{"id":9609,"date":"2010-03-25T06:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-25T11:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9609"},"modified":"2010-03-24T21:45:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T02:45:49","slug":"the-bonfire-of-the-obamaties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=9609","title":{"rendered":"The Bonfire of the Obamaties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg radio on XM reported this morning that that Jimmy II, palms sore from high fives all around, is hitting the road to sell his health care deform bill.<\/p>\n

But sir! Isn’t it the law of the land now? Why does it need to be sold<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Again and again and again?<\/p>\n

President Obama spent 14 months getting to this moment<\/a>, but aides said Monday that he wouldn’t spend much time savoring it. He plans an aggressive campaign to clarify what the bill does and try to deflect a Republican counter-assault. And other policy goals he had postponed in favor of healthcare now jump to the front of the line.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We’ve heard that before.<\/p>\n

Only a clinically delusional man could at this juncture think he can simultaneously campaign for his health care plan and move other priorities (it’s the economy stupid) back onto his desk.<\/p>\n

Any expectations of bipartisanship or cooperation on the part of the now neutered Blue Dogs on any issue<\/em> have dissolved in the caustic environment that is the residue of Madame Pelosi and President Obama’s pressure-cooker tactics. Nonetheless, it appears Obama has more to concern himself with than the GOP.<\/p>\n

The President is facing an American<\/em> counter-assault.<\/p>\n

Republicans, right now, can feel they\u2019re on the side of the voters<\/a>, who polls show simply don\u2019t like the overarching bill. A CNN poll Monday showed 59 percent of voters oppose the reform bill passed by the House late Sunday, compared with 39 percent who support it.<\/p>\n

Iowa is only the first stop in what will be a concerted White House effort to explain a bill that many Americans don’t understand.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr. President; Mr. Emanuel, you arrogant, condescending pricks<\/span> with all due respect, America understands a lot more…now<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In November they may have found dubious the GOP’s attempts to hang labels of extremism and socialism around then-candidate Obama’s neck, but sixteen months later an implicit “we told you so” is being met with nods of acknowledgment.<\/p>\n

“If this is going to be turned into a real asset for Democrats, the president and others have to be out there in a continual effort to sell this plan,” said Mark Mellman, a Democratic pollster. “Just letting it lie is not good. It’s got to be sold, sold actively and sold vigorously.”<\/p>\n

…and that will be their downfall, if we haven’t already witnessed it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How obtuse can one pollster be, let alone an entire administration – nay an entire political party – to not realize the obvious fact that the more<\/em> this cluster has been sold, the lower it’s popularity has sunk?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any place that it\u2019s going to be helpful to them,\u201d Jesmer said, scoffing at Democrats\u2019 assertion that they will be able to turn the tide of public opinion. \u201cThey have been selling this thing for 13 months \u2014 all they\u2019ve been doing is selling it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That is the sole reason the Senate vote was conducted on Christmas Eve and the House vote in a hurry-up huddle on Sunday night –\u00a0 for fear sniveling, castrated Democratic lawmakers might escape to find themselves in a conversation with increasingly disapproving constituents.<\/p>\n

The party hopes to make that case with a healthy dose of testimonials from Obama, who signs the bill Tuesday, then totes it on the road to Iowa on Thursday to sell it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With a disapproval rating of 51% and rising the President might find it more difficult to assemble a crowd of his usual cuddly, adoring supplicants while Democratic lawmakers are afraid they might come home to crowds armed with torches and pitchforks<\/a>.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bloomberg radio on XM reported this morning that that Jimmy II, palms sore from high fives all around, is hitting the road to sell his health care deform bill. But sir! Isn’t it the law of the land now? Why does it need to be sold? Again and again and again? President Obama spent 14 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-care","category-president-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9609"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9609\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9635,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9609\/revisions\/9635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}