Mr. President, Republicans are Sensing Victory, Because You Won't Fight

In the middle of August, I got one shot off to the president saying that I am getting ticked off that he is negotiating with people who want to do him in.  If President Obama’s knees buckle on Wednesday night, it will have more dire ramifications than just this health bill.

I don’t know if a letter like this gets to him or somebody in the room helping with the speech, but I can hope.

Mr. President,

We need to see your teeth Wednesday night.  I want to know that there is some steel behind the cool façade.  This summer the message has been taken from you.  You need to take it back, strongly.

I want the low growl that says we are going to get this done.  I want to hear an attitude that says, “Any Democrat stepping out of line at this point is done.  Not because I say so, but because every person who worked for me last year will be ticked off.  Do you seriously think any volunteer will work for you next year if this opportunity is squandered?”

Look straight at the Congress and continue with, “You were sent here to do a job.  So am I.  Many of you are here because of me.  You were swept into office because of change.  Those of you Democrats who have multiple terms benefited from last year’s campaign.  You are to put it on the line and get the public option done.”  (Although, I would rather you go for the whole enchilada and say single payer here.)

“The entire country is looking at us.  We have the votes.  If you fail this mission, they will look at the Democratic Party and rightfully say, ‘There is no discipline there to get anything done.  We have pie-in-the-sky ideas, but no backbone to see it to a reality.’”

We need to stick together.  If the Republicans want to continue with their current strategy, then fine.  Mr. President, you can’t control them.  Hell, they can’t control themselves.  You are teaching pigs to sing.  Everybody is getting more and more irritated.

That irritation will result in apathy greater than what existed in the middle part of this decade when the Republicans took complete control of this country and ran it into a ditch.

Cool ain’t gonna cut it now.

There are times for changes in timbre and tone.  It doesn’t have to be forever, one night will do.  We, the people who got you there, need to know it is in there.  After all the garbage that has been thrown at you, yes, you are allowed to get mad.  You need to get mad on the behalf of those who can’t speak or buy their very own Congresspeople.

Michael Dukakis lost his bid to sit where you are now because he didn’t get mad at the right time.  He tried to seriously answer a foolish question and got laughed out of the debate.  You have, thankfully, gotten much further than him.

You have the numbers.  You still have our hope.  We need to know you can bring the hammers.  Now is the time for hope to become reality.

The alternative is unthinkable.

 

 

Comments

[Armando Olmos]

President Obama needs to restore our safety net, by raising taxes on the top 2% wealthiest Americans, and amending our foreign trade policies to bring back manufacturing jobs in GREEN ENERGY, AND WIND POWER, along with health care reform with a strong public option PART E Medicare type of option. FINALLY, NO TRIGGERS ARE UNACCEPTABLE , WE NEED HEALTH CARE REFORM LIKE YESTERDAY.­..........­.....How many more Americans must die before we get it done??????­??????Let'­s get it done this year; make it happen by 2011.

A.O.Olmos
Advocate For Seniors And Disable

[Armando Olmos]

What bothered me about The President's speech is that he refuses to raise taxes on the wealthiest 2% of the population­..........­.......Whi­ch is old money these are people who have inherited this wealth. This money as been handed down from one generation to other; on about 90% of wealthiest people, and some these families have had this wealth for over a century. These wealthy families produce nothing, they do not to contribute to our economy, because they spend their money over seas in trans world corporations where twenty percent of the board members are foreigners. The wealthiest Americans have all that they could possibility need. How many homes do these people need???????????How many automobiles could they possibility drive at one time?????????These people have home in many parts of the world and they can live anywhere they wish. These people if they live on $20,000 a week, couldn't they survive on $10,000 a week; I don't think this would hurt them financially. A Pure Capitalist Economy can't survive on its own, it will clasp, it is not an island on to it self; we need balance the safety net saves Capitalism. Because the poor, and the middle class spend most of their cash on survival in local economies.

A.O.Olmos
Advovate For Seniors And Disabled

[Armando Olmos]

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has it right on health care reform , Obama needs to take a few pages from the Speaker's book, on the public option....­..........

A.O.Olmos
Advocate For Seniors And Disabled

[SeeingIs]

The thing that still puzzles me is THE COST. No matter that I believe the Prez, and I do, I still cannot understand how any meaningful reform will be paid for. An earlier comment said the $900B is less than the cost of the Iraq war. But, it's ALL money and it ALL counts, and it's ALL piling up fast.
The deficits are totally astonishing. Begun under the previous administration to be sure, and with no apparent agita by the now incensed republicans, they are nonetheless real and daunting and bound to get in the way of anything progressive we ever want to do. Tax increases are off the table in a recession and, apparently at any other time, as well.
Skeptical here that our fiscal house of cards won't soon just collapse. If single payer is marvellous, why have we been warned for over a decade that Medicare and SS are heading for fiscal ruin? I ask that as a taxpayer, citizen, and in the spirit of full disclosure, one about to sign up for Medicare.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

i dunno...

[SeeingIs]

He's "open" to other ideas besides the public option, but all in all Joe, HE SHOWED some teeth -- AND, stared down a congressman who called him a liar out loud and to his face. All in all more than I had come to expect from Mr Split the Difference. There certainly are details to be worked out, as he said, to Republican laughter, and I still think there is opportunity for Republicans and Blue Dogs to kill reform. The rank and file Democrats in congress better be juiced fr the fight of their lives, and we need to keep up the pressure. ALl is not lost YET..

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

i have a post in the queue with my thoughts on last night. I am calling the sc congressman joe the screamer..­.

[QuietLightTraveler]

Look, Mr. Preident, , you have seen the enemy, unremitting, uncaring and unkind. They want to deny the people who elected you from the change you promised them. That's right, you promised meaningful healthcare reform and other changes. Now it is time to deliver. It is time to be tough. You have to fight and be tough and defend your position, just the way you ask soldiers that are sent to Afghanistan to fight, and possibly die for their country. This is not the time for politics or shrinking violets. This Democracy, the United States of America, was borne of blood and guts, not by old ladies sitting over their afternoon tea, but by tough men. Don't bring any shame on that heritage. The people need you to fight for what you promised and what you know is right.

[Curt Newbury]

Hey, Joe:

Re: Mr. President, etc.
Something that you might want to look at, Joe. The way the other side gets it's way is by name-calling, lying and accusations of things that don't get proven. That may work a little for a little while amongst the goats and snakes. Right now, our fight is for health care. A lofty notion. Basically calling Obama a coward won't get us any closer to health care. We aren't like the other side. Many Democrats and the Republicans railed against Obama at the start of the election campaign. His goals were to see us as a nation win, where the others wanted to hand some individual a defeat. Obama won doing things in a high minded way. Don't be like the boo birds. He will win health care reform, too. We need to all understand that the things that make up "what" we want is the "how" we intend to do things.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

Good comments - take a look at my next post. make some comments and let's get it done...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-the-nerd-ferraro/i-want-you-to-be-a-defend_b_280875.html

[StopSexismNow]

Awesome that this is the lead article on the Politics page! I sure hope someone with some influence in the WH reads it and all the great comments that follow.

Thank
you
Joe!

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

wow, when was it the lead? I just checked and I have faded away. But in any case, that is real helium to expand my head - thanks!

[StopSexismNow]

You were for several hours last night. Well deserved!

[butterfliesblossom]

Those commenting that healthcare smacks of socialism and that it will lead to the deterioration of Free market Capitalism are confused. What everyone needs to know is that all other industrial nations including the top 5 free markets offer universal healthcare. US #6.

You can be a capitalist, by the way, but with a social conscience.

What I see in the average person is anger. Personally, I feel that I am making a choice for healthcare reform because I would rather someone get healthcare and live and/or keep out of bankruptcy than to increase the CEO's pay.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE57Q24J20090827

It is about the multi million dollar vacation home in Croatia of AIG's CEO. Now AIG is not a healthcare insurance (but it is an insurance company), but it boils my blood not because of envy. because without voting for healthcare reform I am saying it is "ok" to increase this guys salary instead of saving a life of a person or saving a family from going bankrupt.

As Nobel winning economist Joseph Stiglitz pointed out " Today only the deluded would argue that markets are self-correcting or that we can rely on the self-interested behavior of market participants to guarantee that everything works honestly and properly”

Tyler Durden said no one is demanding equality, that is socialism. …. but capitalism requires balance, and that is part of what govt. should do.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

hey butterfly - thanks for the post. take a look at this and see if it holds water?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-the-nerd-ferraro/conservative-argument-for_b_271769.html

[oldngrumpy]

Thank you for an excellent post that places the real perspective needed back into the equation. Some things just need doing. Republicans say that 85% of the people have health insurance and are happy with it so we should not worry about reforming the system. I asked my Blue Dog Senator; If I "ONLY" threatened to kill 15% of your family would you vote for me?

This issue has been sidetracked by discussions of cost (less than the long term cost of the Iraq war), damage to the existing insurance industry (who serve no purpose but siphon off 30% of health care dollars), and a host of nonsensical fear mongering. The posts here, I believe are not that far off the national opinion and they center on the human factor much more than the figures and balance sheet. The discussion from the representatives in the House and Senate is almost entirely composed of figures and scare tactics. They simply aren't on the same page as America.

PS: fanned and fave

[Eugenian]

I hope this is the message Barack Obama got from his advisors.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

me too, i know i am not wasting my time here, but it would be nice.

[Pharaoh617]

Basically every deal Obama has done so far , he has gotten egged on his face. For some reason in his mind. He has convince him self that those are the best deals he could of gotten. I know that you're good guy Joe and you mean well, so are many progressives like my self here on HP. My problem is the lack of fighting period on his part .The guy gives up before the fight even starts period. I'm sorry Joe but the urternative is not unthinkable. If you can't do the job guess what someone else will. That's what people are told at work everyday.

[amaboss52]

The rethugs and the blue mutts are one in the same. They have nothing to bring to the table, and are trying to sab otage the Obama Presidency. If Pres. Obama gives in now, he will be seen from the right as weak and ineffectual and by the left as a disappointment. Mr. Pres. Please stand firm for us and we will have your back. Most of the country is on his side, the few, loud, stoopid ones are causing the problems. We need to be as vocal as the l()()ns. Every time I read about a rethug or Lib who is against the public option, I call them and b!t ch. Everyone of us who wants a public option, needs to get on the phone or e-mail and call these selfish, greedy P>I>G>S out. WE on the left must be as vocal and irritating as the K()()KS on the right.

[LarryGeater]

It would help if he could bring himself to call a lie a lie. The unanswered lies of those trying to derail healthcare reform are the rights only weapon. Take it from them.

[katermc]

Thank you for this column. I've been reading commentary on this issue all day and I've had a knot in my stomach. You've said exactly what I believe. And I, too, would rather he go for a single payer system.

I believe that the people would do anything for this president if he came out with a courageous, honest statement in support of single payer (or at the very least a strong public option we could actually afford). Imagine hearing a president in this country go for broke on behalf of us!! As it is, I dread listening to this speech, because he has betrayed us so often already. I'll be at work tomorrow night and when I get home, I'll see what the headlines about the speech are. If they're typical of what we've already heard, I won't be able to bring myself to listen to him again.

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

first - thank you for the response. no one likes to feel like they are just shouting to the wind with no response. i really appreciate it.
please take the knot out of your stomach and take a deep breath. you can affect outcome here. I would like you to contact your congressperson and senators. thell them you will be working very hard for someone next year.
If you bak Obama, i'll back you. if you don't, i'll be kicking your behind all over the place next year.

you are right we can run thru a wall for this guy. he just needs to tell us which wall.

[ImissBush]

bush was barely "elected" & "relected" & he & his cohorts just said were doing it this way
if u dont like it
2bad

[Joe The Nerd Ferraro - Huffpost Blogger]

that may be the way to go, but first we need to corral the democratic cats in congress to make that happen

[ImissBush]

agreed
but i question how democratic those cats r

the 60 senators who caucus w/ the dems should get together & just vote to let democracy rule

no filibusters

51 votes beat 49
then they should b free 2 vote their conscience or constinuency