Obama can’t get no relief from those mainstream leftist fascists like Frank Rich. The one-time theater critic and rugby scrum pal of Imus et al. has stumbled accidentally on a scandalizing truth: Obama is all air.
Is it a fair critique? Certainly his pirouette today on Wall Street bolster’s Rich’s case. The speech offered no new policy approaches. As an admonition it can hardly intimidate an industry and state of mind whose bonus levels already equal 2007. After all, they can watch the health care debate as well as anyone. They know it’s unlikely that any financial reform legislation will make it through Congress this year. And second, they know a flincher when they see it. “Blue Horseshoe loves Annacot Steel” is quaint beyond the telling of it.
Comment says
We disagree about HRC – she was against single payer. Ultimately, we think Obama will succeed, in part, and then the whole shebang later. Same with HRC. Mitt the phoney had a similar plan he is now trying to disown.
Comment says
When Steward does interviews – he sometimes is serious and is far better informed and engaging than a clown like Tweety.
The whole rancid DC insider media clan is awful – something most serious politicos know.
Dr Leo Strauss says
Kos nails it.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/9/21/784817/-Republicans-arent-the-problem
And the Letterman turn surprisingly effective — making one wonder why the naif Gregory has a job at MTP. Letterman actually conducted an incisive interview within the show’s patois. One wonders what someone with nothing to gain financially or professionally with basic Middle American common sense and a disdain for the whole business we call show (or politics) could do sitting in Gregory’s chair.
We understand the segment saturation strategy but frankly Obama could have slept in Sunday and just do Letterman. We were very pleasantly surprised at how better he is here than in the well of the House or behind a teleprompter.
Acid Casualty says
Taibbi is saying today on TAIBBLOG (sorry no link, see my name) that The admin is in fact deliberately, blatantly selling out. Abandon yr Hope fantasies, all ye who attend here.
DFH Dave says
History dealt us a bad hand during the 2008 primaries. Hillary would’ve been smart and tough enough to “come out of the gate swinging for single payer”. LBJ didn’t get Medicare passed with soaring rhetoric, he muscled it through with zero Repubican support. Obama’s maddening obeisance to the false god of bipartisonship seems little more than cover for his inner milquetoast.
Comment says
We think Frank Rich sort of just follows trends of liberal elite conventional wisdom and then adds his own touch. Change will be incremental – If Obama stays popular, Rich will tack back – If the economy sours, Obama’s numbers will go down and Rich will start coming up with reasons
Euskal says
It’s all a rearrangement of deck chairs at the Titanic. Who was expecting the American public was going to get any lifelines during the economic disaster that is the “great recession”…
Instead of women and children first, we have Big Bankers with ” I love K Street” teeshirts they picked up in China being loaded on the lifeboats. But what will we all do when the we hit the second Iceburg, and the sucker starts to take alot of water, who will the throw over next??
inquire says
Sorry, last one, I promise – this Matt Taibbi piece strikes all of the points I made above and then some – he goes into excruciating detail about ‘the collision of the two most massive and dysfunctional systems in America – healthcare and government’ – a must read, I’d say.
Sick and Wrong: How Washington is screwing up health care reform – and why it may take a revolt to fix it.
So very very glad we have single-payer in Canada and are avoiding this whole ordeal – we just have yet to get rid of our own Bush (even if he’s the harmless Canadian version).
inquire says
I was discussing this recently, and determined that if Obama *really* wanted a public option with significant reform, he should have come out of the gate swinging for single payer. This would have allowed him to go on the attack, catching everyone off guard, allowing him to negotiate from strength, and put out a high bid fully expecting to be negotiated down and forced to accept ‘only’ a public option. By desperately seeking neutrality, he’s waffled on even the most basic reform required – a public plan – which will no doubt be negotiated down in committee to a bill that includes mandates and prevents denials for pre-existing conditions. This would simply force people into paying insurance companies – possibly the worst of all worlds (for the general public).
I think the reason the democrats can’t, or wont, come forth and meaningfully sell their public option is because it doesn’t matter – all the politicking is done with lobbyists, committee chairs and executives. The ‘leaderless minority base’ wins by default by simply throwing sand in the gears with nonsense and incoherence, whereas the dems can’t counter because they can’t bring anything specific for their base and the public to latch on to and hope for. Thus democratic decision makers are operational only ‘within the beltway’. I hate to sound cynical and repeat these tired tropes, but given their total lack of commitment and their inability to stand strong and communicate a reasonable plan, it seems there is little other explanation.
The best they could do all summer was Barney Frank making a shallow quip about a dinning room table. Even if the ‘radical’ single-payer supporters were totally marginalized in all corners, they at least had a solid plan that could be transmitted and used to organize around – if only the democrats could figure that out and adopt a new constituency.
inquire says
You and your audience may find this little flash app appropriate: How the Giants of Finance Shrunk, Then Grew, Under the Financial Crisis.
AlanSmithee says
I should think that was fairly obvious right around the time God-Emperor Obama reversed on FISA. Good of Frank to catch up with the rest of us, though.