Enough Already

Posted on 12/23/2009 at 4:23 pm by Bob Cesca

As someone who’s been writing in support of the public option for the better part of a year, I was initially weirded out by the president’s declaration that he didn’t campaign on the public option.

I thought, ‘the heck ja’ mean? It’s all right there on YouTube and in the campaign materials. A public option to compete with insurance companies and yappity yap.

Now that I’ve simmered down, it’s clear that “campaigned on” implies a broadstroke ideas and major initiatives. For example, the president absolutely campaigned on change, healthcare, education, energy, restoring America’s image around the world, and so forth. But he didn’t “campaign on” the public option in the strictest sense of political rhetoric.

Greg Sargent:

Ben Smith, the gang at First Read, and Sam Stein, all of whom followed the campaign closely, concluded that he was basically right. Stein read through more than 200 campaign dispatches and found scant mention of the provision.

I just think the president said this at the wrong time. In fact, he shouldn’t have said it at all. So it was a gaffe, but in political terms, he wasn’t entirely wrong.

Whatever. Time to move on. The magnitude of the outrage is growing well beyond the magnitude of the trespass.

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  • eljefejeff

    During the campaign, I honestly thought when he talked about the public option, he meant the federal employee insurance which is now in the bill. And the extent that he campaigned on it is kind of irrelevant anyway. The mandate is what I can understand people being upset with, since it was a clear distinction between his platform and Hillary’s.They just voted to end the filibuster. I love it. Screw you republicans.

  • http://www.windonwater.net QueenTiye

    I wouldn’t call it a gaffe, and I do understand the outrage (understand, but disagree). Basically, the president is saying what some are just finding out to be true – namely that people whose names aren’t Barack Obama magnified his claims to suit their ends. People are upset because he basically disowned their conceptions of him, whereas, some folk want him to own THEIR conception of him and then feel guilty for not living up to it.Serious journalists who actually were paying attention will note the distinctions between Obama’s campaign promises and his actual performance – and they will find him lagging in exactly one area – the restoration of constitutional principle when it comes to dealing with detainees. I won’t even concede the point of gay rights yet, because the fact that he’s slow doesn’t mean he’s breaking promises (and those gay rights activist folk who thought he was just playing politics when he said no to gay marriage and yes to civil unions will probably throw the same fits health care progressives are throwing when they find out that he actually meant that, but it won’t mean that he broke any promises – it just means that people whose names aren’t Barack Obama chose to interpret his words as meaning things he didn’t say).QT

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Bob,You aren’t going to melt just because he lied, and you write about it. He’s a politician…they say a lot of things and you can’t spend the rest of your life holding your breath on all of it. Did he lie? Of course he did. In the strictest sense, POLITICALLY, he lied.Like you said, he shouldn’t have said it at all. But you can’t erase the fact that his plan on his website included a PO.You know as well as I do that everything written is attributed as being said, and everything said is attributed to being part of the campaign. He campaigned on it, enough said.Sometimes I swear you guys are living in a dream world, where the things politicians say actually come true. Obama has been better than most of our recent examples. But if he wants to change Washington, he’s going to have to demand lobbyist and campaign financing reform. Until he addresses that, his main campaign issue, Change, will remain unfulfilled.

  • Jan

    Come ON. he sure did talk about a po and no mandates in every hcr speech he gave. He also went after the ins. companies and vowed to get the lobbyiests out of DC. All of this is well documented everywhere.I’d say it’s been an epic fail. Now he’s getting all defensive about it because he’s getting so much heat.If I have to hear one more time how great this bill is, that it “covers” 30M people (actually forcing people to buy their crappy insurance), and how pre existing conditions is gone-oh wait no, not really because we could have to pay up to 300% MORE for our premiums, my head will explode.

  • DaBomb

    @ Jan- He did in every HCR speech after he was elected. But while he was campaigning… no he didn’t.

  • http://politicalpartypooper.wordpress.com/ Political Party Pooper

    Jan,Universal health care is impossible without mandates. You can’t have one without the other

  • Dr. Squid

    I just resent that he allowed the malcontents to feign their High Moral Dudgeon very publicly.

  • GOVCHRIS1988

    Knowing Barack Obama, we all have to agree, he is slick cat. Now, he didn’t really campaign on the public option, at least, not this one, or the one that Jacob Hacker invented. He did campaign on a public plan, but didn’t really lay out the machinery of the full plan. So, did he lie? Semantically,no. But that won’t matter, because many will still say that he lied. Of course, this guy is human and a politician, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he lied. George W. Bush lied. Bill Clinton lied. Ronald Reagan lied. Jimmy Carter lied. FDR lied. Hell, Honest Abe lied a couple of times. I don’t excuse what he said, because he shouldn’t have said it, especially at this time, but this livid outrage from the left only seems to threaten our interests, not President Obama’s, the United States Congress, or the like.

  • roxsteady

    Once I calmed down after reading this yesterday, I realized that, as many of you have noted, technically, he was correct. I do recall him mostly saying that Americans deserved the same insurance that Congress has quite frequently. It’s one of those truths that, while proving his point, it also further irratates us in it’s nuance. And yes, I too feel that he should not have said it. I’m over it now though. Moving forward, I’ll continue to fight.I don’t like this bill but, I think at the end of the day it’s probably wise to just pass it and get it to the conference committee. We can fight for improvments there. Besides, who the hell wants to listen to that ignorant and insufferable Jim DeMint and his Waterloo bullshit again.

  • roxsteady

    Just saw a collage on Countdown of clips of the Obama speaking about the public option. Like I said, I’m over. I will say that I’m glad that these clips were found. It’s important that he face the truth too. There were quite a few clips and it will be interesting to see if he further responds or just head to Hawaii after the vote tomorrow. You just know that Gibbs will be asked about this if he wasn’t already.

  • roxsteady

    By the way, I meant to type was I’m over it. I’m not going all Jane Hamsher. I think it would be a political stink bomb if they don’t pass this bill. The Republicans and their teabaggers will crucify the Dems for having 60 votes and still unable to govern.

  • idabamaho

    “But under the Senate plan, millions of Americans will be forced into private insurance company plans, which will be subsidized by taxpayers. That alternative will do almost nothing to reform health care but will be a windfall for insurance companies.”http://edition.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/12/23/slaughter.oppose.senate.bill/This bill runs contrary to everything Barack Obama said during the campaign regarding health care. Not to mention the back door Pharma deal.It is the worst possible outcome. Where’s the outrage Bob?

  • Gottverdammt Klaus

    It is the worst possible outcome. Where’s the outrage…?

    Directed at Republicans, as it should be.It isn’t the worst possible outcome by any measure. The worst outcome would have been to do nothing.No, we haven’t gotten everything we wanted. Welcome to representative democracy.