Yesterday in a fit of exasperation and anger I wrote the following comment:
How can a man with such eloquence send so many mixed f'ing messages? I'm so fed up right now, I could scream.
I was referring to an interview that President Obama had just given to George Stephanopoulos. During the interview, he said this about the fate of HCR:
I would advise that we try to move quickly to coalesce around those elements of the package that people agree on. We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people. We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don’t, then our budgets are going to blow up and we know that small businesses are going to need help so that they can provide health insurance to their families. Those are the core, some of the core elements of, to this bill. Now I think there’s some things in there that people don’t like and legitimately don’t like.
What the hell does that mean? Does he want to pass the Senate bill? Does he want to bring the Republicans back into the fold? What do you want your Democratic controlled (for the next few days anyway) Senate and House legislative bodies to do with health care reform, Mr. President? If you can't give your colleagues on Capital Hill any clearer leadership than this, how can we expect anything to come out of what is already a giant shit taco that no one finds remotely palatable.
Jeebus, especially after Tuesday's loss in Massachusetts the Democrats need someone who can give them some leadership and at least a sense of direction. Paul Krugman said it better than I ever could:
Progressives are desperately in need of leadership; more specifically, House Democrats need to be told to pass the Senate bill, which isn’t what they wanted but is vastly better than nothing. And what we get from the great progressive hope, the man who was offering hope and change, is [the statement above]
Later in his blog post he sums up what I and many, many other Democrats around this country have been thinking for the past day or so (in some cases much longer, I suspect):
But I have to say, I’m pretty close to giving up on Mr. Obama, who seems determined to confirm every doubt I and others ever had about whether he was ready to fight for what his supporters believed in.
I have largely stayed out of the Obama flame/blame wars raging around here but at some point there comes a time when we have to ask the leader of this country - why did we elect you if you aren't going to lead?
Mr. President, I beg you to pull your head out and start leading on these legislative issues. This isn't about you anymore - it is seriously about the fate of the Democratic party and, perhaps, our country.