[Peace-discuss] Obama stares down his party...

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Doug Henwood comments at
<http://doughenwood.wordpress.com/2009/09/02/ciao-public-option/.>]


Ciao, public option

So it’s looking like Obama’s not only dropping the public option, he may be
using the rejection as a way of distancing himself from the “left.” As Politico
reports:

     "On health care, Obama’s willingness to forgo the public option is sure to
anger his party’s liberal base. But some administration officials welcome a
showdown with liberal lawmakers if they argue they would rather have no health
care law than an incremental one. The confrontation would allow Obama to show he
is willing to stare down his own party to get things done."

It’s all about “choice and competition,” you see. Forget about the experience of
all those funny foreign countries!

PS: When’s the last time a Republican “stare[d] down his own party to get things
done”?


Stuart Levy wrote:
> 
> ...if we complain that the Democrats are not supporting an effective US
> government role in health care, and are caving in to the insurance, pharma,
> etc. interests.   The Dem. leadership, including the Obama adminstration,
> seems to be doing just that.
> 
> But *sixty* House Democrats (including Keith Ellison, who'd have been my Rep.
> if I still lived in Minneapolis) are refusing to follow the party line, and
> standing ready to force the Administration to finally compromise to the Left,
> instead of (as Cornell West said recently) having its ears open only to the
> Right.  They represent a piece of the kind of protest movement that Obama
> needs to be getting pressure from.
> 
> As Glenn Greenwald points out, 
> http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/08/19/obama/index.html their kind
> of wedge is really important -- and not only for the health care issue, but
> as a way of changing the whole political game. ...