What Does the Republican Win in Massachusetts Mean?

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What Does the Republican Win in Massachusetts Mean?

Post by roxybeast » January 20th, 2010, 6:32 am

<center>What Does the Republican Win in Massachusetts Mean?
by Beth Isbell, Jan. 20, 2010</center>

<center>Short answer: gridlock.</center>

You want to understand yesterday's Massachusetts message: As Clinton put it "it's the economy stupid!" President Obama has to create jobs NOW - whatever it takes! And on health care, conservatives aren't right, the reality is progressives don't like the compromise they forced either - nobody likes the current compromised mess in either chamber!

Health care has problems because not enough progressives were elected in either Chamber - had more been elected, we would have gotten the job done right the first go round. As it is, I'm not sure any compromise can save it. Maybe the Wyden plan is a start, but I don't see that successfully moving forward either. But maybe.

Since we are back to the drawing board, the pressure is off to support any of the current bad compromises. It's the perfect time to start fresh & simply demand what is right. We need to pass national health care - it's the right thing to do & the only real solution. We are the only leading country in the world that can't figure that out. And the reason is because we let the greedy bastards wanting to hang on to their ability to line their pockets use their wealth to cloud and confuse our judgment. We will never pass the perfect health care reform bill, but we need to quit letting fear of this & that "potential" problem or imperfection prevent us from doing the right thing - the thing that every other leading nation has done - because they value their people's health more than they value corporate greed. If problems arise after we pass the plan, we address them head on & fix them like normal rational adults!

Obama needs to come out in his state of the union swinging and talk about creating jobs NOW, regulating & controlling wall street, making health insurance fair & affordable for all, including sufficient subsidies, controlling costs & make plans competitive without red tape or state lines that prevent competition. He has to address voters' fears and concerns about the lack of progress being made head on. And he finally has to call the game like he sees it. Call out the BS, be brutally honest, be the leader, paint the future, and be the visionary that leads us to it.

We need to regulate Wall Street, protect our markets, protect homeowners from fraud, end excessive compensation and greed. We need to pass real reforms like those envisioned by Liz Warren.

He needs to treat this speech not like a state of the union, but more like a campaign speech that seizes on the anger of the voters that change is not being made that benefits them and chastising those who stand in the way of accomplishing it. He needs to ask voters to send him Congressional representatives and Senators that will help him take on & defeat the monied interests not send folks who ensure gridlock (aka Brown). The President needs to explain that the problem is not his plan for change, but the lack of votes to pass it in the overwhelming way that it needs to be passed. It is time to end the interference and petty bickering, to see the pain in American lives, and get the job done.

Tell folks the truth, you aren't getting what you want because your message when you elected me was not sent clearly or loud enough or with enough progressives in either chamber to get the job done!

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Post by roxybeast » January 20th, 2010, 7:42 am

“I think there’s been a misreading of where the public is at: having a health care debate when so many people were focused on their jobs,” said Joe Trippi, a Democratic political consultant. ... Terry McAuliffe, former Democratic National Committee chairman: “We have to keep our focus on job creation. Everything we have to do is related to job creation. We have to do a much better job on the message. People are confused on what this health care bill is going to do.”

"Stripped of the 60th vote needed to block Republican filibusters in the Senate, will Mr. Obama now make further accommodations to Republicans in an effort to move legislation through Congress with more bipartisanship, even at the cost of further alienating liberals annoyed at what they see as his ideological malleability?

Or will he seek to rally his party’s base through confrontation, even if it means giving up on getting much done this year?

Will he find a way to ram his health care bill through Congress quickly in the wake of the Massachusetts loss, so that his party can run on a major if controversial accomplishment? Or will he heed the warnings of Republicans, and now some Democrats, that to do so would be to ignore the message of Tuesday’s election, with its clear overtones of dissatisfaction with the administration’s approach so far?"

Source: New York Times, Jan. 20, 2010

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