Good post. This leapt out at me:
True, Obama did show a rare flash of defiance when he unsuccessfully pushed legislation this year to create an Office of Public Integrity, which would have enforced anti-corruption laws. But that kind of power-challenging move, which was met with strong resistance from both parties, was an exception.
So.... when he became the most powerful man in the world, he made the OPI happen, right? When his party had control of three branches of the US state, he got that across the line. Right guys?
Another area of retreat and equivocation for Obama is his role in party politics. He had previously said he didn’t “want to be the kingmaker,” because “it’s never been sort of a role that I’ve aspired to in politics.”
:bernie:
Just as Ned Lamont’s antiwar primary campaign against prowar Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was gaining momentum, Obama traveled to the state to endorse Lieberman.
LMAO good god, Lieberman went on to become an independent and pretty much single handedly kill the public option in Obamacare. Liberals and own goals, name a more iconic duo.
“I don’t think in ideological terms. I never have,” Obama said, continuing on the healthcare theme. “Everybody who supports single-payer healthcare says, ‘Look at all this money we would be saving from insurance and paperwork.’ That represents 1 million, 2 million, 3 million jobs of people who are working at Blue Cross Blue Shield or Kaiser or other places. What are we doing with them? Where are we employing them?”
Won’t somebody think of the insurance companies?? :agony-consuming:
I remember in the debate where someone mentioned job loss in “health insurance towns” as if having a call center currently contracted with a health insurance company is equivalent to living next to a mountain of coal.
pretty much single handedly kill the public option
don't sleep on Max Baucus's contribution to killing that as chair of the committee that wrote the bill
“That’s the constraints of being in the minority,” Obama said, when asked why he hadn’t used his media megaphone to push for more systemic changes. Then he adopted a signature Obama move: downplaying expectations.
I'm beginning to think this guy's full of shit
Joan Claybrook, president of the consumer watchdog group Public Citizen, tells the story of how, after Obama voted for the class-action bill, he attended a meeting of public-interest groups. “We were worried about what his vote indicated about him for the future,” she said. “And he told us, ‘Sometimes you have to trim your sails.’ And I asked myself, Trim your sails for what? You just got elected by a wide margin–what are you trimming your sails for?”
my favorite paragraph, right at the end of the piece.
Thanks for this, I didn't know he had been writing for so long. Yasha Levine called him out in a recent newsletter for cashing in after the Bernie campaign with all his media appearances, but I don't really see it.
