Obama Screwed Up, Now He Should Take it, Like a Man.

Health Care: Now, It's War

NPR.org

President Obama's speech to Congress and the nation this week recalled the heights his rhetorical power reached in last year's campaign. It also made clear he has abandoned any hope of a health care bill that's bipartisan enough to get 70 votes or more in the Senate.

What emerges from this year's historic debate will now be a distinctly Democratic bill opposed by virtually every Republican in both the House and the Senate. It will pass or fail depending entirely on Democratic leaders' ability to rally their own troops in support. In the Senate, that support will probably need to be unanimous.

The president reinforced his one-party strategy on the day after his speech, when he brought to the White House a critical group of senators who represent the middle ground on the issue in their chamber. Every one was a Democrat.

Rather try to find any common ground, the leader of our nation has instead chosen to get a version of his 'Healthcare reform' that can be passed regardless of the input of the Republicans. What a sham. I'm embarrassed for him.

In fact, the president deliberately stepped on certain GOP toes that are particularly sore these days. Denying that his health plan would add to the deficit, he accused the Republicans of hypocrisy. He pointed to the Iran-Afghanistan wars begun by President George W. Bush, which were treated as "off budget" and will add roughly $1 trillion to the deficit over a decade.

OH....THAT old trick...you KNOW, one of the first things our brand new fearless leader DID was authorize the deployment of more troops to Afghanistan....of yeah, he promised to bring the troops home from Iraq (which he hasn't done yet) but he didn't make any claims about Afghanistan. Now he has the chutzpah to blame Bush for continuing the war in Afghanistan? What a crock of crap. At what point does he stop blaming his predecessor and take responsibility for his own mistakes?

Mr. President, I am embarrassed that I stood up for you. YOU sent more troops to Afghanistan. YOU are going to allow more troops to go fight IEDs? Come on, troops don't fight bombs. As long as you live in denial about your actions and the lives and dollars you are costing the American people, you are less than a man.

That was the impetus for the joint session the president addressed this week. Despairing of changing many minds on the Republican side, the White House determined it had to shore up support on its own side. And that meant going back to what the Obama team knows best -- partisan politics of the kind seen in an election campaign.

so...it seemed to work well when it was time get elected, yeah, the promises and all that....and that's what we are going to revert to? I for one am appreciative that the dishonesty is at least going to be openly advertised ahead of time.

So achieving any sort of consensus on health care seems out of reach. The immediate problem for the White House is uniting Democrats to do a bill alone. Beyond that looms the problem of restoring relations with at least a few Republicans so as to make coalitions possible on other issues later on.

Just one more question. When you have eliminated the 'two party system', which might not be so bad, alienated 'centrists' that used to think you had a chance, angered the people you fooled with your promises and labeled a great number of us 'terrorists,' WHO'S remaining?

There comes a time in any man's life, Mr. Obama, that we have to stop blaming the past, our parents, our predecessors, and take responsibility for the mistakes we have made so we can learn from them and move on. At the end of four years, when you've had a whole term to undo the mistakes of every past president in our history, who will blame then?

Stand up, Mr. President and take your failings like a man.