The latest podcast is up.
TM-DC Podcast
Listen now!
Afghanistan meets health care, the little lies edition, with culture on the side. Your humble hostess quite pissed off at the moment. Long ago realizing that whatever happens in Congress is likely a foregone conclusion, with Pelosi’s behavior regarding Stupak-Pitts foreshadowing of worse to come, which certainly has at this point. Sen. Nelson still waiting for his Lieberman prize, which, if done, will come on the backs of women. Ezra Klein and Joe Klein could care less, their access still intact. Women’s issues so petty, really. Dr. Howard Dean someone, who knows health care inside and out, the latest target of the Pass Anything coalition.
Some of you may remember Betsy, who came to this site after the primary season. She commented on my Facebook page yesterday:
Lieberman is disgusting. I’m furious with the entire Democratic party. To think I switched party for change, what a damn laugh. I agree with Howard Dean. vote down the bill in the Senate. Harry Reid is a creep and a sleaze. THese guys all are just concerned with themselves, not the American people.
Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, feel they have to save Pres. Obama, otherwise the next few years are going to be brutal. Besides, that’s their job.
But writing that Democrats have to save Pres. Obama, otherwise the next few years are going to be brutal is quite a turn around from where this all began. Remember? The wind was at Obama’s back, the world at his feet, with articles being written that conservatism was done. That’s how badly Barack Obama has mismanaged his first year in office.
The ABC/Washington Post poll came out after I taped the podcast. It’s bad news for Obama, except for his moves on Afghanistan, which he solidified from Oslo, something that is a relief in my view. An excerpt:
On the economy, 52 percent disapprove, a majority for the first time. On the deficit, his worst score, 56 percent disapprove. Such numbers aren’t unexpected; Ronald Reagan, in similar economic straits, dropped to 52 percent overall approval at this point in his presidency. But it’s not just the economy: Fifty-three percent also disapprove of Obama’s work on health care, and the public by 51-44 percent now opposes the reform package in Congress – both more than half for the first time in ABC/Post polls.
The erosion in Obama’s standing has been driven by continued slippage among political independents, particularly among independent men. For the first time, a majority of independents disapprove of his overall job performance, and independents’ disapproval of his handling of health care and the economy now tops six in 10.
Believe it or not, the American people are not as stupid as politicians think. Even if they don’t get the health care legislation in it’s entirety, since no one yet knows what the bill will look like, they can sure as hell sense that politicians leading this parade toward a cliff don’t either. Looking at their own lives they also know one thing. People can’t afford for things to get worse for their families. So the convoluted conversation coming at them on big ticket items like health care and the economy is just not selling. It sounds like too big a gamble.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been this pissed off, which is evident in the podcast. Hard to swallow how thoroughly the Democrats have botched the health care debate, with Pres. Obama now asking all of us to suck it up for him. Because if he doesn’t get this bill passed the humiliation will be epic, as will the thunderous applause from the right.
There is no way, however, Pres. Obama or the Democrats have earned the benefit of the doubt on faith that they will improve this current nightmare of legislation, so I’m convinced that giving them a pass would just enable them. Sending a message that no matter how badly they suck we have to support them, because they’re better than the wingnuts.
However, if we’re not getting anything progressive, while being asked to save these idiots after one incompetent move after another, I’m just not feeling how that gets us anywhere but another trip round the hamster wheel.
Obviously, I’ve got some cooling off to do.
