President Obama would do well to get the message the people and the GOP are giving him. The GOP has proven that under no circumstance will they work with him. Their intent is to make him believe if he will just give a little, a little more, a little more, that eventually the will go bipartisan with him. After 25% of his presidency doing this, one would think that he would understand their method operandi. The second thing he should realize is that neither Americans in general and his base in particular will continue to support a constant compromiser that gets no accomplishment for send compromising posture.
The President must no push Congress and if they do not coalesce around him, he must run against them. Let it be Congress that whither themselves away.
He Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For
Health care reform — which is crucial for millions of Americans — hangs in the balance. Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn’t what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing. And what we get from the great progressive hope, the man who was offering hope and change, is this:
I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.
In short, “Run away, run away”!
Maybe House Democrats can pull this out, even with a gaping hole in White House leadership. Barney Frank seems to have thought better of his initial defeatism. But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.
He Wasn’t The One We’ve Been Waiting For – Paul Krugman Blog – NYTimes.com
