THE TREATMENT FEBRUARY 25, 2010
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I have assumed that the real purpose of today’s health care summit was to rally public support for comprehensive health care reform – the kind of reform sketched out in the president’s own proposal this week – and that by rallying the public, the administration hoped to allay the fears of wavering Senators and House members that they would suffer retribution in the fall if they voted for the bill. It was part of what I’d like to call the White House’s “outside” game. But I wonder whether the White House really gets it.
Yesterday, on the eve of the summit, when Henry Waxman’s House committee was appropriately holding hearings to dramatize opposition to WellPoint’s rate increases, what was Obama doing? He wasn’t joining or meeting with the several hundred supporters who had marched from Philadelphia to Washington in honor of Melanie Shouse, who had died from breast cancer because she couldn’t afford adequate care. He was speaking before the Business Roundtable, most of whose members, I dare to say, couldn’t care a fig about him or Melanie Shouse or what happens to health care reform. Indeed, many have been too busy trying to kill out any meaningful financial reform.
Well, you say, the newspapers didn’t report the Melanie Shouse march, but they did report, and Fox news did a whole interview, on Obama’s speech to the Business Roundtable and the tepid response to what he had to say. A president has to go where the TV cameras go. But that’s precisely wrong. If Obama had met with the marchers, today’s papers, and the TV news, would have been filled with stories about what happened to Melanie Shouse, which would have been a perfect run-up to the healthcare summit today. That’s what an outside game should be – at least for a Democratic rather than a Republican president. What are the Obama people thinking?
4 comments
You know, I'm a liberal. I worked for and voted for Obama. I loathe the present day Republican party, and think it's the antithesis of what we need to be. But I'm not dumb. Obama and his "people" really are elitists in the most ugly sense of that word. They really think that the folks who matter all have Harvard and Yale JDs or MBAs. They really think of the rest of the population in a condescending "let us handle it" noblesse oblige sort of way. They really don't "get it." I don't like this conclusion, but I sure can't see how isn't true.
- IowaBeauty
February 25, 2010 at 9:58am
Obama's (potentially) fatal flaw as a politician is his evident belief that he can conciliate anyone if he holds out his hand and addresses their interests seriously with a willingness to compromise. He seems not to understand that he and we have implacable enemies. While it is always wise as a matter of diplomacy to hold out one's hand, it is important not to confuse the public relations benefits of the gesture with reality and the unlikelihood of a "diplomatic breakthrough. I think Obama does confuse the two. There is no harm in trying as long as you do not commit much in resources or neglect more important matters. Rallying and motivating one's own supporters, and courting those on the margins who are winnable on a given day, is more important than courting the implacable. In this respect, the political priorities of the White House are very misguided. This particular incident is but more evidence of same.
- roidubouloi
February 25, 2010 at 10:10am
Great thread. I think I get it Iowabeauty. Although I disagree, you have a fair observation. Maybe he and his team have lost Obama's connection with his roots. With everything he's had to tackle, this is understandable. But still wrong. Obama is not an elitist. He grew up poor and speaks eloquently and frankly to middle class audiences as well as elite institutions. I think you and Jon are right to call Obama out of this though. When don't progressives get ignored and dissed? This was a lost opportunity. I think at heart this is mostly more of the disease of Democrats: Republican bootlicking in the hopes that one day they will like us. I wish there was a vaccine for that.
- WandreyCer
February 25, 2010 at 12:45pm
Great thread. I don't know if Obama is an elitist--- but he CERTAINLY defers to the elite. He also has a primal instinct to compromise as his highest policy goal-- rather than the content of the policy. He basically seems NOT to understand that you cannot compromise with those who are totally opposed to you, rather than your policies. In constantly looking to compromise under such conditions, Obama not only looks weak-- he IS weak. An articulate, well spoken Neville Chamberlain wuss, wimp, chump-- pick you favorite term. Do you really want a set of wimps and chumps negotiating with Iranian Mullahs, Korean Dear Leaders, Russian ex KGB, etc ... Many voters will not-irrationally vote "no". As said elsewhere : "When people are insecure, they'd rather have somebody who is strong and wrong than someone who's weak and right." Once you've conceded that one of your ideas -- one of your most important ideas [real health care reform] is really not that good and worth fighting for -- why should the public trust you'll fight for any of the other ideas that you have or that they really were good ideas? Instead, they're going to say to Obama and Mr. Blue Dog -- Now I'm going to vote for the guy who is willing to fight for ideas they appear to believe in.
- gdbittner
February 25, 2010 at 5:17pm