Daily Archives: March 4, 2010

Media, Politics

Chicago Politics At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

With the specter of Rod Blagojevich still fresh in our memory, his protege, President Barack Obama, seems to be doing what he knows best, having been raised on Chicago politics.

He needs Democrats to support his latest version of Obamacare.  And it’s too late, and people wouldn’t stand for, another bribe like the Louisiana purchase, or the Cornhusker kickback. But there are other ways.

Like this one.

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

This ought to be the headline on the news tonight at CBS, NBS, ABS, CNNbs, and pMSNBCbs. But it won’t. Not in the context of there being anything fishy going on. What will be in the news will be the usual shoot the messenger kind of story, beginning with ‘Republicans are launching into partisan attacks, accusing the President of using backroom deals to pass his health care plan.’ Those crazy Republicans.  If there was a Republican in The White House, don’t you know the media and the Left would be screaming that the President is using political appointments to buy a vote?

Related links: Is Obama Now Selling Judgeships for Health Care Votes? | Payoffs for states get Harry Reid to 60 votes

2010 Election, Politics

It's Not Out Of Touch, It's Ignoring

Today President Obama’s made his last (well, one can only hope) push for government-run health care and health insurance from The White House. Standing in front of the tackiest gold drapery fit for a king. Or at least someone who probably thinks he is a king.

That’s the setting. Here’s the setup.

  • For most of the last 10 months, there has been a groundswell of Americans that are completely turned off with a government-run solution to health care-turned health insurance ‘reform,’ also known as a ‘public option.’  That groundswell has a name. Tea Parties. It is  comprised of Americans that think the government is getting too big, spending too much, borrowing too much, taxing too much, and becoming ever more intrusive in the lives of Americans, trampling on liberty and freedom. Obamacare does all of that.
  • Adding hubris to audacity, Obamacare was developed entirely without any input from Republicans. It is a Democratic plan.
  • Despite the window dressing of today’s ‘concessions,’ Obamacare is still fundamentally a Democratic Party plan. The ‘for show’ summit last week did not start at square one. It started at square two.
  • In the most recent election cycle, people in three states made their preferences known by voting Republicans in, and Democrats out. Including in Massachusetts, a liberal Mecca. They made their preferences known at town hall meetings all over the country.
  • The public’s negative opinion of Obamacare has caused the President’s poll ratings to fall, and fall, to record lows.
  • The negative opinion of Obamacare has caused the President to lose support of Democrats in Congress and the Senate to a point in the Senate that has fallen below the 60 votes needed to affirm the will of the people, as is the current rules in the Senate.

You would think that the President may have noticed the displeasure of Americans with his agenda. It is impossible for him not to have noticed. What is happening now is he is flat-0ut ignoring the will of the people.

His statement today is illustrative of a person who thinks he is a king or dictator instead of someone who does the people’s business. He is doing his own business. Democrat’s business.

In The White House today, President Obama said “I do not know how this plays politically (oh really? see above), but I know it’s right.” Translation;  America, I know what is best for you. You’re just too stupid to realize it. He is speaking of using a simple majority ‘reconciliation’ vote for this legislation if he has to, to force Obamacare down America’s collective throat. Something he said he would never do.

The same attitude is prevalent in other Democrat party faithfuls like Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL). Tonight on the Larry King show, speaking about Obamacare, Grayson says “It’s what America needs, it’s what America deserves.” Notice he didn’t say it’s what America wants. Sorry Mr. Grayson, America has done nothing to deserve Obamacare.

2010 Election, Media, Politics

Obama: Shouldn't Pass Health Care Without 60 Votes

Blatant hypocrisy from Obama is no longer newsworthy. Correction, it has never been newsworthy. Remember, for Progressives and their willing accomplices in the media,  the end justifies the means. That, and the media watchdog is dead.

OBAMA 2007: You gotta break out of what I call the sort of 50-plus-one pattern of presidential politics. Maybe you eke out a victory with 50-plus-one but you can’t govern. You know, you get Air Force One and a lot of nice perks as president but you can’t — you can’t deliver on health — we’re not going to pass universal health care with a — with a 50-plus-one strategy.

OBAMA 2007: The bottom line is is that our health care plans are similar. The question, once again, is: Who can get it done? Who can build a movement for change? This is an area where we’re going to have to have a 60% majority in the Senate and the House in order to actually get a bill to my desk. We’re going to have to have a majority to get a bill to my desk that is not just a 50-plus-one majority.

OBAMA 2006: Those big-ticket items, fixing our health care system. You know, one of the arguments that sometimes I get with, uhh, my fellow progressives and — and some of these have — have flashed up in the blog communities on occasion — is this notion that we should function sort of like Karl Rove, where we — we identify our core base, we throw ’em red meat, we get a 50-plus-one, uhhh, victory. See, Karl Rove doesn’t need a broad consensus because he doesn’t believe in government. If we want to transform the country, though, that requires a — a sizable majority.

OBAMA 2005: A change in the Senate rules that really, uh, I think would change the character of the Senate, uh, forever. [snip] Uhhh, and what I worry about would be th-th-that you essentially still have two chambers, the House and the Senate, but you have simply majoritarian, uhhh, absolute power on either side, and that’s just not what the Founders intended.

OBAMA 2004: My understanding of the Senate is is that you need 60 votes to get something significant to happen, which means that Democrats and have to ask the question: Do we have the will to move an American agenda forward, not a Democratic or Republican agenda forward?

link: Flashback: Barack Obama Said Democrats Shouldn’t Pass Health Care Without 60 Votes in Senate