Comments from the "centrists" over at 'The View From the Center'
JohnM - I think the election was much more about Coakley.... If I were the Dems, I would do, as I have said. Pass the healthcare bill.
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Cogito - I [am] with those who are saying that the message is more that a flat-footed candidate who thinks she can't lose .....
Naturally, people will assume that this means the Republicans are on the ascendency again.
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JohnM - [to a conservative about to be banned soon] You are clearly here to taunt.... If you wish to come back to discuss these issues, terrific. But keep the taunting on other threads.
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JohnM - [article] Dems Must Step Up to Majority Governance after the Massachusetts Mess
.... DEMOCRATS NEED TO PASS HEALTH REFORM RIGHT NOW -- before the State of the Union Address -- AND MOVE ON TO A BOLD POPULIST AGENDA .....
ORIGINAL NEW DEAL DID NOT HAPPEN IN THE FIRST YEAR.... THIS SECOND NEW DEAL, IF IT IS TO HAPPEN, HAS TO BE A MULTI-YEAR STRUGGLE, TOO. ....
Bluestocking - I'm not going to rejoice in my own financial self-interest when I have a brother who is self-employed and uninsured and turning 50 soon. That's just not right.
But from now on, the odds of getting anything more than trivial legislation on anything are very slim. It may prompt Obama to be more effective in his executive branch actions, and we can rest easy on judicial appointments and foreign policy.....
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Dale Baker - Kinda feel sorry for the reps- they can't claim they won AND the dems stole the election....
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Dale Baker - ... [the Dem controlled Congress is] a pathetic Keystone Kops routine after history handed the party their best chance to make a big difference in a generation or two....
For me, I don't want 40 million uninsured out there. I don't want 12 million illegals undocumented and living on the fringe. I don't want to watch the US fall behind in new energy technology and transition. I don't want our greed-crazed bankers to blow up the whole f'ing system again.
That's what I voted for.
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Mary Cluney - .... I don't know exactly how I would recommend that Obama handle this situation but blaming George W Bush for everything that has gone wrong is far more justifiable than what Ronald Reagan did to Jimmy Carter.
At some time in a street brawl you would have to take off those white gloves.
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Dale Baker - Losing Ted Kennedy's seat? Watching healthcare swerve down the road like a drunk driver texting all his buddies and juggling two cups of coffee?
That's just dumb cluck incompetence as a party. Lucky us, we have zealous conservative ideologues whose last experience in government was a flameout (which they want to repeat with the same script) and the other party which goes in 68 directions at once and can't accomplish diddly without tripping over their own private parts over and over.
Keystone Kops.
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JohnM - [another article] PASS THE DAMN BILL....
1. The health care status quo is still broken, and Americans still need relief.
2. The political risks are much greater if Dems throw in the towel.
3. This is why Democrats exist.
4. Democrats need to show they can govern and get something done.
5. This is probably a now-or-never situation.
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JohnM - I'm with you on the need to pass the senate version. But with some closure on cleaning up some of the problems via new senate reconciliation votes.
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Mary Cluney - No one has given George W Bush the full credit that he deserves to have almost totally destroyed our economy.
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JohnM - Strikes me as fair to say something like (a) if the bill fails, "premiums will still strain Americans' wallets", while hoping that (b) if it does pass things get better. They certainly don't get better if it fails.
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JohnM - I suspect I'm with you in the sense that the Obama administration has failed, in very large ways, to explain the benefits of this bill in specific enough language.
If it hasn't been sufficiently clear up to this point, I vote for political parties; rarely individuals. Though I've been known to vote against Dems on policy grounds (the Vietnam War is the most important example). And I've been known to simply stay home rather than vote given the Dem nominee.
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JohnM - Paul Krugman - New York Times Blog
January 20, 2010, 9:39 am
Fools On The Hill
So, will health care reform fail because a lazy candidate didn’t bother campaigning and didn’t know her Red Sox? (Yes, there were national factors at work, but Nate Silver makes it clear that a better candidate would have won easily). It’s up to the House, which can and should just pass the Senate bill....
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JohnM - Well, and I'm definitely not interested in debating/discussing this issue any longer, but mandating individual coverage was to increase revenue to cover that and the public option was meant to create the kind of competition which would keep those price increases in check.
So much for good intentions. Thank you, Joe Lieberman. |
