Like George H.W. Bush who once fatefully declared, “No new taxes,” Barack Obama promised repeatedly during his 2008 campaign to conduct health care reform negotiations in the open and to broadcast them on C-SPAN. “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN … so the public will be part of the conversation.” Those were his words in ‘08, eight times over:
Now, with congressional Dems planning closed-door meetings to hammer out a back-room House-Senate compromise and C-SPAN daring them to come out of the closet, Mr. Obama has the perfect opportunity to show America what he’s made of. My gut — and the evasive, nasty response by Obama’s own spokesman today — suggest he’ll do just that.
Will he, against all odds, deliver on even the most basic of his campaign promises? Is he capable, after telling so many fibs to so many people, of keeping his word on an issue of such visceral importance to the entire country? To paraphrase the Sundance Kid, “I’d bet no, but who’d bet yes?”
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Come out of the closet on coming out of the closet? Obama?? I’d bet the farm he won’t. He doesn’t know how.
Has he come out of the closet with the college transcripts? An authentic birth certificate? (Sure, he is of American birth — then why the absolute refusal to come out with the real thing?) His allegiance to Islam? His Marxism? Maybe he will — when he has us by the throat and the truth won’t change the outcome.
Obama is an enigma within an enigma, if you listen to what he says, because it never agrees with what he said in the campaign. But if you watch his hips, as he bows to the Saudi King and doesn’t bother with our longtime ally and friend, the Queen of England, then the writing is plain.
Robert Gibbs is as arrogant as they get. No, I take that back, second only to his boss. And to Pelosi. And Reid, and …..
The staggering arrogance displayed by those in the current administration exceeds every adminstration, of either party, that I have observed in my lifetime.
Since 99.9999% of Republicans opposed the bill, what do they care if the negotiations are open or if they are even involved?
Jax —
You’ve missed the point. First, Mr. Obama made promises and, again, violated them. He has shown himself to be a pathological liar. This reduces his credibility with the American people, Dems, Repubs, whatever. His fall in credibility hurts everyone.
Second, if the President and the Senate Dems would open up the discussion, they could easily craft a bill that would satisfy a significant number of Republicans. We’re in favor of changing some important aspects of health care. But the Dems are not interested in transparency, truth or inclusion. Their thing is power. They want to dictate in a decidedly un-American way. Hence Robert Gibbs extreme nastiness in his press conferences. He is mean, uncouth and reflects badly on the President. The fact that Mr. Obama hasn’t already fired this jerk says loads about Obama’s character. Gibbs makes Democrats everywhere look bad.
Republicans aren’t interested in the meetings being open for negotiations, they are only interested in blockage. Their entire goal at this point is to promote the failure of the presidency of Barack Obama, not the advancement of America. No? Name one Republican in there rooting for him to succeed. Are you? If the negotiations were open there would be one whiny Republican after another such as the leader of the opposition Tom Price, who made his multi-millions off the current system and isn’t the least bit interested in changing it, unless it is to protect himself from malpractice suits, parading to the microphone lamenting the proceedings and offering no credible alternative. The time wasted would be enormous and the end result would be the same.
I want more transparancy, sure, specifically release Dick Cheney’s energy task force meeting files with the likes of Kenny-boy Lay. That will be a great day for America if those files get out.
My prior post didn’t post, for whatever reason. Briefly, the Republican leader of the opposition is multi-millionaire Dr. Tom Price, whose only interest in modifying health care is to make laws so he can’t be sued. Why would he want to change the system? He hates Obama and liberals with a passion, and you say he is willing to sit down and negotiate? Don’t think so.