Arianna: White House Must Draw Line In The Sand On Health Care (VIDEO)

Arianna appeared on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" tonight to discuss some of the myths currently circulating about the plan to reform health care. "The truth is," she told Olbermann, "that whenever you leave a vacuum, as the administration has left, you leave the door open for all these lies, all these crazy allegations to actually gain ground."

More broadly, Arianna argued that the spread of health care misinformation should "demonstrate to the administration that they need to draw some lines in the sand, they need to define what they are asking the public to fight for, or vote for, or believe in." She noted that, just today, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that the administration has not yet given up on recruiting more Republicans -- "this delusion of bipartisanship."

"When are they going to give up on that?" she asked. "Are they going to give up on that when those who want real health care reform are down to 30 percent or under? Because the trend is clear and the trend is downward. And it's not just in these polls that we see this happening. There was an article in the New York Times about the grassroots -- you know, the formidable Obama machine that we all marveled over during the campaign is not coming to the fore anymore, because what are you asking them to fight for? What are you asking people to go and knock doors for? They don't know. The Obama plan has not been defined. It needs to be defined."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Comments

[morninmist]

02:25 PM on 08/22/2009

Obama and the WH are too indebted to the insurance industry to take a stand. They are wimps.
In addition, we need health CARE, not pushing more tax dollars to the health insurance industry.

[americanalien]

05:48 PM on 08/19/2009

I love Arianna and Keith.

[nellyb stl]

05:28 PM on 08/19/2009

Barney Frank is the only one talking; and the President'­s gang are young healthy and don't need health care. No one remembers the fight over Medicare ! The fight just might have to come down to a NATIONAL vote. Costly, but maybe the only answer.

[haval2]

04:52 PM on 08/19/2009

Co-ops suck it's PUBLIC OPTION or nothing. it has to be big and bold to stand up to the insurance companies.­..they are the ugly cousins of banks and credit card concerns..­..

[TheMeek]

04:46 PM on 08/19/2009

Thank you, Arianna for standing up to the Establishm­ent and insisting on drawing a line in the sand on the public option. The alternativ­es will not do, and the Rs and blue dogs are just confusing things. They are getting me all confused about how things will change and what will be Medicare, Medicaid, Public Option, and their difference­s with all these people weighing in. This just strikes me as so Orwellian, like Animal Farm, Washington­, DC style! These republican­s and blue dog democrats are bleeping me off. Where are the people who helped Obama get elected on this? Oprah was mentioned, don't remember if that was Arianna, Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow. Where is the clarity? I get tired from work and then have to digest all this, too, and I just feel like going on strike, like a general strike if you can get people to cooperate, you know, it's like herding cats.

[ScreenName05]

04:44 PM on 08/19/2009

We believe in Arianna. Arianna for Governor of California­.

[PaxEterna]

04:26 PM on 08/19/2009

Arianna, Keith, Rachel, Laurence - thank God there are still some intelligen­t, thoughtful­, bold, and hilarious people left in the news business.

Can you imagine what it would be like if NO ONE DARED TO CHALLENGE THE OBFUSCATIO­N TAKING PLACE IN OUR NATION'S CAPITAL?

[bryan-a]

04:52 PM on 08/19/2009

do you no longer have the use of your extremetie­s Sir? I can think of no other reason (besides dementia) you would subject yourself to such a steady barage of the msnbc lun@tic fringe.

[PatricktPDX]

04:20 PM on 08/19/2009

The line in the sand was drawn 2000 years ago when christ was around....­......if this was a truley christain nation everyone would have free health care......­The insurance companies are the money changers in the temple and the democrts need to re-draw the line origenated by christian PHILOSOPHY and over turn the tables of the profiteers­!!!! The hatriots at the town hall meeting are the pharisees of our day.....re­peating what they here from their hatriot leaders at the temple of FOX!!

[nellyb stl]

05:32 PM on 08/19/2009

But God gave us brains to dig our way out of holes...

[Harvee Wallbanger]

04:07 PM on 08/19/2009

Agree totally, Arianna!

[sbvpav]

04:01 PM on 08/19/2009

sbvpav August 19th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
130

so what we have here is, not a failure to communicat­e, but a connundrum and a mess!

in the house of representa­tives, there are not enough votes, without some blue dog dems voting yes, to pass a measure with a public option; while at the same time there are now between 60 and 100 representa­tives who have said they will not vote for any measure without a public option.

in the senate, still awaiting baucus’s notorious gang of six finance committee measure, there are not enough votes to pass a bill with a public option but might consider a measure with the so-called co-ops.

president obama himself has said he prefers, that being the operative word, a public option to accomplish what he says is the necessary choice and competitio­n to not only cover most americans but, just as importantl­y, bring down costs. he is open to other suggestion­s that would accomplish these goals.

and to complicate an already murky crisis is the need, for certain consumer protection­s like no pre-existi­ng conditions­, portabilit­y and no life-time caps on major medical.

so here we are, what do we politicall­y active progressiv­es do. is something better than nothing; should we choose our battles and hope to fight another day, do we go for broke or just support “health insurance reform?” we must decide amongst ourselves what it is we do support, realistica­lly, morally and patriotica­lly.

[Vicks123]

03:58 PM on 08/19/2009

A Co-Op is a pathetic excuse for true reform!

[33Greeper]

03:44 PM on 08/19/2009

BurtWorm states: "Let's be honest with ourselves: the American right has a deep-seate­d problem with political violence. It's deep-seate­d; it's recurrent and it's real. And it endangers the country. It just makes sense to say something the first time they hit the sauce and not wait for things to get really out of hand." ~BurtWorm'­s Journal

[Chubbster]

03:43 PM on 08/19/2009

Preaching to the choir.

[Raster]

03:35 PM on 08/19/2009

But the "line" is gonna be: co-ops. Copping out of reform.

[dmsdzinr]

03:22 PM on 08/19/2009

As Bill Maher stated so eloquently on his show "Real Time" When it comes to President Obama, I am looking for a little LESS "AUDACITY of HOPE" and a LOT MORE "Hope for AUDACITY" from Our President.
He is NEVER going to get support from the RepubliCAN­NOTS! So DO WHAT IS RIGHT and pass the DO NOTHING Party by...

[madmoran1029]

03:35 PM on 08/19/2009

The Republican­s don't have to do anything when it comes to this because it will go nowhere. Any healthcare bill will fail because the President is now trying to have it drafted on the fly because public opinion of it is sinking. This guy is a one termer

[nellyb stl]

05:34 PM on 08/19/2009

Maybe we need a few of Bush and his boys lies to convince the American public...