The Fed Shutdown Poll and Megathread

[garbon]

Oh, ok.

I mean, that's already a given so there is no need to discuss the obvious.

[jimmy olsen]

Is every thread a megathread now?

[Sheilbh]

Actually, the failure of healthcare reform is the poster-child for the failure of Obama's "leadership."  The democrats had irresistible majorities in both houses and still ended up giving birth to a plan that provoked massive resistance and exemplified the worst of special-interest pandering.  If Obama had actually had a hand in the planning, the result wouldn't have been as disastrous and the final passage wouldn't have had to rely on a gimmick.

The bill is, for the most part, what he campaigned on.  Though there are serious issues with the implementation so far.

But I think this was a conscious decision.  He's got Hillary in his administration, his chief of staff was a Clinton veteran and Bill himself I imagine has advised Obama.  One of the problems that Clinton's healthcare plan had was the sense that it was ignoring or sidelining Congress and being cooked up in offices in the White House.  I think that many people around Obama (and just generally in the Democratic establishment) would have been very aware and advised him accordingly.  And that comparison's instructive.  Clinton showed leadership on healthcare reform (and gays in the military), Obama got the bill.  I know which I'd rather.

I also think that despite this being a core issue for the Democrats they lacked a strong consensus about how to achieve it, just look at Edwards', Clinton's and Obama's proposals in the campaign.  I personally think that one of the issues with the Democrats on this is a certain arrogance.  They behave like technocrats who expect to govern and so the debate revolves around public option vs individual mandate vs taxes on cadillac plans and so on as if most people are interested and sufficiently convinced of the fundamental arguments to just let the Democrats work that out.  The Republicans relentlessly stuck to the first principles of why they thought the bill was wrong without getting into the long-grass (just look at their proposals) and the Democrats barely stopped to talk to anyone else they were so interested in a policy SpAd off.

They confused disgust with Bush and a national love affair with the good looking and well spoken black guy for some kind of ultra-left mandate, so they thought they didn't have to bother getting the not so nutbar left in their own party on board, and instead let the most nutbar of the nutbars call the shots.

This just isn't true.  The most influential Senators on the stimulus: Specter, Nelson and the Senator from Maine.  Similarly on healthcare reform it's Nelson and more pro-life Democrats not the public options, single payer fans who get the final say.  As I've said this healthcare plan is broadly similar to what John Chafee proposed and Bob Dole, Arlen Specter, John Warner and others supported.

And polls showed majority support for universal healthcare reform as a general idea, and Obama had just won convincingly proposing a plan that was very similar to what eventually passed.

Now I've no doubt things could have been done better but I think the plan was fundamentally of the centre, the last time it had been tried it was killed in part because the White House was way too involved and the Democrats didn't have a consensus.  Because of that you had an argument which stopped them talking to the public, allowed the harder-line to seem to predominate (they tend to in rhetoric if not results) and the White House decided to stay in the background.  Nowhere near ideal but all reasonable and understandable, plus it got passed. 

[CountDeMoney]

Taking down tiny but unpopular departments like PP or EPA is just political theatre.

Unfortunately, the GOP's making them off-the-table caveats on the budget compromise.  Abortion bullshit and rolling back environmental regulations might be debateable concepts, but shouldn't be part of the "cut them or else" nonsense.

And PP and the EPA are very popular departments in my book.  So there.

[jimmy olsen]

I voted for #2

[CountDeMoney]

You just don't get the feeling that he wanted to be President because he had any kind of vision of an America that he wanted, or some kind of task he felt he needed to accomplish, or really anything other than "Well, I *can* be President, therefore I will do my best to become President". It is a goal, rather than a means to attain a goal.

Wow, you make Obama sound like, well, like some sort of uninterested and overwhelmed progeny that ran for the office out of a sense of dynastic obligation.  Like it was expected of him by his family's political lineage or something.

[CountDeMoney]

Sheilbh seems to put a lot of confidence in Congress.

Euro parliamentarians have a tendency to think like that.  It's unfortunate.

[CountDeMoney]

Sure, the cuts being proposed are not substantial, but it is surely better than not *increasing* spending, if the goal is to reign in the deficit in some fashion or another. Or to reign in an out of control federal government.

Ask the Southwest Airlines passengers that got an instant sunroof if cutting $4 billion from the FAA's budget isn't substantial.    Damned out of control activist federal safety inspections.

[Tonitrus]

Don't care...either way, I still go to work.

Edit: Actually, as I am supposed to re-enlist on Friday...this might delay my $45,000-ish bonus. 

[Darth Wagtaros]

The Dems just screwed up. I don't really blame it on Obama.

They confused disgust with Bush and a national love affair with the good looking and well spoken black guy for some kind of ultra-left mandate, so they thought they didn't have to bother getting the not so nutbar left in their own party on board, and instead let the most nutbar of the nutbars call the shots.

They saw the bailout and the recession and the war and Bush as their shining moment to grab all that they could not get for the last 20 years, and they wanted it all. They got quite a bit of it, but they over-reached.

I am not really certain that leadership from Obama could have stopped that - he simply did not have any real power within his own party. His lack of experience meant that he was not an actual power with the Democratic Party - his power was simply that he could get a Dem into the Presidency.  Beyond that, they didn't want or need him for anything. They certainly did not want him telling them what they should do.

I don't think Obama ever had any real chance of leading the Democrats anywhere.

A most concise analysis. 

[Neil]

You just don't get the feeling that he wanted to be President because he had any kind of vision of an America that he wanted, or some kind of task he felt he needed to accomplish, or really anything other than "Well, I *can* be President, therefore I will do my best to become President". It is a goal, rather than a means to attain a goal.

Wow, you make Obama sound like, well, like some sort of uninterested and overwhelmed progeny that ran for the office out of a sense of dynastic obligation.  Like it was expected of him by his family's political lineage or something.

I don't think so.  I think it just makes him sound like a neophyte who didn't pay his dues.

[Faeelin]

Good news, the GOP will get increases in military funding by cutting social services.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/defense-spending-budget-as-pa_n_844692.html

[Neil]

Good news, the GOP will get increases in military funding by cutting social services.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/defense-spending-budget-as-pa_n_844692.html

Republicans are weird and dangerous, but can we get that from a credible news source?

[Faeelin]

Good news, the GOP will get increases in military funding by cutting social services.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/04/defense-spending-budget-as-pa_n_844692.html

Republicans are weird and dangerous, but can we get that from a credible news source?

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0411/52508_Page3.html

[derspiess]

I'm for sensible cuts in defense spending, but how about we get out of Afghanistan and refrain for any more Libya-type actions first?