US POLITICS: AMERICANS, PLEASE WELCOME YOUR NEW PRESIDENT... SCOTT BROWN!

politics is disturbing

lol Chuck Todd today made the same point: his WH sources told him that the Oval Office was going to let the right wing talk itself to death in the next couple of days before Obama swung into action on Friday or Monday.

WH sources have been in communication with me, too, which is how i know their strategy

Do the group of progressive house senators who made it clear today that they would not vote for the senate version of the bill know of his plan?

they communicate with me through my dental fillings.

eh. best-case scenario progressive reps are essentially giving moderates some cover inna overton window kind of way. frank has already walked back his comments. i imagine that fairly universal liberal base outrage over ppl tryna scuttle healthcare + more or less unanimous feeling among even center-left pundits had a lot of effect.

Tr.: progressive reps are chicken-hearted and gutless.

j/k -- got to get HCR

frank, btw, probably has been kind of harsh about this since his district went half for brown last night--hes probably a lil scared

according to my mom Frank has been president for 9 years now

don't worry y'all just got this email from my pal mitch : )

Matt --
Yesterday's disappointing election results show deep discontent with the pace of change. I know the OFA community and the President share that frustration.
We also saw what we knew to be true all along: Any change worth making is hard and will be fought at every turn. While it doesn't take away the sting of this loss, there is no road to real change without setbacks along the way.
We could have simply sought to do things that were easy, that wouldn't stir up controversy. But changes that aren't controversial rarely solve the problem.
Our country continues to face the same fundamental challenges it faced yesterday. Our health care system still needs reform. Wall Street still needs to be held accountable. We still need to create good jobs. And we still need to continue building a clean energy economy.
The President isn't walking away from these challenges. In fact, his determination and resolve are only stronger. We must match that commitment with our own.
But it won't be easy. Real change never is. For that reason, I am grateful you're part of this fight with us.

Thank you,
Mitch
Mitch Stewart
Director
Organizing for America

ed rendell just told rachel maddow, look we don't NEED 60 votes to pass this thing, we need 51. we only need 60 to break a filibuster, so let's get this to the senate and let them filibuster if they really think that's what they want to do, let them explain to the public why they are holding up reform, and if we lose at least go down fighting for something we believe in. maddow's like RIGHT ON.

omg that guy mitch emails me all the time

BACK OFF HE'S MINE

hands off pal

Yesterday's disappointing election results show deep discontent with the pace of change

^^ love this line btw, obamas facebook used it too

i mean how can you NOT be discontented with the pace of change

there is no american voter who is saying right now, "change is going at exactly the right pace"

it's like gw bush saying the 06 midterm results show the public desire for a stronger commitment in iraq

(sorta, as a political strategy)

kind of ambiguous, considering that one of the conservative/independent complaints about HCR (and other parts of obama's agenda) is: SLOW DOWN. (i think this is BS but hey maybe some of those grumpy independents got the email and were like, ok they get it! the pace of change has been too fast!)

yeah its ambiguity was my point

SLOW DOWN = "i don't have a legitimate complaint, please stall until everyone forgets what they were doing!"

it isn't intended to be ambiguous. it's intended to turn the focus away from democratic fumbling, ineffective leadership, distasteful horsetrading, etc., and make the debate about gop obstructionism.

Please slow down until the 2010 elections! thank you!

oh jeez guys i was just making a joke anyway

hahahahahahahahahaha

there is no american voter who is saying right now, "change is going at exactly the right pace"

I'm saying that, over and over like a mantra, but mainly just to piss max off

as mantras go it's pretty soothing tho tbh

xxxp
and make the debate about gop obstructionism.

it would be good if someone mentioned this in actual words though. republicans were doing shit like filibustering troop equipment bills in the senate to delay healthcare passing, they should be getting creamed.

ed rendell just told rachel maddow, look we don't NEED 60 votes to pass this thing, we need 51....maddow's like RIGHT ON.

Let's not forget this POS bill is not reform.

you just don't want me to be happy do you?

now that i can't have it i'm all like "daaaamn health care reform bill, have you been working out girl? we should grab a drink some nite this week"

ed rendell just told rachel maddow, look we don't NEED 60 votes to pass this thing, we need 51....maddow's like RIGHT ON.

Let's not forget this POS bill is not reform.

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Thursday, January 21, 2010 4:47 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Let's not forget this mediocre bill does more good than bad.

Whiney, a serious discuss of the relative merits of GAPDY has broken out in that poll thread you started

hahaha wrong thread. i should go to bed.

i must admit i was really curious to see what you'd posted here

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/senate-republicans/gop-pollster-mass-results-not-a-referendum-on-obamas-overall-agenda/

The problem isn't that health-care reform itself is unpopular. It is that people are turned off by the current debate about it.

can't be said enough imo

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/19/AR2010011902846.html

i.e. this is why you get polls asking people if they "are positive about health care reform" or some crap and they say no, leading to a spate of AP stories about how "support for reform is cratering" - no, people are just fed up with the pussyfooting and ass-mongering

and when i say "people" i mean all people, with no exceptions

I think people who are worried they're not gonna get paid as well after "reform" are pretty happy with the pussyfooting.

I would imagine the healthcare progressives (or the people across party lines who are like DID YOU HEAR US ASKING NO MORE LIKE TELLING YOU WE'RE FOR THE PUBLIC OPTION, YO) are sick and tired of seeing the perfect 60 majority being the enemy of the good 50+ support for PO/exchanges and it would be wise to say that a simple majority favours this approach. If that's the case they should just go for it and call the bluff on the filibuster, and yes I do recognise the dreaming in print aspect of wanting this to happen.

People who self-identify as Independents run the gamut from crazies with tea party signs to Reagan Democrats to people who just don't register for a party, and the main thing they have in common with the US left is that they think Wall Street is full of douchebags. Your normal person sees bailout to bonus types like the creep that borrows $100 from you when you don't really have it (but you lend anyway) and then when they're flush again, get very cavalier about paying it back even if they can see you're broke. People feel dissed, like you would in that situation.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/About/General/2010/1/21/1264063602746/21.01.10-Steve-Bell-on-Sc-007.jpg

gail collins kind of entertaining:

Gradually, we are reaching a consensus that Coakley lost because the irritable voters wanted to send a message. Which was: change.

Change all over the place! Except apparently not in beating up the bankers, since the Democrat favored a tax on big banks to pay for the bailout and the Republican opposed it.

And not change that involves getting out of Afghanistan. That was Coakley’s idea. Brown wants to stay the course.

Stay the course, for sure. But stop spending so much money on the course. Cut the budget! Except when it comes to the troops, who need all the support we can give them. As Scott Brown kept pointing out.

Scott Brown has a truck. Maybe there could be more trucks.

collins has been on fire of late

i mean for a nyt columnist

Another Massachusetts Democrat, Rep. Stephen Lynch, also issued a warning Democrats against trying to duck the Brown result by having the House pass the Senate bill unchanged, thereby avoiding another Senate vote. "I don't hear a lot of support on our side for [the Senate] bill," he said. "The problem is that we are spending almost a trillion dollars and folks are telling me I should vote 'yes' and we will fix it later. You wouldn't buy a car for a trillion dollars and say, 'Yeah, it doesn't run but we will fix it later.'"

oh, good analogy

The problem isn't that health-care reform itself is unpopular. It is that people are turned off by the current debate about it.

Um, yes. Especially the ugly backroom vote-buying schemes and promise-breaking, non-televised dealmaking.