OBAMA SPEECH MAY HAVE ACCOMPLISHED IT'S GOALS

President Obama finally got specific and did what people have been wanting him to do for months -- put down some markers.

On the most controversial issue, the public option, he made it clear he supported the public option, even though, almost in the same breath, he equivocated and said he was open to other ideas.

This is what he said:

"But an additional step we can take to keep insurance companies honest is by making a not-for-profit public option available in the insurance exchange. Let me be clear – it would only be an option for those who don't have insurance. ...It’s worth noting that a strong majority of Americans still favor a public insurance option of the sort I've proposed tonight."

He did leave the door open for some squabbling when he said..".....some have suggested that the public option go into effect only in those markets where insurance companies are not providing affordable policies. Others propose a co-op or another non-profit entity to administer the plan. These are all constructive ideas worth exploring."

Actually they are not worth exploring and would only put off a public option and make it more complicated than it needs to be, but it's hard for Obama to be definitive about anything and this is as close as he's going to get. And it may be enough. It is unlikely the Democratically controlled congress will put out a bill that doesnt contain the public option as originally conceived.

He made it clear enough with this: "...but I will not back down on the basic principle that if Americans can't find affordable coverage, we will provide you with a choice"

That choice is the public option and Obama's laying down a marker that health care reform has to include it in some way, probably is enough to propel the public option in the senate where Democrats favor it by a count of 46 yes, 13 maybe, No 0 .

In the House the public option has overwhelming support.

Obama may have accomplished what he set out to do with the speech. Stop the squabbling among any Democrats that opposed the public option, as small a minority as they are, since its clear it is now part of the agenda. And he may have also made it clear that Republican opposition is not going to be enough to stop it or even slow it down and that, taking the cue from Dick Durbin, a bill will be passed even if it means without any Republican support.

There seems little the opposition can do now. It is up to the Democrats to draft the bills, vote them out of committee and send them to the floor for final votes. Bills that will have the public option. And get the show on the road.

As for the Republicans, Joe Wilson, a Republican member of the House yelled out during the speech that Obama was a liar. Obviously he has future training conservatives who go to town hall meetings. He may have done Obama a lot of good since it generated so much condemnation from members of Congress it could be an end to Republicans lying about the reform package and if they have legitimate issues with it, to deal with those instead of the "pulling the plug on grandma" nonsense.

There is a good chance that the speech and its specifics might have spelled the end of any hopes the Republicans have of derailing the public option. Had Obama given the same speech three months ago, it would have solidified support for the public option then, and avoided all the nonsense of the last three months instead of empowering Republicans.

But, as the saying goes, better late then never. Now lets hope Obama continues to to break his mold, and not change his mind.

IS OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY ABOUT TO SELF DESTRUCT OVER HEALTH CARE?

CNN is reporting that, 8 months after he should have, President Obama is considering drawing up his own legislation on health care and submitting it to congress. Most people feel that as far as it relates to Obama himself it is too little too late. And also not very smart.

One aspect of the legislation includes a dropping of the public option to appease Republicans, a party in such a minority their votes arent even needed to pass any legislation the Democrats want.

What Obama is considering in place of the public option is this silly idea of a "trigger", a Republican smokes screen for putting the public option on ice.

The "trigger" idea is that the public option would only be triggered after insurance companies are given a chance to meet certain benchmarks and if they don't a public option would be triggered.

What these benchmarks would be and how long insurance companies would have to meet them would have to be negotiated and anyone with two cents for a brain knows that Republicans are not going to agree to a time table or benchmarks that Democrats would go along with. It also would effectively put off a public option for years which is the whole idea.

Obama is either dumb enough to fall for it, or thinks other people are dumb enough to fall for it but the whole idea is for Obama to do, not whats best for the country but to politically take the heat off himself.

Olympia Snow has said she would vote for such a "trigger" and so it seems Obama is willing to throw the public option and his whole party under the bus in order to get one Republican vote. Not every smart. And it's not going to work.

Obama's problem is the Democrats in the House have made it clear, especially to him that they consider a strong public option essential to any health care reform. And it is. The fact that Obama would consider dropping it is showing the Democrats he can't be trusted.

How stupid is this decision if in fact Obama tries to sell it? The only people opposing the public option are Republicans and the town hall mini-fascists with the Hitler signs and swastikas that have obviously made Obama's knees buckle. And by trying to mollify them Obama is on the verge of alienating his own party.

Someone who CNN identifies as a "Democratic aide" but who is clearly someone inside the White House, suggested to CNN that Obama doing something that "makes the liberals mad at him is not a bad thing to do now". First, notice that the statement has nothing to do with considering whats best for the country,only what they think is best for Obama politically. And it shows just show smarmy and political Obama is.

The second part of that statement is that it was obviously suggested by someone who can only be called a political village idiot who is trying to shape the debate.

What makes this "aide's" statement so idiotic is that if Obama tries to forge a bill that doesn't have the public option he will not just get the liberals "mad" at him. They will not vote for it and it will go down to defeat in the House, and will be as humiliating a defeat at the hands of his own party as any President has had in American history. In fact it would probably have Republicans rolling on the floor laughing and Obama's entire presidency at that point will have blown up in his face.

He will be seen as a totally ineffective and ineffectual non-leader who will not have the backing of his own party. He will certainly not have the backing of Republicans who want nothing more than to defeat him in 2012. He will be a President without a party, without a constituency and without support of the American people. Those who oppose him now will continue to oppose him and those who supported him will oppose him also.

To add to his humiliation, a bill containing a public option will most certainly be brought to the floor of the House and would most certainly pass. As far as the senate which supposedly is where the problems lie, the reality is according to a Whip count there is now not one single "no" vote among Democrats for a public option. The current count is 46 "yes" votes, 13 "maybe's" and Sen. Kennedy's seat up for grabs.

If a bill does come out of the senate without a public option thanks to Obama's knee buckling it will never get reconciled with a House that will not pass a bill that doesn't have a public option. If the result is no health care reform, Obama is finished for the rest of his term and will be little more than a public joke, a cigar store Indian of a president, a symbol and president in name only. And if he tries to sell anything without a public option to appease Republicans as "don't let the good be the enemy of the perfect", he may get a job writing greeting cards but he is finished as a president.

If the White House thinks its okay to alienate liberals and moderates in the House over the public option, Obama is in for the surprise of his life, and for those who thought he couldn't mess up health care even worse than he has, it will get a lot worse. But mostly for Obama himself.

If health care reform gets passed with a public option and without Obama's steadfast support, Obama will be irrelevant for the rest of the legislative session. And if it should stall in the senate, Obama will be blamed for it as well he should be. In other words Obama has put himself in the incredibly stupid political position of getting no credit for reform or the public option if it passes (though he would certainly try) and all the blame if it fails. And he will deserve what he gets.

The rest of Obama's presidency is going to be decided on health care. And the way it looks now, he is going to be so damaged as a result of his own disingenuous political actions that no matter what happens, dont be surprised if his own party asks him not to run in 2012.

His only chance is to drop this idea of a "trigger" as some kind of political bait and switch on the public option, stand up for ithe public option since he has claimed he supports it and fight it out. Otherwise he could be headed for oblivion. But he's had so many chances to redeem himself before on health care and has blown it each time, that passing a health care reform bill with a public option is much more likely than Obama redeeming himself. But one can still hope.

OBAMA'S FLAWS CATCHING UP WITH HIM AS HE SINKS IN THE POLLS

Everything Obama has done politically in his 12 years of elected life has always been about one thing -- the next political step. This is why he voted "present" more than 100 times in the Illinois State Senate, voting neither for nor against a bill more than 100 times. After all if you don't have a record its hard for anyone to run against it.

Now that there are no more political steps, Obama's way of doing things are catching up with him. His constant reversals on torture and torture prosecutions, reversals on the release of torture photos, not having a clear plan on where to send the detainees once Gitmo was closed all unsettled a lot of people. But it has been his mishandling of health care reform that is now blowing up in his face.

His approval ratings have declined more sharply than any president in history and he came into the White House with more good will than any president in history. Of course why any news or polling organization was doing job approval polls a week after his inauguaration when he hadn't yet done a thing is another story. That's why I call it more good will than anything else. But that good will is quickly disappearing among Democrats and independents.

And while people have become more and more disenchanted with him for a number of reasons, this latest sharp drop in the polls can be directly attributable to his ineffective response to Republican lies and tactics on health care reform and more to the point, there is at least circumstantial evidence that the decline can be tied to his short lived attempt at dropping the public option as a political compromise with Republicans which resulted in almost immediate repudiation by the Democratic House leadership, Howard Dean and a number of Democratic House members.

Obama's testing the waters on dropping the public option has undoubtedly cost him both Democratic and independent votes while gaining him nothing with Republicans. And it has undermined both his creditiblity and the credibility of health care reform in general. After all, it wouldnt be unreasonable for people too busy to investigate the issues for themselves, to think that if Obama was ready to drop ithe public option, then maybe its not that important after all.

But the public option is not only the centerpiece of reform, less than 2 months ago a CBS poll showed 72% of Americans favored the public option and 57% were willing to pay higher taxes to get it. CNN had a similar poll with 66% favoring the public option and 60% willing to pay higher taxes to get it. And most recently a CNN Quick Vote showed 80% of the country believed health care was a fundamental American right not something that should be based on ability to pay.

That Obama has turned a proposition that 72% favored into negative numbers is an exercise in incompetence I thought we had seen the last of with George W. Bush. The only thing Obama has going for him so far compared to Bush is that so far his handling of things hasnt killed anyone yet.

The only thing that's changed since 3/4 of Americans favored and wanted a public option has been Republican attacks and disinformation that both Obama and the news media, who would rather report on a good fight than the truth, have been pathetically ineffective in refuting.

Obama has always tried to be all things to all people politically but he is seeing that approach isn't working anymore. The Democratic congress has taken the reins with health care and with the House Democrats saying there wont be a health care bill without the public option and Dick Durbin saying the Democrats will pass a health care bill with no Republican votes if they have to, Obama is on the verge of being irrelevant unless he decides to put on the brakes and join the fight.

Right now no one is looking at Obama as a leader. He gave no direction to congress on health care, had no plan of his own, laid down no markers, drew no lines in the sand. And signalling, even for a day that he would be willing to drop the public option made it worse. And the polls are reflecting it.

Health care will get passed with him or without him since its a congressional initiative and not one that came from Obama. But there is still time for Obama to become a leader and act like one. But not that much time.

If he doesnt take a stand and soon, then he may be headed for another LIncoln Moment. The one that goes " you cant fool all of the people all of the time".

LIES ABOUT HEALTH CARE REFORM REPUBLICANS HAVE TOLD ME

As the healthcare debate continues to heat up the one thing that has become apparent is that the opponents of sweeping reform ,specifically opponents of the public option, and those showing up at the town hall meetings to oppose it, feel that in order to defeat the kind of reform being proposed, their best and only weapon is to simply lie.

This isnt new. Republicans and conservatives have consistently resorted to telling "the big lie" as a tactic to achieve a political aim. The idea if you tell a lie that's big enough and often enough, many gullible people, especially those submissive to authority as most conservatives are, will believe it for a variety of reasons. But it always reeks of hypocrisy.

As one opponent of healthcare reform, a self proclaimed conservative told Arlen Specter at a town hall meeting, healthcare reform is "systematically dismantling what this country is about", and that healthcare reform would turn the country into a "socialized" country. Presumable she would have no problem with her socialized fire department showing up to put out a fire to keep her house from burning down.

We saw the lies in 2002 when Bush and Cheney tried to promote the lie that Saddaam had a connection to Al-Qaeda, a lie they needed to justify the invasion of Iraq. Many conservatives swallowed it whole even though there was not a shred of proof and in fact proof that proved it was a lie. But to true believers proof never matters.

We hear a lot of talk about the deficit, but conservatives and Republicans had no problem blowing a balanced budget and creating record deficits when Bush instigated and unnecessary war and became the first President to take the country to war and cut taxes at the same time.

The lies they tell at the town halls are either in the name of their ideology or they are simply dupes of the organizers, people willing to believe anything they are told, like the man who held the sign that said " Health care reform genocide for seniors". A dupe or a dope?.

Here are some of the lies the opposition has been spreading. They have all been repudiated:

Health care will be rationed especially for the elderly( the rationing as everyone knows is being done now by the insurance companies who deny care, drop coverage or wont insure for pre-existing conditions. There is no rationing of any kind in the bill and AARP is planning an extensive ad campaign to deal with the lie).

A government run option has death panel provisions that would be tantamount to, in Senator Charles Grassley words, "pulling the plug on grandma".(The AARP has also said this is a lie and the Associated Press. proved it)

Its a government take over of health care. ( a public option is just that -- an option for people who want it. Its no more of a government take over than Medicare and right now between medicare, medicaid and veterans hospitals 47% of the country are already on a government paid for system.)

The government will have access to your bank account. (it states clearly in the bill that the provision opponents are citing involves electronic money transfers applying only to insurance companies and not individuals)

It's socialism ( presumably none of these conservatives would have a problem with the socialized fire department showing up to keep their house from burning down).

The majority of Americans are against it (a CNN poll showed 66% were in favor of a government paid option and 60% in favor of higher taxes to pay for it. A CBS News poll showed 72% support a government paid for health plan and 57% would pay higher taxes to get it only two months ago This was before the opposition started lying and Obama was weak in refuting the lies.)

Medicare is a failed government system ( a recent poll showed 92% of people on Medicare felt their healthcare was good to excellent. Only 8% were dissatisfied)

The public option would be so bad, such a boondoggle, so terrible, that everyone will want it and it put the insurance companies out of business. ( Even Yogi Berra can''t figure that one out).

The biggest problem has been, not the Republicans and conservatives lying which is nothing new, but Obama's complete mismanaging the debate and his total ineffectiveness in combating the lies of the opposition.

With Ted Kennedy's death, it's possible that Obama may find both some inspiration and a backbone to take on the Republican lies, lies which so far he has been completely ineffective in addressing.

What Obama could be doing is letting people know the next time they hear a Republican or conservative talk about all the bad things about health care reform, consider the source. Its a source that has been proved wrong about every single thing important to the country for more than 20 years. And that's no lie.

ON HEALTHCARE, MOBS TRY TO RULE

One of the more significant and telling parts of the healthcare debate is to watch the behavior of both sides. As Yogi once said, you can observe an awful lot just by watching.
The people engaged in opposing healthcare reform and the public option have been engaging in tactics we've seen before.

They drape themselves in the American flag, accusing those who disagree as socialist or communist, or just plain anti-American. They claim their way is the American way. They did the same thing with anyone who opposed the invasion of Iraq and everyone knows what happened there.

During the Iraq war Clear Channel dropped Nightline from their TV stations around the country when Nightline had the audacity to start showing the names of soldiers who had been killed in Iraq on a daily basis. And everyone remembers what happened to the Dixie Chicks thanks to the moronic Texas station manager who banned their music and the organized burning of Dixie Chicks CD's which looked in every way like the images of Nazi book burning.

People like this operate not only out of sheer ignorance, but part of the plan is to drown out real and useful information, keep it from getting to people and let ignorance ( and their ideology) rule. The other tactic is what is called "the big lie". Tell a lie big enough and often enough and there are a lot of people who will swallow it. And that has been having its affect as well.

What we see with the disrupters ( not protestors which is fine, but they are not protesting, their goal is to disrupt) is ironic because everything these people engage in comes right out the fascist handbook. From telling "the big lie" to trying to drown out anything that dispels it. And then they claim they are the true Americans.

If you listen to what's actually behind their opposition to the public option you learn that for most of them, it's not enough that they don't want it, they don't want you to have it. Its been made clear over and over that anyone who wants to keep their present insurance can. But that's not enough for these true believers. They dont want a public option because they dont want anyone else to have the choice. It is ideology at work. And pure utter ignorance.

How ignorant are these people who oppose reform and the public option? As Paul Krugman reports, a man in a town hall meeting in South Carolina stood up and shouted at Congressman Bob Inglis, "keep your government hands off my Medicare". When Inglis tried to explain that Medicare was already a government program, the man "wouldnt have any of it".

These are people who represent a political group whose polices were a disaster for the country the last 8 years. But to them it doesn't matter. Its the philosophy that matters not whether it works or solves problems. And what the Republicans use to motivate these people are the same tactics that have always been used to motivate a mob -- fear.

We saw another man comparing healthcare reform to Nazi Germany in the 30s, and signs showing Obama with a Hitler mustache. Limbaugh has picked up on the Nazi and Hitler theme and if anything, it is a classic example of projection with the real fascists accusing the other side of being exactly what they are.

Another problem is the news coverage. A CNN reporter interviewed a union member outsdie a town hall meeting in Maryland who opposed health care reform because he said he didnt think he should be forced to give up his insurance and take something he didnt want. In true CNN fashion, the reporter, obviously feeling it wasnt his place to actually inform anyone of anything, didnt tell this man that the plan doesnt force anyone to take anything and that the public option is voluntary. So the news media is content to let those who are completely ignorant of what is being proposed to stay that way. After all it makes for some good pictures.

It is certainly true that Obama and his White House have botched the entire health care debate beyond anything thought possible, thanks to a complete lack of leadership. And Obama has shown no ability to fight back. They allowed the Republicans to make their dishonest charges without a strong and powerful response and the result has been that the conservative mobs are either believing the lies or are simply willing to be foot soldiers in an ideological cause. CNN and Wolf Blitzer in particular have shown they are the most easily intimidated by the mob mentality.

The question now is to what extent will Obama and his White House fight back? Are they going to label the Republican position lies something they should have done weeks ago? Are they going to take them on and fight? Or are they going to just offer weak resistance like John Kerry did in 2004?

ON HEALTHCARE REFORM, WHO NEEDS BI-PARTISANSHIP?

With healthcare reform bills having been stalled and floundering in the House and senate, with three different versions coming out of committee, and with talk that some Democrats on the Senate Finance committee have been considering caving in on the public option in order to compromise with the Republicans, the most damaging approach Obama has taken on healthcare, the one thing that has caused all the slogging and confusion in congress, was to make bi-partisanship an important goal in passing health care reform.

The big question is why?

Why do the Democrats and Obama feel they need bi-partisanship? Since when does bi-partisanship have anything to do with whether an idea is good or bad or whether it will work or not? Perhaps Obama has never heard the line about a camel being a horse designed by a committee. And when your trying to do it with a bi-partisan committee, it's not only harder, the results are liable to be a lot worse..

The point is, bi-partisanship is often a worthless goal and in this case it couldnt be more worthless.

In 1992 every Republican in the House and Senate voted against Bill Clinton's 1993 budget which passed by one vote -- Al Gore's deciding vote as president of the senate. Republicans called numerous press conferences during the debate to say that Clinton's budget was going to be a disaster for the country. They said specifically it was going to explode the deficit, drive up unemployment and deepen the recession. The Republicans batted 1.000. They were wrong about everything.

Clinton's economic polices which included tax increases, eliminated the deficit, achieved a balanced budget, resulted in the lowest unemployment in 40 years, the greatest economic expansion in US history and Clinton left the country with a $5 1/2 trillion budget surplus that Bush and the Republicans blew in 3 years. something even Paul Volker, Chairmen of the Fed under Reagan, said was mindboggling.

During the Bush years, the Republicans employed policies that destroyed the balanced budget, created record deficits ,saw Bush become the first President since Hoover to lose jobs in his first three years in office and then saw all these policies lead to the greatest economic crisis since the Depression.

And Obama wants bi-partisanship?

This is taking the PR of Obama being a conciliator way too far. The only reason to have bi-partisanship is if you are afraid your idea will fail and you want to share the blame if it does.

The country elected Obama and gave the Democrats big majorities in the House and Senate because they had enough of 6-8 years of Republican ideas and governance and went to the polls and said they didn't want any more. So why are the Democrats negotiating with the Republicans? Why are they trying for bi-partisanship when the majority of the country voted for something else? What,as the saying goes, are they thinking?

Either Obama and the Democrats believe in their ideas and what they are doing on healthcare or they don't. If they don't, then drop it. If they do, then forget bi-partisanship, pass the ideas and the programs and the bills you think is best for the country, most notably the public option, and do it without bi-partisanship if the Republicans dont want to go along.

If Obama and the Democrats are right then the country will reap the benefits and the Republicans who opposed it will find themselves in a political hole they will not get out of for decades. If it goes wrong, the Republicans who opposed it will reap the political benefits. That's the way it goes. That's how the game is played. Those with the best ideas win.

Bi-partisanship is only about one thing -- spreading the blame politically if something doesn't work. It has nothing to do with whether an idea is a good one or whether it will work. The Republicans didn't look for bi-partisanship when they impeached Bill Clinton (for which they took the blame) and there was no bi-partisanship on passing the Clinton budget that turned the country's economy around and resulted in the greatest economic expansion in history.

Obama and the Democrats need to forget bi-partisanship and stand on what he and they believe. .Obama has to give up this idea of wanting everyone to like him. If the Democrats have the votes to pass the public option and other reforms they believe are best for the country, then just do it and be done with bi-partisanship related to healthcare reform.

And what Obama needs to do with the Democrats is tell them the public option is non-neogitable and not to waste time discussing compromise plans with the Republicans.

Tell them to vote against it if they dont believe in it and that they wll be held accountable politically if it passes and it succeeds. Let him be clear that he will veto any bill that does not include the public option and that their choices are to vote for it or against it but not waste any time trying to forge a bill that drops it.

Obama also has to address the lies being told by those opposing the public option and label them in no uncertain terms for what they are -- lies instead of treating it like the thing he supposedly came to Washington to change -- politics as usual. And make it clear he will hold them accountable for lying when they do..

Obama likes to remind the Republicans that the Democrats won. Its time for both he and the Democrats to start acting like it or hand over the government to the Republicans who know how to act like a majority party even if most of their ideas and policies were a disaster.

The best thing the Democrats can do is pass what they think will work with or without Republican support . And if Obama wants everyone to get along, then he can invite everyone over for a beer instead.

PROFILING SGT. CROWLEY

When by all accounts, Henry Louis Gates got into the face of Sgt. Crowley after being asked for some ID in his own home after Crowley had responded to a 911 call of a possible burglary in progress, and in the ensuing charges and accusations made by Gates, both at the time and even days later, Gates used the same prejudice, assumptions and false conclusions about Sgt. Crowley that have been used in profiling African American men by the police. In this confrontation between black man and white cop, it was the black man who was the profiler and the cop who was profiled.

Crowley wasn't judged by the content of his character or by his actions, but by the color of his uniform. Crowley wasn't judged based on the facts or what was actually occuring, but by abuses and actions of other cops in other places at other times with other people. And that is exactly what profiling is about.

Gates took every horror story he ever heard about African American men being profiled by white cops and projected them onto Sgt. Crowley. That's profiling too.

Sgt. Crowley was profiled by President Obama who admitted he didn't know the facts and didn't care -- Crowley was guilty of "acting stupidly". That is profiling. And Sgt. Crowley was profiled by every person in the country who wrongly accused Crowley of a racist act, made cowardly annonymous phone calls to Lucy Whalen calling her a racist. or accused Sgt. Lashey, the 26 year veteran of the Cambridge police and a black officer who stood by Sgt. Crowley as an Uncle Tom. They are all profilers.

None of them, not Gates, not President Obama, not any of the people who took sides against Crowley wanted to know who he is, or what exactly happened. It didn't matter. They just jumped to conclusions and made a series of assumptions. based on what they knew or heard of the abuses endured by African Americans at the hands of other cops in other places and with other people. That's profiling.

Some have tried to pass off Gates' overreactions to the fact that he had just gotten off a long flight back from China. That doesn't explain Gates calling Crowley a "rogue cop" a few days later on CNN. That was profiling too. There are rogue cops who have used profiling to roust innocent African American men and committed abuses. Most of those are in the minority. Crowley is not now nor does his record show he has ever has been one of them. In fact his record shows the opposite, that he was handpicked by a black police commander to teach recruits about the dangers of racial profiling at the police academy.

Obama has called the whole episode a teachable moment. One Democratic strategist said that it was a teachable moment for the whole country. But it wasn't the whole country that jumped to the wrong conclusions and needed the teachable moment, only a few. So one can only hope that the people who needed to learn a few things, did.