We Are Having An Effect

Posted on 07/06/2009 at 12:07 pm by admin

by Lee Stranahan

Over at Crooks & Liars, here’s Nicole Belle’s take….

Here’s the scenario as I see it: some moderate Democratic congressperson who has been trying to placate the special interests in their district–be it health insurance companies or lobbyists–complains to Obama that the calls they’ve been fielding are just not nice–after all, a huge majority of Americans want minimally a public option and are getting pretty testy at the corporatist response of the Dems. Obama pats the congressperson on the shoulder and commiserates, “Yes, I wish you didn’t have to deal with those calls,” without really addressing the substance of the calls. Constituents being nasty on the phone are a pain to deal with, even if their complaints are completely valid. That congressperson (or his/her aides) go running to the very eager Ceci Connolly to spin it that Obama wishes that these activists would leave the Beltway Bubble residents alone and voila! We have an article that claims Obama is irked by those pushing for Universal Health Care.

I think there’s probably a good deal of truth in this….and it’s good news.

This entry was posted in Healthcare and tagged , , . Bookmark the permalink.
  • Jan

    OK. One more time. This is how our system was set up. We elect these folks to represent US. So it is up to US to let them know how we feel about issues. And if these ELECTED politicians don’t like it when we express our opinions, whether it be in a DFA or MoveOn ad, a phone call, an email or in a town hall meeting then that’s too damn bad.And boo friggin hoo that these ELECTED offcials can’t take the heat. And all Obama had to tell this politician is that 72%+ of Americans want a public option so get on board.END. OF. STORY.

  • roxsteady

    Exactly! I’m also wondering if Obama isn’t secretly giddy over what we’re doing to these traitors! I’m hoping that he’s sitting back and thinking, if these bastards really think I’m going take any real steps to try and stop this they’re sadly mistaken. Even if he could do something he wouldn’t!

  • cynicalgirl

    Wow, what a bunch of babies.

  • Jan

    He’s trying to play both sides from the middle. Why I don’t know exactly. He wants to be nice to the Blue Dogs but yet he has us, the progressives, to keep happy.But he’s not making us very happy on many levels, not just on healthcare.We just need to keep pummeling him.Wow, what a bunch of babies. Yeh, they sound like republicans. What is Obama? Their DADDY??I never thought, in a million yeara, we’d have problems with DEMOCRATS if Obama was elected-this would be while standing out in rain, heat, snow during his campaign. For him. To make sure HE got elected.Yup- I’m mad.

  • eljefejeff

    “I never thought, in a million yeara, we’d have problems with DEMOCRATS if Obama was elected-this would be while standing out in rain, heat, snow during his campaign. For him. To make sure HE got elected.”That’s exactly the problem. Obama said himself, throughout the campaign, on election night, on inauguration day (paraphrasing)”Don’t be naive. The hard work starts now. This will not be easy. The lobbyists and special interests are deeply entrenched in Washington. This will be a marathon, not a sprint.”And yet people expected that once he was elected, he’d have dictatorial powers or those of a genie. We have to keep at this, for the next 4 years, we have to work hard again to get him re-elected, and then keep working hard for the next 4 years after that, and forever and ever under subsequent administrations until we’re dead. We can’t be lazy citizens anymore.We only have a voice and a vote, not millions of dollars in campaign contributions. Unfortunately that’s how the system works.

  • J

    @eljefejeff: This, exactly. People started to believe that the rollover and play dead Congress that Bush had in the wake of 9/11 is just the way gov’t works. But it’s not. The president is but one of three, supposedly equal, branches of government.And, b/c the general wisdom of the people is that every representative sucks except theirs, it’s very easy for Congresspeople to do nothing and push all the blame and responsibility on the President. And it works: just look at LGBT rights. 77 members of the House get applauded–lauded, even–for asking the President (rightly) to implement stop/loss agains DADT. But have any of those Congresspeople started the process to repeal DADT–a process they admit will take a long time? Nope. Rep. Barney Frank has time to write up a bill to decriminalize marijuana, but nothing on DADT. B/c it’s easier to make the President use his power and then sit back and not do anything else. They, clearly, won’t get the blame for it.

  • Jan

    Don’t be naive. The hard work starts now. This will not be easy. The lobbyists and special interests are deeply entrenched in Washington. This will be a marathon, not a sprintI never was naive-I knew it would be a battle. BUT I never thought we’d have to fight HIM. I figured-wrong obviously-that Obama would use his great political capital to push his campaign promises through. But I must have been a dumbass thinking the democrats-all of them-would stand up with Obama to push his agenda.So I guess I’m a dumbass. Shoot me for believing. But I know I wasn’t nuts when I heard him say over and over and over that lobbyiests would not be allowed in the WH. $1.4M healthcare lobbyiests dollars a day later…..After 8 years of a nightmare I’m just disappointed.