Former Campaign Adviser 'Losing Patience' with Obama

Mr. President, We Need a Fighter to Take on the Deranged Right-Wing

The editors of The Economist magazine say America's health care debate has become a touch delirious, with people accusing each other of being evil-mongers, dealers in death, and un-American.

Well, that's charitable.

I would say it's more deranged than delirious, and definitely not un-American.

Those crackpots on the right praying for Obama to die and be sent to hell — they're the warp and woof of home-grown nuttiness. So is the creature from the Second Amendment who showed up at the President's rally armed to the teeth. He's certainly one of us. Red, white, and blue kooks are as American as apple pie and conspiracy theories.

Bill Maher asked me on his show last week if America is still a great nation. I should have said it's the greatest show on earth. Forget what you learned in civics about the Founding Fathers -- we're the children of Barnum and Bailey, our founding con men. Their freak show was the forerunner of today's talk radio.

Speaking of which: we've posted on our website an essay by the media scholar Henry Giroux. He describes the growing domination of hate radio as one of the crucial elements in a "culture of cruelty" increasingly marked by overt racism, hostility and disdain for others, coupled with a simmering threat of mob violence toward any political figure who believes health care reform is the most vital of safety nets, especially now that the central issue of life and politics is no longer about working to get ahead, but struggling simply to survive.

So here we are, wallowing in our dysfunction. Governed -- if you listen to the rabble rousers -- by a black nationalist from Kenya smuggled into the United States to kill Sarah Palin's baby. And yes, I could almost buy their belief that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, only I think he shipped them to Washington, where they've been recycled as lobbyists and trained in the alchemy of money laundering, which turns an old-fashioned bribe into a First Amendment right.

Only in a fantasy capital like Washington could Sunday morning talk shows become the high church of conventional wisdom, with partisan shills treated as holy men whose gospel of prosperity always seems to boil down to lower taxes for the rich.

Poor Obama. He came to town preaching the religion of nice. But every time he bows politely, the harder the Republicans kick him.

No one's ever conquered Washington politics by constantly saying "pretty please" to the guys trying to cut your throat.

Let's get on with it, Mr. President. We're up the proverbial creek with spaghetti as our paddle. This health care thing could have been the crossing of the Delaware, the turning point in the next American Revolution -- the moment we put the mercenaries to rout, as General Washington did the Hessians at Trenton. We could have stamped our victory "Made in the USA." We could have said to the world, "Look what we did!" And we could have turned to each other and said, "Thank you."

As it is, we're about to get health care reform that measures human beings only in corporate terms of a cost-benefit analysis. I mean this is topsy-turvy -- we should be treating health as a condition, not a commodity.

As we speak, Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has been fined a record $2.3 billion dollars as a civil and criminal -- yes, that's criminal, as in fraud -- penalty for promoting prescription drugs with the subtlety of the Russian mafia. It's the fourth time in a decade Pfizer's been called on the carpet. And these are the people into whose tender mercies Congress and the White House would deliver us?

Come on, Mr. President. Show us America is more than a circus or a market. Remind us of our greatness as a democracy. When you speak to Congress next week, just come out and say it. We thought we heard you say during the campaign last year that you want a government run insurance plan alongside private insurance — mostly premium-based, with subsidies for low-and-moderate income people. Open to all individuals and employees who want to join and with everyone free to choose the doctors we want. We thought you said Uncle Sam would sign on as our tough, cost-minded negotiator standing up to the cartel of drug and insurance companies and Wall Street investors whose only interest is a company's share price and profits.

Here's a suggestion, Mr. President: ask Josh Marshall to draft your speech. Josh is the founder of the website talkingpointsmemo.com. He's a journalist and historian, not a politician. He doesn't split things down the middle and call it a victory for the masses. He's offered the simplest and most accurate description yet of a public insurance plan [1] -- one that essentially asks people: would you like the option — the voluntary option -- of buying into Medicare before you're 65? Check it out, Mr. President.

This health care thing is make or break for your leadership, but for us, it's life and death. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President. We need a fighter.

Although I understand where you're coming from, I think that he as a liberal is voicing unrest in Obama's move the middle. He's not the revolutionary leftie that the right-wing attempted to morph him into during the 08 campaign. And as he continues to reach out the right-wing, pointlessly so in his health care debate (as well as other things) and bringing up more religious talk, the liberals slowly feel betrayed and abandoned.

However, what they fail to realize is that only one person has been elected squarely on liberal principals and that is Lyndon Johnson. FDR moved in that direction as well but most Democrats Presidents are Blue Dogs. And when comes down to it, the politicial popularity of liberalism has faded since the 1960s and no one in either major party has won the nomination (or the Presidency) on far left policies. However, far right politicians get ahead (Huckabee, Palin, etc.).

what this country needs is a leader who was qualified, educated, experienced, and ready to lead on day one.

not one who stated they were not qualified, educated, experienced, and ready on day 1, and has proven so on every day since.

Although I agree with you, he failed to gage the scale of the health care debate. He allowed an issue that is about the health of all citizens turn into a screaming contest in which he is always on the defensive. He's trying to be a moderate politician by reaching out both sides of the aisle but it's not working. He's steadily losing control even though he has the gun powder.

Bush had a group of idiological thinkers in his administration who wrote down the plans and used the Republican-led Congress to get them put in place from No Child Left Behind to the Patriot Act. In contrast, Obama is allowing the Congress to write the bills that are vaguely in the mold of his ideas and suggestions. As a result, the Senators and Reps are writing bills in unclear language open to inpretation and debate like most lawyers do resulting in right-wing scare tactics (ex: death panels).

The test for Obama will be in this health care bill. If he can't pass this through with a fillbuster-proof Congress on his side, he will have proven that he's not a leader or a good President. Though, a man as smart as him probably already knows this and won't let that happen.

cstkl,

I don't think you are in any position to be calling others deranged. And when it comes to hate, few surpass the pseudo intellectual Bill Maher, the dumb liberal's Socrates.

You decry Pfizer's criminality, but don't even mention Obama's back room deal with big Pharma. (actually, you might have, but I just couldn't stand reading your hysterical drivel that closely)

Like a true liberal moron, you rant incoherently about the right, but ignore the FACT that the Independents and more than a few moderate democrats have rejected Obama's lurch to the left. Of course you can't acknowledge that, it would make all of your formulaic right hating blathering points even more ineffective than they already are.

You are suffering from the same hubris generated malady all Obamorons suffer from: political right of entitlement. You can't, or refuse to accept that you could be wrong, or that an opponent might be right. You're too arrogant, and too rigid to accept the possibility. You're a dogmatist, pure and simple. A goose stepper. And a massive hypocrite. And, sadly, not too bright. Obama isn't supported by the majority that elected him anymore. He has lost large numbers of the people who elected him, including the majority of union members. Are they all right wing nut jobs, you left wing moron?

If there is anybody that is deranged,it is you,Buckwheat.

Geez. Talk about hysterical drivel. LOL You are at a bigger disadvantage than Robin Da' Hood. He at least can count on some fool from the Treasury Dept to explain how to use a calculator so that the teleprompter challenged one can figure out that THE COUNTRY IS BROKE!! Listen to this Oh Clueless Lemmings, EVEN THE CHINESE ARE ALARMED At The Rate That The US Government (under the direction of Butt-Rack) IS Printing Money!! Now Da' Clueless W'Onda' Really Inspires Trust In The International Community Like He Promised Eh? LOL He Is In Tra-Booo

cstki

Bill Moyers you're not .....

cstkl, "who care what they think about anything", apparently our President does and why? Because he is now thinking, to be a President for all the People, not just one group.
(your attitude is a little bit bully like, consider that.)

The people in the angry uproar did not vote for him. They just perceive that he's worse than expected. Liberals are becoming upset with him because he's attempting to reach out to the right wing, which is why he is on the defensive all the time. The right wing wants nothing to do with him and the left wing want him to be revolutionary but to be a revolutionary that takes risk.

And above all, if he cannot pass a health care bill with a fillbuster-proof Congress in his majority party, he will have proven that his Presidency is isn't worth the paper those birthers think his birth certificate is printed on.

aaflyboy1. No need to shout. Most people don't even read the loud posts. Now Obama wasn't elected to stop the Republicans. He wasn't even elected to pass the load of crap written by the Apollo Grp and ACORN. Voters were fooled by all the vaguery, snookery, ducking and jiving.

cstkl
I guess he gets his clues from Bill Moyers. Can't think for himself.I sure hope he is satisfied with his minimum wage job, living with his parents.