect Republican governors, including replacing Jon Corzine, one of the biggest liberals in the country. They know, especially after being home over August, that a similar fate awaits them if they keep following a President who approval ratings get worse every week. What does Obama do for an encore, even if he gets a bill through the House and the Senate and a conference committee? How does he get a full Senate and House vote for it? It is always easier to kill a bill than to pass it...threatening opponents is not a Presidential way to win. He is remarkably stupid when it comes to use of his power. Overreaching and overexposure are killers.