How Obama's Enemies Right and Left Will Help Him Win The Public Option

So much smoke is coming out of both sides of the health care debate that we might simply say that the opposition to Obama is thoroughly bipartisan. The funny thing is that both the antics of Keith Olbermann and Ed on MSNBC (bloviating on the left) and the usual FOX suspects on the right is taking on the character of what the President has aptly called silliness and drama.

At the end of the day, there is one thing going for the President that none of these characters seem to credit. That would be the American people. Not all the American people, just the 70 percent or so who think what comes out of the mouths of left and right has nothing to do with achieving the ends they affirm.

The ends affirmed by this majority include the public option, a move to fiscal responsibility in the face of runaway government expense and a health care program that does not take away from those who are already OK with it.

To the extent that the President can effectively stand for these things, he wins and the people win.

All the bloviating I have mentioned seems to center down on the independents and their attitude to the town hall processes underway. It becomes cause for Olbermann apoplexy if independents think it is OK to raise hell with politicians. What, pray tell, was the Obama campaign all about? Merely because independents are OK with some conflict does not mean they will not ultimately favor a solution that fundamentally extends the benefits of medicare to all.

Olbermann and Hannity will agree that the President has feet of clay, will ask if he is becoming another Carter, will essentially deny his power to fight effectively. Of course their job is to fill up time. If I was filling up time I would tell folk what's in the bills. That is actually what I do, but few read it. Instead, they ask the same people time after time to make the same statements time after time so we can be misinformed about the actual future time after time.

The election of Obama was a case in point. Everyone, including even Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert (not to mention all of HC's supporters), threw him under the bus every other day. On the other days, they speculated that all was not lost. A perfect storm of ambivalence.

We should watch the daily drama for silliness. For consistent snideness. For bombast -- that would be Ed in particular.

When all is said and done, if we have to go to reconciliation, we will do so to get the public option. But then people will have a very good idea why. And they will reward the perps who try to defeat it accordingly.

In 2010 the laws of the past may well change. The voters will reward those who hung in with the man they elected in 2008.

The only way the public option will be defeated is if the majority of Americans do not want it. That is democracy in action. It's a logic even congress can understand. I think the majority for the public option will hold.

A positive bill with the public option in place will leave the media rubbing their collective heads, just as they did when Obama won Iowa, the nomination and the election.

And for all the liars can do to fake out the voters, the media manage to do in the silliness and drama departments, Everyone will finally help the President to prevail. So bloviate on Keith, Ed, Sean and all you others. You are all helping the cause.

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Comments

[impik]

You sure you still have a job at Huff-Post after writing GOOD THINGS about Obama????

[respectingothers]

I'm hoping you're right. but after America elected GW as our prez I don't have your faith in democracy winning out and overcoming the gre*dy and dishonest

[GianRico]

A cogent analysis of the drama being played on the right and left.

Without completely disagreeing with you, I appreciate Ed for being a counterpoint to Beck and Hannity. His rants more hyperbolic passions than bloviation.

KO may get on my nerves at time, but having followed him from his ESPN days, the man is intellectually honest...and...has a conscience.

I listen to FOX NONSENSE CHANNEL(I am obviously biased) regularly..and...I have yet to hear from any host a commentary or statement that wasn't misrepresented or parsed to bolster their point of view...even when we're hearing the same thing..LIVE.. on.. THEIR network. A money making entity that is the sole source of "news" for many.

The liberals feel compelled to show their sensiblities and open mindedness by criticizing Obama less they be called ideologues or lunatics(a word reserverd for neocons)

Obama received a mandate 53-48..he needs to LEAD..and the Democrats(Congress) need to show some convictions..if not GUTS.

In the end, you are correct..the majority's will win out through representative democracy...with or without what we call the public option.

[nellie]

I just got the EF word sent to me from Ed Schultz for pointing out that he might be overreacting. I sent him the link to this article.

[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks. I have nothing against Ed though his manner clashes with my own sensibilities. What I object to was laid out in the following series of Tweets last evening:

In reverse order:

More. Many, far too many, negative statements about the President, macho, disparaging, rude, tasteless, obtuse, wrong..

Ed gets to me because of his manner. And his assumptions. Compare him with Howard Dean who is just as liberal. There's more.

I am a Democrat who supported Obama who thinks Ed and his show do no service to Obama or his agenda.

Note how Dean is not taking anything Ed says seriously -- hot air from Ed, sense from Dean.

Ed is the bufoon. But it's ammunition for the President. At the end Ed will have been part of the drama, not the solution.

CONCLUSION:

If I were Ed I might reply with a profanity, but I am someone who probably has the creds to critique media, having done it since I was a teen in the 50s. I see Ed as part of the silliness on the left that Obama can refer to when he is ready to sock it to Congress in a Joint Session and turn thin thing around.

[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

We shall see who is right pretty soon. As far as declaring Keith an enemy of Obama, it certainly looks that way at times. Same with Ed. I am inclined to call Keith the conscience we deserve. I do not feel we have anyone these days who qualifies as a national conscience.

[dachos]

so the people on the left who voted for Obama and now asking for accountability makes them "enemies" of the president?

[kitkatborn]

Thank you, Mr. Rose. Hopefully, common sense will win the day.

[benjaminblue]

Keith Olbermann is not silly. He is an important part of the American conscience.

[Jane]

Show me. I hope you are right. I will give you 2-1 odds that the public option will die, and Obama will declared that we never needed it anyway.

[BobLablah]

No one has been able to explain to me why we need a public option instead of just legislating what we need through private insurers. Care to try? Obama himself said the post office is a miserable failure of government in private markets. Why would health care be any different?

[GoodwithWood]

The post office is a victim of the Internet.

[BobLablah]

Not sure how you get those packages through the internet.

The post office is a victim of government managment. There's no reason why they shouldn't have a huge share of UPS and FedEx business, other than mismanagment and government unions.

[Chris Rautmann]

In 2004, 75% of Americans who voted for George W Bush believed that either Saddam Hussein was directly involved with the September 11th attacks, or that the US had found an Iraqi WMD program in Iraq.
Neither were true.
You don't have to fool all of the people all of the time. Just most of the people on election day.

[LTBROWN]

I've never, ever voted for ANY Bush.

[BobLablah]

I'm surprised. From your comments I thought you like Bush.

[Peter Madaka]

Thank You. I needed to read that. I really hope you are right...

[LTBROWN]

So do I.