Re-grouping after the Brown-Coakley debacle
Nate Silver has some strategic and tactical advice for the Democrats which I'd boil down as: pass healthcare reform "as is," take advantage of what you now know to play a more effective game than you've been playing, and don't crawl into a bunker.
Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, is feeling gloomy about the staying power of the red-blue divide in America and the teabagger's nihilism. He does, however, encourage Obama to call the GOP's bluff and not count on passing real fiscal reform with any help from Washington Democrats. Instead, Sullivan suggests Obama should chart a bold course of his own that may, in fact, fail (which would still be a preferable outcome to continuing to work with the current corrupt political system (you know, the one that may have killed healthcare reform even after a massive victory for the party in 2008)).
Ezra Klein thinks that 24 hours after the Brown victory--and despite a dizzying day of Democratic despair--the chances of healthcare reform passing this year are stabilizing.
Personally I think that the results in Massachusetts were more due to how the Democrats are governing than concern about the party's goals. People in Massachusetts believe in universal healthcare... they have it! But they're disgusted by the deals that were cut with the senators like Lieberman (hiss) and Nelson in order to secure their votes. President Obama didn't follow through on a fully transparent process for negotiating healthcare reform as he promised during the campaign. And rather than make effective use of a 60-40 margin in the Senate, Democrats dithered for months and met endlessly with Republicans who were never going to support a reform bill anyway. Perhaps most of all the voters were fed up with the fact that despite all of the hope and optimism that accompanied Obama's inauguration last year, the tenor in Washington has only gotten worse as Republicans have simply been against everything.
Whatever your political leaning, if you sincerely believe that there are no problems for which government can provide a solution, then I wish an angel would show up and show you how miserable your life would be if the federal government had never existed.
Thank dog-spelled-backwards that Gail Collins can find humor in anything.
Andrew Sullivan, meanwhile, is feeling gloomy about the staying power of the red-blue divide in America and the teabagger's nihilism. He does, however, encourage Obama to call the GOP's bluff and not count on passing real fiscal reform with any help from Washington Democrats. Instead, Sullivan suggests Obama should chart a bold course of his own that may, in fact, fail (which would still be a preferable outcome to continuing to work with the current corrupt political system (you know, the one that may have killed healthcare reform even after a massive victory for the party in 2008)).
Ezra Klein thinks that 24 hours after the Brown victory--and despite a dizzying day of Democratic despair--the chances of healthcare reform passing this year are stabilizing.
Personally I think that the results in Massachusetts were more due to how the Democrats are governing than concern about the party's goals. People in Massachusetts believe in universal healthcare... they have it! But they're disgusted by the deals that were cut with the senators like Lieberman (hiss) and Nelson in order to secure their votes. President Obama didn't follow through on a fully transparent process for negotiating healthcare reform as he promised during the campaign. And rather than make effective use of a 60-40 margin in the Senate, Democrats dithered for months and met endlessly with Republicans who were never going to support a reform bill anyway. Perhaps most of all the voters were fed up with the fact that despite all of the hope and optimism that accompanied Obama's inauguration last year, the tenor in Washington has only gotten worse as Republicans have simply been against everything.
Whatever your political leaning, if you sincerely believe that there are no problems for which government can provide a solution, then I wish an angel would show up and show you how miserable your life would be if the federal government had never existed.
Thank dog-spelled-backwards that Gail Collins can find humor in anything.
Labels: healthcare, humor, U.S. politics
posted by michael at 1:09 AM
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