Health Care Stuff

So, Nelson sold out. But we have a little bit of hope on two fronts: Stupak in the House is claiming he'll refuse to vote for a bill with his no-abortion-funding language gutted from it, as is the case with the Senate bill.

Meanwhile, the progressives in the House could create trouble too: exono, who seems to know what he's talking about, holds out the hopes that the Progressive Caucus, the biggest in the House, will in fact insist upon some form of public option in the House bill. If the conference bill contains anything like that, Lieberman walks.

Heather Radish highlights this snarky headline by Jake Tapper about the president's "unprecedented" progress on both global warming and health care.

Headline: President Obama Heralds as "Significant Progress" Unpopular Compromise on Health Care Bill, Non-Binding Climate Change Accord

Although Tapper never was in the bag for Obama (at least not in his reporting), I think the fact ABCNews allows him this much snark at Captain Perfect's expense indicates the bloom is officially off the rose.

And why? Well, not because he offended so many conservatives and moderates (including those who voted for him) in pursuing an avowedly left-wing agenda after promising (with the media vouching for him) to govern as a centrist. Those folks got upset over the long hot (well, not so hot -- global warming made it cooler than usual) summer and the media not only refused to credit them with a point, they insulted them with puerile sexual put-downs.

No, the media is now willing to be a bit agnostic about The God Who Walks because the one cadre of people in America whose opinions actually count -- the left wing -- is now griping about him.

Some system we have, eh? The left is not just the permanently privileged voice in politics, deciding solely amongst themselves when it is appropriate to have a dollop of skepticism about a president and which positions are "centrist" and "common sense" in politics -- of course they have a privileged voice; the media is itself left -- but we're finding out increasingly that voice is not merely privileged, but solitary.

No other voices or opinions count.

It's only now, at this precise moment, that the left has itself a snit, that it's permissible to question the divinity of The God Who Walks.

I Guess... I shouldn't say the left is having a "snit," as if their feelings are unreasonable. The God Who Walks promised everything to everybody, one promise contradicting another, and the media let him get away with it and papered over the incongruities in his "agenda" in order to sell him to the public, in any way possible. You want a hard leftist? Okay, he's a hard leftist. You want a centrist? Okay, he's that too. You want a conservative? Okay, in away, he's the "conservative with common sense" in this race.

I mean, after all -- he's going to cut your taxes (of course he will, darling) and personally put Osama bin Ladin's ass in a sling. He's that hard-core, you know.

And of course there are a large pile of promises that can't be fulfilled, and the left, too, is now realizing this guy just pretty much says anything and the media falls over itself to cover up for him.

"Just words"? Indeed, Just Words.

Oh: DC's also getting hit with snow so it seems the Christmas Eve goal is out of reach. But this monster will be back soon.

posted by Ace at 07:42 PM

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