About that media blackout: stories go into the pipeline, they just don't seem to come out the other end very often. The March 5th White House press briefing transcript:
2:55 P.M. EST
Helen. Yes, ma'am.
Q In that respect, I want you to reconcile two things.
MR. GIBBS: Okay.
Q In prepared remarks the President said every voice must be heard. He also said, "I want it to be clear at the outset, everyone has a right to take part in the sessions." But you have barred two people who are strongly for single-payer. And Conyers had to beg to come.
MR. GIBBS: Who was barred?
Q You barred Dr. Angell -- Marcia Angell and Dr. Quentin Young, both staunch advocates of single-payer Medicare for all.
MR. GIBBS: Well, I am pretty sure that their -- those viewpoints are represented in that room.
Q Why were they barred?
MR. GIBBS: I will certainly check on -- I told Chip we rented a big room, but we didn't get the Nationals' baseball stadium. There's a lot of people that are involved. There were a limited number of seats, but a lot of different viewpoints. We could have had 535 members of Congress, in addition to all these stakeholders, because I think everybody is going to be involved in this.
I would also say I think this is the first of many discussions and many issues --
Q I think it was quite an insult to Conyers.
MR. GIBBS: Well, I -- look, there were a lot of members of Congress that wanted to come and were added to the list. Again, I think there's a lot of people that are involved in this process; the bill will go through many committees and I think -- I think a lot of different viewpoints will be expressed today. And I think many of those viewpoints will have somebody to make them.
Q Why is the President against single-payer?
MR. GIBBS: The President doesn't believe that's the best way to achieve the goal of cutting costs and increasing access.
This is a pretty unhappy answer; I hope Mr. Gibbs is exaggerating. But then again, hope is not a plan.
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Razafrizenfrat!
and #<%^ that little piece of @*()$!
The President doesn't believe.
Why? What plan would be better for cutting costs and increasing access, Obama?
Or is it that this plan involves making hard decisions which will be unpopular with the status quo?
Obama said he has strong ideas about what to do -- and he will
advise Congress as to those ideas. He said that right after sayng he would charge Congress with developing the healthcare "reform" -- put in quotes bcz if he's going to go along with the Repubs in keeping the current system "strong and make it stronger," there will be no reform. Tinkering and wallpapering over deep fissures in the system.
But back to his seemingly contradictory statements, I have the feeling he doesn't feel he needs to really explain himself to the public, as long as he's still got high approval ratings. I caught a brief bit of a young woman on C-Span last night being interviewed by Brian Lamb. She said that since she'd voted for this president, she didn't need to criticize him when he didn't live up to her expectations. Or close to that. That's what we're up against right now -- when things go more caca, that well may change. But, even BushBoy could hold on to about 30% of the public, give or take a few percentage points....
Re: Obama saying he'll let Congress know what his strong ideas are, there's no transparency if he doesn't also tell the public what he's telling Congress. However, working behind the scenes seems to be how he worked on TARP I. With his own Obama Stimulus Plan, he had Summers working with the House, setting limits and directions. But Obama himself didnt' talk about them. But when the Repubs went ballistic (as we could have predicted they would) and attacked some parts of the plan and riduculed others, Obama and the WH were only too glad to blame the Dems ("liberal bleeding heart" Dems??) in the House, going so far as to work to undermine the Speaker's authority and leadership of her party.
I don't like how Obama and his people operate (as I didn't during the primary). Especially the part about continually attacking the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party and us DFH
's Now Obama himself has once again denigrated those who put forth their opinions in blogs. Those silly unedumacted bloggers who advocate for putting the zombie banks out of their misery and for a stronger stimulus. You know, like Krugman, Roubini, Dean Baker, Simon Johnson, Paul Stiglitz. Both Krugman and Johnson have written that they have spoken to members of Obama's econ team and been told their ideas aren't welcomed.
Is Obama trying to suck up to the MCM* by doing this? Innoculate himself against the attacks the MCMers are only to likely to make when his poll ratings drop more?
He certainly does pay attention to what the MCM reporters write: Heard on NPR this morning that he called some reporters (NYTimes?) he'd spoken to in a sit down interview in order to tell them he is not a socialist!!! WTF
?
Is this political newbie uncertainty, insecurity? Or suckitude? (Both as in sucking up and just sucking?)
*MCM--Mainstream Corporate Media
Suckitude.
...leaning more toward just sucking.
Shainzona
Correction: Either I heard NPR incorrectly or NPR got it wrong,
but, per this piece by dday over at Digby's, Obama was asked by the NYTimes reporters during the interview if he were a socialist. He then called them back to say he couldn't believe they actually asked that question.
Like, Times dooooods, look at what he's doing to comfort those poor afflicted Big Bankster Boiz. Sheesh. Maybe ask if he's a corporatist or corporate socialist, that might make sense.
Here's how dday puts it:
Now, dday has lots more to say about this little exchange, such as asking whether it would be wrong to say yes to that question (Uh, yes, in the country, just for political viability--I think--but, hey, who kows...).
And, maybe there will be more verions of just what was said to whom re: socialism....
But I do stick with my contention that Obama is all for fluffing the MCM -- which is in sharp contrast to how he treats the left.
Here's the closing of his healthcare summit remarks on how he's
going to work on implementing healthcare reforms. I'm quoting almost all his words so they're in context the CNN transcript , which is important for reading tea leaves . Is he being contradictory? or just "politic"?
[Does Obama really truly believe McConnell and Boehner are really interested in doing that, "moving the process forward"? Well, actually, they just might want to move the process right off the agenda or use the process to change it so that it reflects their desire to make sure Dems don't provide the public with real, certain national healthcare.]
And with that platitude/brushoff delivered,
the facile Facilitator in Chief retired to his oval bedroom for his nap.
Which after all, is the cornerstone of HIS health plan: Get plenty of rest.
JFK has been shot, we miss him a lot
He always knew what to do
-- Philly Cream
I'd like to see one.
But we don't have a monopoly on good ideas.
Even though it's not Bush's "my way or the highway" when Obama talks, he acts differently. Certainly as far as the economy is concerned, he's not showing good leadership or good ideas.
It's not like they knew this mess wasn't coming.
Joe Conason
Conason has a great article on the health care debate and single payer.
V. gd Conason. Brief, to the point and pointed. From the link:
Closing graf:
Lots of good stats nicely arranged and easy to plug into LTE's and have handy for calls to the WH. One good stat a day keeps the Big Insurers away??