Last night and early this morning I was feeling pretty good about our prospects. Sure, we lost the House, but this wasn't 2004. We have the White House and the Senate. This is much better, I thought. I went to bed knowing we still had command of the federal government.
And then I listened to Harry Reid and Obama today. I heard something from Harry Reid about "open to tweaking health care", and "the Republicans may have a point about the new health care being a burden on small business" from Obama.
And then I threw up.
Already Obama and Reid are strangely negotiating away a part of health care without even sitting down at the table, much the way he negotiated away aspects of health care when he didn't have to. You don't start negotiations by freely handing out thoughts that your plan might not be good. You have to be kidding me.
It seems they still have not grasped the lesson. When you look weak, people vote you out of office. Responding to the GOP House victory with a meek and wavering tone is not leadership. It’s cowardice. And I think this gets to the crux of why we can't maintain power very long. Do you think the GOP would ever admit the talking points of the Democrats? Not in a million years. You look WEAK when you do that, and the electorate picks up on that like wolves honing in on a sick moose.
People want you to stand for something. You need to be consistent. Shout your values to the sky, and if you lose, you lose acting and believing in those principles.
Last night and early this morning I was proud to be a Democrat. After hearing the responses of our "leaders", I'm embarrassed and sickened. It was then that I realized our problem is that we do not have a leader, or someone brave who can bullhorn our message, who can stand tall and not waver. It's that simple.
We all played the childhood game of "Pin the Tail on the Donkey". We, as Democrats need to play that game once more, except a slightly different version. It's called "Pin the Balls on the Donkey".
If I may, I'd like to end this diary with a bit of video that sadly reminds me of our current leaders. Some of you may have seen the George F. Will Sports Machine years ago on SNL. It featured Dana Carvey as George F. Will. I feel this is a fine example of our leadership.
"Just throw the god damned ball!"
http://www.hulu.com/...