So much smoke is coming out of both sides of the health care debate that we might simply say that the opposition to Obama is thoroughly bipartisan. The funny thing is that both the antics of Keith Olbermann and Ed on MSNBC (bloviating on the left) and the usual FOX suspects on the right is taking on the character of what the President has aptly called silliness and drama.
At the end of the day, there is one thing going for the President that none of these characters seem to credit. That would be the American people. Not all the American people, just the 70 percent or so who think what comes out of the mouths of left and right has nothing to do with achieving the ends they affirm.
The ends affirmed by this majority include the public option, a move to fiscal responsibility in the face of runaway government expense and a health care program that does not take away from those who are already OK with it.
To the extent that the President can effectively stand for these things, he wins and the people win.
All the bloviating I have mentioned seems to center down on the independents and their attitude to the town hall processes underway. It becomes cause for Olbermann apoplexy if independents think it is OK to raise hell with politicians. What, pray tell, was the Obama campaign all about? Merely because independents are OK with some conflict does not mean they will not ultimately favor a solution that fundamentally extends the benefits of medicare to all.
Olbermann and Hannity will agree that the President has feet of clay, will ask if he is becoming another Carter, will essentially deny his power to fight effectively. Of course their job is to fill up time. If I was filling up time I would tell folk what’s in the bills. That is actually what I do, but few read it. Instead, they ask the same people time after time to make the same statements time after time so we can be misinformed about the actual future time after time.
The election of Obama was a case in point. Everyone, including even Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert (not to mention all of HC’s supporters), threw him under the bus every other day. On the other days, they speculated that all was not lost. A perfect storm of ambivalence.
We should watch the daily drama for silliness. For consistent snideness. For bombast — that would be Ed in particular.
When all is said and done, if we have to go to reconciliation, we will do so to get the public option. But then people will have a very good idea why. And they will reward the perps who try to defeat it accordingly.
In 2010 the laws of the past may well change. The voters will reward those who hung in with the man they elected in 2008.
The only way the public option will be defeated is if the majority of Americans do not want it. That is democracy in action. It’s a logic even congress can understand. I think the majority for the public option will hold.
A positive bill with the public option in place will leave the media rubbing their collective heads, just as they did when Obama won Iowa, the nomination and the election.
And for all the liars can do to fake out the voters, the media manage to do in the silliness and drama departments, Everyone will finally help the President to prevail. So bloviate on Keith, Ed, Sean and all you others. You are all helping the cause.
Stephen Curtiss Rose 