The woman who claimed during the presidential campaign that Hawaii was "too exotic" a place for Obama to be vacationing even though he was born there (remember that from the campaign? when everyone acknowledged he was from Hawaii, but concern trolls said it wasn't appropriately patriotic and everyman?) has now embarrassed herself by concern trolling on the day after Teddy Kennedy's death by claiming that Kennedy would want a watered-down, useless version of a health care bill.
At the end of this article from ABC on the idea of "winning one for Teddy" comes this awfulness from Cokie:
"The real question is what lesson do they take from it?" asked ABC's Cokie Roberts, a long-time Capitol Hill watcher, during an appearance today on ABCNews.com's "Top Line." "Do they take the lesson of the actual Ted Kennedy, the man who would probably be saying at this point, 'Let's just get a bill . . . we can add to it later. We can worry about a public option and all of that stuff later. Let's just do something that helps a whole lot of people now and then we can add to it.'"
"The other lesson they might take," she added, "is to go with the liberal lion and say, 'Oh, we can't compromise at all in which case they could easily end up with no bill."
So first it was "I know Hawaii is a state, but..."
And now we're being told that what Ted Kennedy would have done in this battle for health care, despite his strong support for a robust public option, is cave to demands for "bipartisanship" which has become nothing more than a euphemism for "doing jack squat to help anybody."
Further, Cokie says that if we model ourselves after Teddy then we're doomed for failure. Got that? If we actually try to do what's best for the least among us, Cokie Roberts wants us to know that the smart money is on nothing getting passed at all.
This despite all evidence to the contrary - despite overwhelming success during Teddy's life for the causes he worked on tirelessly, and despite decades of proof that victories go to those who bust their rears for what they really believe in (and that defeat and failure go to those who are cowered into compromising on their core values).
But I guess the above quote from Cokie is what passes for cogent political analysis over at ABC these days. The network should be ashamed, and so should Cokie Roberts.