Monday, August 24, 2009
Had I thought much on it (& I can't say I did), I would've figured Obama to manage a campaign for comprehensive health care reform much the same way he managed his campaign for president. He'd have the plan under wraps; a strategy; line up some support from key Democratic heavy lifters - congress & governors, & health care professionals; have defenses prepared for a variety of inevitable attacks, nearly all of which were tactically foreseeable; distill a populist, easy-to-understand message for selling it based on essential virtues of the plan; confidently unwrap the package all at once, so enthusing his base of "change" supporters that its passage appeared inevitable - even if it wasn't. Of course, it would be compromised & negotiated, but core elements of the plan would be untouchable. Make the pitch quickly with some high profile trips & speeches, then take the wife & kids on vacation & let the team fight it out for awhile.
The complexities demanded a simple overview average people could grasp: this happens here & that happens there, & this is the improved result: everyone is covered one way or another, there's finally real competition to control costs.
Then, as Distributorcap wrote:
The economy stumbles along while bankers are ready to order the new luxury yachts they postponed a year ago. "Piss on us some more," say Americans to Wall Street & the insurance companies, "it's our Constitutional right."
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
The complexities demanded a simple overview average people could grasp: this happens here & that happens there, & this is the improved result: everyone is covered one way or another, there's finally real competition to control costs.
Then, as Distributorcap wrote:
If the GOP doesn't like it, let them filibuster - that is their constitutional right (80 votes is not). Bring in the coffee, pizza, cots and tapes of Debbie Does Dallas let them have a slumber party in the Senate chambers. And if any Democrat finds the bill distasteful and wants to go public with their criticism (which is their right) - don't threaten but make it clear there will be no support for them for their bills and their re-election. You must, must, must play hardball.That's part of DCap's strategy for retrenching & reintroducing health care reform. But this was Obama's I'm a Democrat moment. Because it was impossible, with the current uber-right composition of Repugs, to make it a bipartisan initiative. There's nobody remaining in the Repug party on the national stage who supports moderately progressive reform in anything - not even in the financial sector, much less health care. There's no "moderates" on that side of the aisle with any power. You'd think Obama would've had it proven to him by now.
The economy stumbles along while bankers are ready to order the new luxury yachts they postponed a year ago. "Piss on us some more," say Americans to Wall Street & the insurance companies, "it's our Constitutional right."
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, in the news
