Archive for February, 2010

Yesterday the Daily Show tackled the summit, and it was pretty good. As often happens, their main problem was with how the event was covered. The first video also has some nice highlights. The second video is Jon’s interview with Representative James Clyburn (R-SC), in which they discuss the summit. The third video is a great moment of zen which demonstrates how decent conversation has become shocking.

Enjoy one of the best moments of zen in history.

Adam Feser

With news of New York Governor David Paterson’s attempted coverup and demise, Salon has compiled a slideshow of disgraced governors that is sort of entertaining (in sort of a sad way). I don’t really have a bunch to add to it, just thought you may enjoy it.

Enjoy U.S. Hockey’s domination of Finland.

Adam Feser

This post contains only my initial thoughts at what I saw of the summit (though I was at the dentist for a part of the summit, which made it difficult to hear). I don’t really feel like going over the whole thing because it was mostly people spitting out their preferred talking points. There were some attempts to respond to opposing sides’ criticisms, but not a lot. I may post more on this eventually, but for now this is what I am thinking.

The narrative that is developing and was greatly strengthened by the summit and its coverage is that Obama has a few options. He can: 1. “Jam” a comprehensive plan through 2. Start small by passing Republican ideas and hope more reforms come 3. Start from scratch and try again.

Option 3 is out. We’ve wasted over a year talking about this, and it doesn’t make sense to start over again. Most likely the next debate would look nearly the same.

Option 2 is improbable. What would it say if we elect a Democratic president, Democratic House, and Democratic Senate hoping for reform only to see them cave and pass Republican legislation?

Option 1 may happen. Obama pretty much told Republicans they can get on board and try helping shape the legislation but they better hurry because reform is coming, whether with them or through reconciliation.

So, the Republicans have a few options. They can: 1. Get on board and help shape the policy 2. Get out of they way.

I am excited to see the reactions to this. Republicans are in a tough spot. If they take option 2, they can simply continue trashing reform, but they’ve been doing that for a very long time. They won’t be doing anything new if they continue to pursue this path. It will advance the notion that Republicans are a party of NO and not a party of solutions.

They could also take option 1 and try and enact some change they would like to see. I’m not a huge fan of tort reform as Republicans see it, but a lot of Democrats are open to it. They could get some of their reform ideas in and seem like they are actually trying to come up with solutions. They could also tell their constituents that reform was going to pass with or without them, so it only made sense to work on it and try and improve it.

But if they take option 1, they will be aiding Obama in that he will pass health reform and it will be bipartisan. This seems unlikely. Their goal has always been making Obama look like a failure.

If they take option 2, Obama and Democrats could still push through reform. If this happens, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a public option attached (my fingers are crossed). This would be a smart move for Democrats because it would bring their base back on board. A majority of Americans still support the public option. If this bill passes and America gets behind it, the Republicans would look bad.

Of course, there is also a good chance that there will just be a continuation of business as usual. Today got me excited that Democrats are finally going to sack up, but I’ve been fooled before. I don’t think Republicans will suddenly change their minds, and I am unconvinced that Democrats will risk something supposedly unpopular as reconciliation (as if the public knows about reconciliation when in 2007 31% didn’t know who the V.P. was). Democrats have a habit of overestimating how much their base cares about bipartisanship. If you ask me, we want results.

Enjoy Archer tonight. We can’t let it get canceled.

Adam Feser

Tomorrow is the big health care summit, and there is a lot riding on it.

If Obama is able to get some steam going and the Democrats pass a solid bill, the Democrats’ odds in November will look much better. If Republicans stop reform, Obama and Democrats look bad, aiding their chances.

This is the most frustrating part of the whole thing. We actually need reform but there is incentive for Republicans to try and stop anything the Democrats do. They’ve set it up so they can never agree with Obama or work with him lest they look like hypocrites or commies.

This is a pretty good preview of what will transpire tomorrow and what Obama can do to make reform more likely. Leonhardt thinks Obama would have a better chance if he adopted some Republican ideas into the bill. If they will actually help, I’m all for it. But I don’t think he can count on getting Republican votes no matter what at this point.

If you haven’t seen the plan Obama unveiled, check it out here. This plan is the administration’s attempt to bridge the gap between the bills of the House and Senate.

Enjoy some coming fireworks.

Adam Feser

Glenn Greenwald yet again has a solid article. This one is about the game some Democrats are playing.

The example he uses is provided by Jay Rockefeller. Rockefeller said in the past that he would fight for a public option because it is the right thing. “I will not relent on that. That’s the only way to go.” He said that.

But he said this when it passing the public option seemed impossible. It was a way for him to appease liberals while not actually doing anything.

Now there is a chance to do something. Through reconciliation Democrats could avoid a filibuster and pass reform with a public option. Guess what Rockefeller says now: “I don’t think the timing of it is very good. I’m probably not going to vote for that.”

Greenwald has an imaginary conversation that sort of sums up what is frustrating about the whole deal:

Progressives: We want a public option!

Democrats/WH: We agree with you totally! Unfortunately, while we have 50 votes for it, we just don’t have 60, so we can’t have it. Gosh darn that filibuster rule.

Progressives: But you can use reconciliation like Bush did so often, and then you only need 50 votes.

Filbuster reform advocates/Obama loyalists: Hey progressives, don’t be stupid! Be pragmatic. It’s not realistic or Serious to use reconciliation to pass health care reform. None of this their fault. It’s the fault of the filibuster. The White House wishes so badly that it could pass all these great progressive bills, but they’re powerless, and they just can’t get 60 votes to do it.

[Month later]

Progressives: Hey, great! Now that you’re going to pass the bill through reconciliation after all, you can include the public option that both you and we love, because you only need 50 votes, and you’ve said all year you have that!

Democrats/WH: No. We don’t have 50 votes for that (look at Jay Rockefeller). Besides, it’s not the right time for the public option. The public option only polls at 65%, so it might make our health care bill — which polls at 35% — unpopular. Also, the public option and reconciliation are too partisan, so we’re going to go ahead and pass our industry-approved bill instead . . . on a strict party line vote.

So when Dr asks why the polls are so low, I think this helps explain it. Liberal voters are starting to realize the game. We finally won and the winners promised to make a difference. We’ve gotten nothing but excuses in return.

Enjoy American hockey’s continued domination.

Adam Feser

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/polls/

Take a hard, long look at these numbers.  I want someone from the left side to explain why these numbers are so low.

I have an answer, but I want to hear what the other side says.

Since there is some action going again, I have decided to post the entire debate as one post. That way you can read through the whole thing. The one drawback is you won’t get to see the comments section, but I thought it’d be worth doing.

Debate: Pro Gay Marriage Opening

Written by: adamfeser

February 28, 2009 in Uncategorized Tags: Gay Marriage

Homosexuals should be (more…)

Yesterday I attended Aberdeen Day in Pierre and wrote a bit about it for the paper. (I actually wrote way too much and let Scott edit it down to the good stuff.) It was a pretty good experience.

Here is some video of Governor Rounds’ question and answer session. My camera died after about 17 minutes, so I missed the second half. But most of the good stuff happened early.

Enjoy the fact that it’s Friday.

Adam Feser

The stimulus (and Obama) gets a lot of bad press for things that are pretty much inconsequential. Mistakes involving the website made a lot of news, but they had little to do with how the stimulus was actually functioning. It turns out, the stimulus has worked quite well. From a New York Times article:

Just look at the outside evaluations of the stimulus. Perhaps the best-known economic research firms are IHS Global Insight, Macroeconomic Advisers and Moody’s Economy.com. They all estimate that the bill has added 1.6 million to 1.8 million jobs so far and that its ultimate impact will be roughly 2.5 million jobs. The Congressional Budget Office, an independent agency, considers these estimates to be conservative.

So when Scott Brown claims the stimulus didn’t create one job he had no idea what he was talking about. It also seems telling that the harbinger of Democrats’ doom and the personification of Americans’ rage is misinformed.

Hopefully people actually hear about the good the stimulus is done so it isn’t seen as such a negative. Hopefully there will be some credit given for the amount of American jobs saved. And hopefully Republicans will have to admit they were wrong when they take credit for the programs they didn’t vote for.

Enjoy curling, easily the best winter sport.

Adam Feser

There’s been a lot of talk about the health care summit set to take place on February 25. On the surface, it looks like an attempt to have a televised, public forum for Republicans to discuss their ideas with President Obama. A public conversation with Republicans seems like a good idea since there have been complaints about partisanship and closed door dealings (whether or not they are warranted is questionable).

But that’s the obvious/not paranoid way of looking at the health care summit. If you truly know what’s happening, you know it’s a secret trap being set by Obama to ruin Republicans. It will be accomplished by… um… getting them to openly state and discuss their ideas with President Obama with ample time to prepare? This hardly sounds like some killer trap, but guys like Lindsey Graham and John Boehner aren’t so sure.

I guess maybe they are just setting up an excuse. If it doesn’t go well, they can just claim they were trapped.

Jon Stewart has a nice little clip about the “trap,” and John Oliver also filed a report on health care. He was discussing government-mandated health care with some RNC folks attending their meeting in Hawaii. He had already discussed wasteful spending with them as they remained in the dark about the irony of having a ton of people fly to Hawaii to discuss wasteful spending, and they were no less in the dark when discussing Hawaii’s health care plan.

You see, since 1974 Hawaii has required employers to provide health care benefits for all employees working 20 hours a week. Everything in Hawaii is expensive, except health care, which is nearly the lowest in the country.

John Oliver hears the regular talking points from some RNC attendees and asks a few questions. They did not disappoint. I’ll let you watch Jon on the trap and John on Hawaii:

How funny was it when that lady says some ridiculous platitude and John shuts it down?

Enjoy one of the better Moments of Zen ever:

Adam Feser