Embrace the fact that Brown is the new Red in America.
Yesterday's Massachusetts vote left pundits who were in denial about the independence of Independents nationally backpedalling. (Except me: read last Tuesday's Republicans Have Already Won MA Senate Race). Here is the headline: If this hurts, Democrats need to man up before voters repudiate their party en masse next November.
Voters feel their power. That was what they felt when they voted for President Obama and that is what they felt when they voted for Senator-Elect Scott Brown. Voter Up. Nurture the indies and reach out to the base. President Obama: accept the fact the Indies are your base.
Obama should show the Senate and House the door on health care before voters do in November. Something like, "We appreciate your hard work on the bill but now I'm taking over." Leader up.
Pelosi said yesterday she will do anything to pass the elements of the House version of health care reform; the one Americans just told us they don't want. The Brown victory is a huge
repudiation of Pelosi and the House bill, as well as Senator Reid and the overloaded Senate bill.
President Obama: do you want to put a gun to the head of moderate Democrats? It is much more difficult to hold real battleground states than to hold than Massachusetts.
A cross-section of American people have said not what they want but what they don't want. Hear it now, or face the wrath in November.
Do what Bill Clinton did after the 1994 health care rebuff: re-group and move to the center. There are elements of the Senate bill that can still pass: pre-existiing conditions, wellness care, filling the donut hole for seniors. Make it a modest bill, work with Himbo Scott Brown, and make it a small but notable victory.
It would show that the White House is not tone deaf. It would allow your party live to fight another day.
This is a conservative country. Even the liberals look rightwing conpared to europeans. But they will continue their advance to the rear.
That's the direction you're suggesting we go?
Amazing. Simply, amazing.
Obama has never governed from the center because he has been too busy trying to chase down any Republican affections he can find.
I believe however that Obama will continue to move to the right and you will continue to suggest he has not moved far enough.
We don't need another "New Democrat" like Bill Clinton but that's what it looks like we've gotten in Obama.
All politics is local.
What planet do you live on??? Do what Bill Clinton did??? Move to the center??? Become a Republican??? WWWHHHHHHAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT???
Jennifer...hate to throw a little reality your way, but Obama became Bill Clinton immediately after his inaugeration. He surrounded himself with Clinton retreads. Then he moved center, AGAINST THE PROMISED CHANGE-when he started trying to appease the party of "You LIE!" and "NO!"
Obama needs to do just the opposite. Obama needs to get a little Bush-like. He needs to cut 8 Democratic senators loose, tweak health care reform to include a STRONG public plan that 50 senators will support (Biden would pass the tie breaking vote), and pass a progressive healthcare reform package via RECONCILIATION!
FDR passed much of his New Deal legislation without a 58 Senate Super Majority vote (AK and HI were not yet states). Newt Gingrich rammed through Contract with America that way. W Bush got his tax cuts through that way. The Republican party is the party of DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO OR HAVE DONE!
Obama needs to do exactly the opposite of your ill advised recommendations.
The notion that "independents" are "centrists" is total fiction. Independents are all over the map, save for one thing, they don't think either major party represents them.
This notion of "centrism" is seethingly stupid. This idea that somehow "moderation" is some kind of substance that can be applied to any problem to come up with some kind of ideal solution. What is the "moderate" position on HCR exactly? That instead of 45,000 people dying every year for lack of coverage, 22,500 is okay? That we should reduce by 50% the number of lobbyists who work on Capital Hill, magically reducing their influence in half? That 10% unemployment is too high (17% when you factor in the people who've dropped off, given up, work pt, etc.) but 8.5% is fine. Let's see, should we nationalize half the big banks? Or allow half of them to give giant bonuses but not the other half? 50% of the time torture is justified? We can adhere to 50% of our treaties?
In addition to the incredibly annoying notion of the magic center, our poster juxtaposes the concept with "leadering up".
Yep, nothing smells like leadership so much as backpedaling, compromising, and cringing away from a legitimate fight. Oh yeah, definite prescription for sucess going forward.
There was quite a bit of disagreement with elements of the House Bill that were NOT present in the Senate bill. There is no choice for a Public Option in the Senate Bill, there is one in the House; there are no State sweetheart deals (Nelson-NB) in the House bill; the House Bill covers more uninsured than the Senate Bill, and lowers the deficit further than the Senate Bill. Nancy Pelosi was also able to pass the bill much faster than her counterpart, Reid in the Senate and had her ducks in a row in the process.
Max Baucus held up things too long in his committee because he tried to be bipartisan with those who wanted nothing of the sort, and listened to too many insurance industry insiders, including his staffer who wrote much of their bill - a former health insurance senior.
Out of committee, it was Lieberman who "vetoed" the bill when a cost containment provision was added to lower the Medicare age to 55 year olds to buy into. No one would have been harmed by this except the health insurance industry that Lieberman represents.
That this all points to dems is one thing, but it only does so because the Republicans defaulted themselves party-wide to a "NO" vote to see Obama fail. If the President succeeds, then the Dems do, and that ensures democrat victories and republican losses.
The Republican strategy worked, and the US is fUkd because of it.