Project Runway Skips a Week, Health Care Takes Precedence

So I get home last night after a hard day of reviewing plays expecting to watch the latest fashion smackdown on Project Runway and for some reason, the damned thing ain't even on. They're showing last week's episode and then some lame Will and Grace rerun (the one with Matt Damon pretending to be gay). We turn on Hardball with Chris Matthews who has an extra-long show to dissect the health care summit. Obama was on fire telling those obstructionist Republicans where to get off with their "Let's start all over again with a blank slate so we can get the credit" crap. When he told that smarmy congressman who favored health-care saving accounts, "Well that's fine for you because you make six figures, but what about the average American making $40,000 a year?," I was like "YEAH! Stick it to that smug bastard."

This is what the Prez should have done MONTHS ago, but he was too afraid of looking partisan and worried about another dose of Hilarycare with the Congress not being allowed to put together the legislation. He needs to go before the public every day of the week and sell the hell outta this bill. He needs to tell the people who don't watch Fox, CNN and MSNBC 24/7--"Look, don't listen to these right-wing talking heads, I am fighting for you every minute to get you affordable health care. Bohner and those other guys just want to help the insurance companies. Just listen to what they say--you don't need unemployment insurance or stimulus-created jobs, just suck it up. That's how they think. They think government shouldn't help ANYBODY except big corporations and you know where that leads. I am here for YOU, the mom working two jobs at Walmart and the Stop and Shop, the dad taking an extra shift at the toothpaste factory, the freelancer who can't afford a decent TV." Please make that message clear, Barack. People will listen.

Obama Gets Caught Off Base

While driving to Philly to visit my parents for News Years weekend, my partner Jerry and I were listening to an African-American-interest show on NPR. There was a segment called From the Barbershop and they were reviewing both the year and the decade past. One of commentators noted that the actor Danny Glover recently stated that he didn't see much of a diffference between the policiies of Barack Obama and George W. Bush. The commentator said Hollywood people should not talk about politics and that included Spike Lee. But Glover's disillusion with Obama lead me to think about why the "left-wing base"--and there is one, it's just not as vocal or nasty as the right wing base and they don't dress up in 1776 costumes and throw tea parties, maybe they should--is disappointed with the president.

The left base is angry because Obama is turning out to be too much like every other president--he makes noises to appease those who elected him and then in order to get any legislation done, he compromises with the opposite side and winds up governing to the middle--which, like it or not, is where most of the country is ideologically. The voters who were enthuiastic for Obama from the very beginning of his candidacy loved him because they took his talk of change literally. They thought if he were president, he'd close Gitmo immediately, withdraw all the troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan (although he never said he would do the latter), repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell and the Defense of Marriage Act, get at least a public option for health care if not single-payer, and give all their children college scholarships and run in a marathon and win every event in the Olympics all at the same time.

These idealist Democrats rejected Hillary Clinton because they thought she represented "old" Washington. She wouldn't stand for anything, she'd just get stuff done and how boring is that? I voted for Mrs. Clinton in the NY primary because I thought she would make the better president--she had been in the White House and in the Senate and she knew how the game is played. You cosy up to your opponents (she's friends with McCain) and give them something in return for what you need. Now Obama is doing the same thing--look at the all the compromises in health care, Nebraska's getting everything for free just because their senator wouldn't vote for it otherwise. The extreme left is all downhearted because Obama is playing the game. It would take a truly revolutionary person to change Washington--and they don't always succeed. Woodrow Wilson ruined his presidency and his health, suffering a stroke when he tried to get America to take a leadership position and join the League of Nations. Lincoln saved the country from disunion, but gave his life.

Obama's popularity is slipping because he's playing for the middle and is pissing off both extreme left and right. It's interesting there were parallel situations in both Congress over health care and Copenhagen over climate change with negotations producing results which made all parties angry. He accepted the Nobel Peace Prize yet maintained the importance of military force when necessary. Obama is trying for a balancing act and it's a difficult task. I hope he strikes the right balance so the Republicans can't use him as a target to make gains in the House and Senate and possibly take back the White house in 2012. Progressives need to grow up and realize nothing gets done with some compromises.

Peggy Noonan, Let 'em Eat Aspirin!

Sometimes I have to bang my ear and say "Did that nutbag really say that?" This morning on Morning Joe, former Reagan speech writer and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan actually stated "When I was growing up, people weren't obsessed with health care. What happened in this country?" And just when I was starting to like her because she called Sarah Palin an unqualified lightweight.

What happened in this country, Peggy, is that costs for drugs and hospitals and operations skyrocketed since you were a kid back in the 1850s when the simple country doc would pull up in his wagon and take his pay in firewood (Actually that was how my grandparents paid the doctor for the birth of my uncle. They were so far up in Maine, he had to be born in Canada.) Didn't you make your debut at the Grover Cleveland inaugural?

People who aren't millionaires or white-glove, country-club Republicans like you, Peggy, are scared to death that if they get sick or have a catastrophic illness they could go bankrupt, even if they have insurance. Didn't you see Sicko? What also surprised me is that none of the other talking heads pointed this out to her, not even Pulitzer Prize winner Eugene Robinson. They just blathered on about how medical science has advanced so much since Peggy's girlhood during the War Between the States.