When I was a kid, I loved the show Family Ties. In one episode, the Keaton's got involved in an impassioned town debate over the issue of book banning. The episode climaxed with a town hall debate in which citizens spoke their mind. One by one, speakers spoke, and the father, Steven Keaton, kept finding that people were taking his points. By the time it was his turn, all his points had been made. So, Steven stood up and said, "I think now is a good time for a round up of what we heard tonight".
That's how I felt watching this speech. There is nothing new here. The president has made these points over and over and over and over again. Yet, he seemed to think that if he made a prime time address that suddenly people would see things differently. This is absurd. It's ridiculous and frankly it's insulting.
He just took up nearly an hour of prime time broadcast coverage in order to make the exact same speech that he's made over one hundred times. The princpiples he talked about today: health exchange, consumer protections, and universally mandated coverage.
Furthermore, Obama again tried to refute some of the most "egregious" false hoods and claims. He started again with the so called "death panels", "coverage for illegal immigrants", "a government takeover of the health care system", and "federal funding for abortions".
Again, I point to Kirsten Powers who said "if you have to convince the public that your plan won't kill grandma, your plan is in trouble". That the president is still countering these charges isn't a sign of anything but just how terribly he has handled insurance.
President Obama again pointed how many states have only a handful of insurers. This was mentioned in the context of a lack of competition. This was done in the context of the public option. The president will NOT allow for the sale of health insurance across state lines. That's the easiest way to increase competition. Instead, he wants a public option. Again, this is the exact same thing he's been saying for months.
It appears the president thinks everything he's doing is working. It's not or he wouldn't be in front of Americans tonight. This speech set a new low for hubris, amateurism, and total and complete incoherence. No one who saw this speech has the first clue what the president's plan is. In fact, most will walk away thinking that they heard the exact same thing that made them confused in the first place.
The president made a few token gestures like an allusion to tort reform. He said he would like to move forward "on a range of ideas to protect patient safety and medical costs". I have no idea what that means. The president was much more specific about a whole host of other ideas and so frankly this lip service is inconsequential.
Obama even went so far as to try and use Kennedy's death to try and peddle this plan. President Obama finished the speech by talking about a letter he received from Ted Kennedy, written in May but delivered on his death, in which Kennedy hoped that this would be the year to see universal health care. It's as if we need to support universal health care because Ted Kennedy died. That's frankly just pathetic. Ted Kennedy was a consummate legislator and he was a public servant. I believe he should be honored but the idea that his death should be used to try and peddle health care reform is just obscene, and yet that's exactly what the president just did.
I recently said that the president went all in with this speech. He did and it appears he was holding a two and a seven (the worst combination in Texas Holdem). This was simply pathetic. For the president to call a prime time speech in front of both chambers and offer absolutely nothing different than he's been saying for six months is simply an insult to all Americans. I want the last hour of my life back.
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8 comments:
Frankly, I think his speech had less to do with addressing allegations and more to do with calling out the people making the allegations for the dirtbag, neoconfederate liars that they are. It looked like the Republicans were about to degenerate into town hall thugs themselves. And if Congressman Wilson from South Carolina really did scream at the President that he's a liar about illegal immigration when the damn bill explicitly denies subsidies to illegal immigrants, then he should be Censured.
The Republican Party seems to be comprised of two people: the ones who will believe whatever they're told about Obama because he's black, and the ones who use that to their advantage. For what its worth, I consider you more the latter.
Whatever he was doing, this is the umpteenth time that he has countered it. He's been refuting this for more than a month. So, whatever it was, it was again Obama assuring Americans that his health care won't kill grandma. That's not a good place to be.
As for the rest of your comment, I'm not sure how to take any commentary from someone that believes that an entire party is racist, or it exploits racism. That's an interesting view.
You're forgetting something when you said Obama's plan contained nothing new.
Obama took a very clear swipe at Sarah Palin's (or whoever is ghostwriting for her these days) Medicare voucher idea from that WSJ piece.
That's not anything new. He attacked Palin. Good for him. What is new about his own plan? What was the point of the speech? All he did was go over the same concepts and said about the same he has said each and everytime on it.
Despite hefty Democratic majorities in both the House and the Senate, centrists in Obama’s party have balked at the president’s proposal to create a public health care plan to compete with private insurers
I'm a different ANON, and I largely agree the speech was a waste of time, it stirred more mud into the water and didn't address any issues with clearly defined solutions. Frankly I'm disappointed because I feel like he dropped the ball on consecutive occasians and that the partisan olive branch was small in comparision to what he's asking them to contribute.
I think the general tendency of the public (voters) is opposition because of the massive permanent debt overhang it will create. The voters aren't stupid either, they know it will mean much higher taxes accross the board and will likely stifle real progress on the health care issue (some would say it severe clouds the issue).
He was correct about one thing, and that is he cannot defer. It's not likely given the state of the economy, satisfaction with elected officials etc. that democrats will have both house, senate and executive office again for quite some time. Rahm E. was right, you don't waste a crisis and Obama is trying to get all he can out of this.
There is one new thing you can take away from this:
Republicans were fond of saying health care reform would be Obama's Waterloo. Waterloo being a battle in Belgium where Napoleon was finally defeated.
Here's a new analogy for you. Will Joe Wilson be the Republican's Midway? As in, there will be no more Republican victories from here on out.
Yes, some back bencher's out burst will be the end of the party. This is all the while the Democratic party is disintegrating. Give me a break.
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