"Love cools, friendship falls off, brothers divide: in cities, mutinies; in countries, discord; in palaces, treason; and the bond cracked 'twixt son and father." -- "King Lear's" Earl of Gloucester
At this point, however, after a solid month of pretend death panels and real armed protesters, extreme comparisons and weak-kneed trial balloons, I am ready for: a bucket of espresso, some righteous anger, a president who is feeling this health care issue in his kishkes and showing it with clarity and passion in his address to a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.
In a Sunday Washington Postpiece about the challenges that await him with Congress back in session this week, an Obama confidant accurately described the president's political style as "unsentimental.'' Indeed, for all the nonsense about the cult of personality around this master (bwahaha) manipulator, he is on the contrary quite stingy on the emotional playing field on which elections are won and issues decided; even at the funeral of the man who did as much as anyone to get him elected, he was his usual low-affect self, keepin' it cool.
And if he is such a genius emoter, then I wish he'd whip us up already, because this one is too important to argue with perfect calm, or with a plan so malleable and a presentation so diffuse it gives the impression of weakness, or maybe even ambivalence. In his determination to repeat none of Clinton's mistakes, he is also over-correcting Bill and Hillary's 1993 approach to health care reform (no consultation, and little openness to compromise) by consulting everybody and appearing willing to compromise on everything – perhaps at the risk of winding up just as empty-handed.
Last week, Vice President Joe Biden gave a speech in defense of the administration's stimulus package – though it was really more about health care, too – and something he said caught my attention, and spoke to this same wrong-headed fear of feeling: "Roughly another third of the money in the Recovery Act went to relief . . . for working Americans who were most badly hit by the recession,'' he said. "Whether it was through the state governments to keep cops, firefighters and teachers on the job, or allowing states to continue to provide food assistance to people who were in danger of going hungry, or Medicaid for the swelling rolls of people desperately in need of health care. . . . Not only does this give relief to the vulnerable Americans who are in danger of falling into the abyss, it also -- it also has had the economic effect of injecting nearly $90 billion in the first 200 days into the bloodstream of the American economy, stimulating growth. I believe this was the right thing to do morally. But that's not what we're about today. [Emphasis mine.] It was also the smart thing to do economically.''
That's not what we're about today? Biden might have intended that any one of several ways, and I do not think he meant it literally, but "that's not what we're about" as in: people don't want to hear that? Or as in: if that's what we were about, then that would bust the Democrats as soft and sentimental after all?
In any case, the "right thing to do morally" is what the president is going to have to be about today – and tomorrow when he talks to Congress, and again the day after that – if he's going to sell this thing. He is going to have to make the all-out moral case for reform, and explain not just why cutting health care costs is vital to the economy but why denying coverage or limiting access or cutting off insurance benefits mid-chemo is an assault on the whole life's work of that guy Jesus, and thus ought to be an outrage to every Christian.
He is going to have to preach it – which, ironically enough, I've heard him do most effectively in the past on the same super-subversive topic he's talking to school kids about today – personal responsibility. Why must he take to the pulpit? We are a nation of believers, and beyond that like to think of ourselves as voting our morality as much as our pocketbook. God-talk happens to be a language he speaks fluently. And if this isn't a moral issue, I don't know what is.
Yes, he's done this at least once already on the topic of health care, on a recent conference call with left-leaning religious groups -- only that really was preaching to the choir. And yes, he's whispered that we are all our brother's keepers and our sister's keepers, but he needs to make it rain, for heaven's sake; I wanna hear some thunder.
For the first time in a long time, I did hear some promising rumblings in his Labor Day speech in Cincinnati, where he spoke at an AFL-CIO picnic: "I'll have a lot more to say about this on Wednesday night'' he said of health care. "I might have to save my voice a little bit, not get too excited,'' heaven forfend.
The nearly 10-minute story he closed with on Monday – about where that "Fired up and ready to go!'' chant from his campaign came from – was, as he noted, a story "some [read: all] of you have heard . . . before. But I'm going to tell it again,'' he said, and did, hopefully for his very own benefit. Though this was definitely the extended-play version, the basics are that one morning early in his presidential run, when he felt extra tired and crappy and it was raining and he'd trekked his pre-presidential derriere out to the middle of nowhere to shake only 20 hands, he met a little lady in a church hat whose thing in life is going around saying, "Fired up and ready to go!'' – and she got him all charged up in spite of himself.
It's not even so much that the story has such a great point (which is that one voice can change a whole room and one room can change a whole town and so on) as that he really likes telling it, and seems to have needed to hear it, so I'm glad he got to. "There are things worth fighting for,'' he told the union crowd. And maybe even worth raising your voice over, and calling out to God.
Melinda Henneberger is the editor-in-chief of PoliticsDaily.com. She spent 10 years as a reporter for the New York Times, in the paper’s Washington and Rome bureaus... more
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Social Security, one of the most successful government programs ever enacted, if considered today, would be condemned as the ravings of a tax and spend liberal socialist bent on destroying the very fabric of America. Bush tried to do away with Social Security by handing the trust fund to Wall Street. But the market collapsed, and he lost his big chance.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-36)
Stella
7:42AM Sep 8th 2009
bblakey78: Social Security IS NOT successful, it it almost BROKE. It is the biggest Ponzi Scheme on this earth! Go research this--enlighten yourself. I have been paying into SS for many years, but it won't be there for me when I retire--I don't even count it in my retirement plan. The Federal Government is pulling a Bernie Madoff on us.
Medicaid and Medicare are also going BROKE. Federal government CAN'T RUN an efficient program--not one is sound. The entitlement programs we have are in shambles, yet this administration wants to provide yet more? No wonder the seniors are outraged. They see themselves moved to the end of the line in this healthcare "reform". How anyone can call this "moral" is beyond me. LET'S FIX WHAT WE HAVE FIRST!
As for Barack preaching this as a moral issue, he might have some credibility with the Muslim Community, but he needs to stay away from Christians lest he appear hypocritical.
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sandsnnydz
9:08AM Sep 8th 2009
and Obama's "newest strategy" will be selling the MSM and, most importantly, the public on the idea that there is actually a NEW strategy in his ObamaCare
Medicare Medicaid Social Security VA Hospitals
all but insolvent and ALL RUN and owned by our US GOVERNMENT
Tell Obama to fix them ALL FIRST!
RATE THIS COMMENT: (75)
libslie0066
10:49AM Sep 8th 2009
You really don't know the history of SS do you? Lydon Johnson was the first President to take the SS fund and put it into the General fund so he could steal from the elderly who have been contributing to the fund all their lives. Its the Democrats who continually try to run their programs off the backs of those that work and contribute to SS. Illegal aliens? Give us a dam break, Democrats are stealing again, big shots giving our money to illegals for votes.
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cda17
11:47AM Sep 8th 2009
Allow all Americans to shop for insurance across state lines…GAME OVER.
Do you know how many insurance companies there are in this country? I will provide the answer…well over 1,000. The private market would drive down prices as this single move would enable “more choices and competition.” Insurance companies would be forced to compete on price to survive. It’s called capitalism.
The federal government and its oppressive mandates are the problem, not the solution. Do not buy into this “public option” garbage. The federal government is simply trying to strong arm its way into the revenue stream of the healthcare sector. This fork-tongued administration is pathetic. Their hypocrisy is both sad and disturbing.
The basic ideology of the left is counter-intuitive to any type of free-market system. The left is undoubtedly anti-capitalist. And yes, they are absolutely socialists. Quit believing the ridiculous lies of this administration.
Socialism sucks…look around the world.
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Shannon Edens
12:15PM Sep 8th 2009
"He is going to have to make the all-out moral case for reform".
The federal government has no right to impose morality. The purpose of the government is to protect and defend the states and the citizens. Morality is personal and should not be legislated.
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Shannon Edens
12:20PM Sep 8th 2009
even at its lowest historical points, the stock market still provides a greater rate of return than social security. it's an outdated program that we don't need anymore. the only reason it's kept around is because congress uses it as a slush fund.
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slfstx
12:29PM Sep 8th 2009
Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital; that, in fact, capital is the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed; that labor can exist without capital, but that capital could never have existed without labor. Hence they hold that labor is the superior – greatly the superior – of capital. They do not deny that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital. The error, as they hold, is in assuming that the whole labor of the world exists within that relation. A few men own capital; and that few avoid labor themselves, and with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for them..."
Abraham Lincoln, September 30, 1859
And as Galbraith said, conservatives are all about trying to find philosophical and moral (and religious) excuses for their own selfishness
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slfstx
12:42PM Sep 8th 2009
juddty...so basically what you are saying is that you would prefer your daughter to die on the street rather than have a health care option because if she hadn't had medicaid she would be s... out of luck...only those that can afford health insurance premiums should have access to health care in the world you inhabit. WOW!
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WADE....
12:59PM Sep 8th 2009
“Organizing for America” Rally…
they can SHOUT/CHANT and DANCE ALL DAY for Obamacare but they can’t answer one question !!!
The main concern that I have with gov. programs is the sustainability in the long run. Our politicians have spent every dime, we have for S.S. and Medicare. They have bankrupted the postal service as well. I would love to see some kind of Health Care reform, even a kind of public option, but I cannot look blindly at how there is no fiscal responsiblity of our gov. France and England work (fiscally) because their gov. do not spend nor are they allowed to spend health designated money on other things. I just cannot trust our gov. with such a bad track record. They have bankrupted every social service program that we have in America, and now they want us to trust them with an even larger program....Help!
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salome
7:06PM Sep 8th 2009
Social Security, one of the most successful government programs ever enacted, if considered today, would be condemned as the ravings of a tax and spend liberal socialist ......blah blah blaah bblakey78 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ and what makes you even imagine that even THEN,everybody stood up and cheered ? was recognized as socialist shyte back then and remains the biggest lie ever foisted on a free people.The government has absolutely no right to garnish your pay check for a nonexistent fund.
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BULLMAN
2:07AM Sep 9th 2009
Thank god for that.
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Truth
3:28AM Sep 9th 2009
Melinda Henneberger wants Obama to make the "moral" case for reform, with "feeling" this time. Is it her hope that feeling will disguise facts? Probably, but Obama getting all wee-wee'd up isn't going to change most minds. Maybe Melinda just likes to get all wee-wee'd up herself, but if that's all Obama comes up with, he will fail.
There is a faulty premise in the argument that liberals like Melinda keep beating the dead horse with. Like nearly all liberals she is yearning for Obama to use some magically passionate rhetoric to convince the country of the need for reform, like Orpheus rescuing Eurydice from Hades with the unearthly beauty of his music. She wants Obama to be the Pied Piper, and lead the lemmings to Socialized medicine.
I don't think the teleprompter is up to it, but I digress.
We, as a nation, already agree that health care needs reform!!!! The logical disconnect in the liberal cry for reform is in the implication that it HAS to be reformed with Obama's Commie Care, and NOTHING else will do!!! This is a classic non sequitur argument. It does not follow that, because health care needs some reform, we need to destroy the entire existing system and start from scratch with Obama's Kevorkian Care. There are 10 million other potential solutions besides Obama's scheme, but the dogmatic, doctrinaire, ideologues who dance to Obama's tune refuse to hear of it.
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Edward
5:12AM Sep 9th 2009
If social securety is so successful, why is it going broke? What govt. programs aren't going broke? What govt. programs ever cost the American taxpayer less than what they say it will. From my experience every single govt. program ever concieved has cost me more than what Congress has promised. Why can't I just keep my money and use it to take care of me and my family like the founders of this country originally intended? And my final question," If a socialised society is so great, why do people risk their very lives to flee to capitolist societies like the one we used to have here in the USA?"
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dxxy4u
5:32AM Sep 9th 2009
Our Government programs are the best in the World, for the most unthankful people in the World. Nothing is going Broke. As long as there is a Printing Press, we'll always have the money. Didn't we just bailed out Wall Street, that always told us to kiss it's ass? Now why is it so hard to come up with money to keep the best Social program known to man running? Some of you are talking like you hope it goes Broke, like you are so financial secured. Why don't you preach against having Unemployment Benefits why you are at it?
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dxxy4u
5:50AM Sep 9th 2009
Social Security has paid for itself twice over, but the Congresses spent all the SS surplus money on unrelated Pork Barrels programs. Just pay Social Security back all the money that was robbed from it, and it'll be just fine. As for Obama keeping his "Cool", you had best be addressing those that attending the Town hall meetings about keeping cool. Some were walking around with guns, and others just acting like damn fools. With all the lay offs, I bet there are millions more now without any kind of Health Insurance. The Americans have lost all moral integrity.
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prouddem
7:43AM Sep 8th 2009
From above the water, a duck appears to be gliding. Below the surface, it is paddling furiously. Hopefully, the Administration and its supporters are paddling furiously in pursuit of the health care reform objectives. I am inclined to believe this to be the case, notwithstanding President Obama's cool and reserve.
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slfstx
3:37PM Sep 8th 2009
Could the ridiculously high cost of health care in American have anything to do with why American firms are not hiring? Why is it Europe and Asia are increasing employment the news wires are saying today.........could it have anything to do with their universal health care?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
bob
8:02AM Sep 8th 2009
I love the thinking out loud aspect of all this:
"Gee if he'd only make the right sales pitch to all those millions bumpkins clinging to their guns and bibles who are just sitting there waiting to be told that supporting Obamacare is what God wants them to do, THAT would do the trick!"
It's all about the foreplay with you folks.
oh and prouddem - ever seen a decoy? Very realistic when floating on the surface, but they have no legs or feet.