Is Obama Retreating on the Public Option?
If so, it’s a pretty big victory for the people, but I don’t want to get my hopes up just to find it’s another head fake. However, it looks like an attempt at triangulation is afoot.
Obama is considering detailing his health-care demands in a major speech as soon as next week, when Congress returns from the August recess. And although House leaders have said their members will demand the inclusion of a public insurance option, Obama has no plans to insist on it himself, the officials said.
“We’re entering a new season,” senior adviser David Axelrod said in a telephone interview. “It’s time to synthesize and harmonize these strands and get this done. We’re confident that we can do that. But obviously it is a different phase. We’re going to approach it in a different way. The president is going to be very active.” …
On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he is willing to stare down his own party to get things done.
Ed Morrissey says it’s too little too late and that Obama ain’t no Bill Clinton.
Right now, Obama remains where he’s at because of the almost-lockstep support he gets from his base. If he goes to war with the left wing of the party, he won’t convince Republicans and independents of anything except his taste for political expediency. His approval ratings will go even further south, though, in a dynamic that will look a lot like what happened to George Bush after he nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. Those low approval numbers came from conservatives voting with their feet, and thanks to Bush’s spending, they never came back.
The left are already in freak out mode. AJ Strata gathers the reactions.
Also see Karl’s post.
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Posted by Jay on September 2, 2009 12:57 pm
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, Barack Obama, Congress, Conservatives, Debate, Democrats, Government corruption, Government malfeasance/misfeasance, Healthcare, House, Nanny State, News, Socialism
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Pay attention to the language, the parsing of words, do not trust anything this man says. This is a feint, nothing more