Obama's failure to lead

I had a chance to watch Bill Maher's show on HBO this past week. Maher, who would never be confused for a small-town, Conservative values voter, had a discussion with his panel, made up of Chuck Todd, Jay Leno, and Democratic Congresswoman Jean Schakowsky. Schakowsky is one of the most prominent Democratic Congress persons in the House today, and has continued to be rumored as someone who may try to run for Barack Obama's former Senate seat in Illinois.

To say the least, it was embarrassing to watch the Congresswoman go on a show, where the host is GIVING her a platform to exhibit leadership, and watch how embarrassingly out of touch she seemed on the health care debate.

Maher basically told her that the Republicans were winning the debate, and that she had an opportunity RIGHT THERE to make a succinct point to start to turn the tide in the debate. She couldn't string two sentences together to say anything resembling a clear point.

At this point, I conceded the debate. Passing Health Care with this Congress is a hopeless debate. As saddened as I was to see that Ted Kennedy died this past week, it was merely a reminder to me (being under the age of 45, I have no memories of Kennedy, Camelot, Chappaquiddick, or any of the other newsworthy reminders of the Kennedy's prominence in America.) that there really is no leadership of note in the Democratic Party.

Which brings me to President Obama. Someone in the media really summed it up best for me: Obama leading the Democrats is the equivalent of Michael Jordan playing for the Washington Generals. Take him out of the equation and it really is a pathetic group. Don't like watching Max Baucus or Kent Conrad running the Finance committee, holding up the bill? The White House has leverage on these folks. Leadership can strip people of their chairmanships. Don't like the Blue Dog's howling about spending? There's always a way to strip money out of their districts to balance things some. Don't like the Republican's sudden religion on budget deficits? Remind the country that the last time we faced economic downturn and fought to balance the budget was in the early 1930's. Anyone want to try that play again?

I'm not suggesting that there aren't some Democrats that truly do believe that they are doing the right thing for the country by opposing a Public Option in the Health Care debate.

However, for the rest of the 80% of Democrats opposing the bill, who think it will lose them their next election, I would remind them that they have already lost their seats if they vote this down. Does anyone remember the mid-term elections of 1994?

I would also encourage someone (anyone) who really believes in a Public Option to explain--in 2 sentences or less--why we need one. Obama has utterly failed to step up and make the case. It's embarrassing to watch the best orator in 50 years lose a debate to Chuck Grassley and Sarah Palin.

So, someone must step up for the cause. Explain why doing nothing is a guarantee of bankruptcy of the current system. Why doing nothing will pretty much ensure a premium rate hike of 15% next year in my health care premiums. Why doing nothing has led to a doubling of my personal premiums ALONE in the last 5 years. That doesn't even count the TRIPLING of my co pays. We talk about Medicare going up by the rate of inflation. But my private health care premiums and co pays have gone up FAR faster than that. We talk about inefficiency of government run health care, yet Medicare receives better customer satisfaction than any private run health care services do. Watching the Democrats screw this up is like seeing someone dealt a full house in Poker, and turning in 3 cards, just to make it seem fair to the other players...

Look, I'm not suggesting that this combination of bills being put forth is perfect. No bill ever is on the first try. However, doing nothing is already on a path over the cliff. Imcrementalism won't fix the issues fast enough. Everyone has auto insurance. Everyone should have health insurance. If you want Congress to work on healthy lifestyle incentives separately, fine. If you want to point to a lack of legislation on improved facilities, pharmaceutical R&D, etc, fine. But let's not confuse this bill with the notion that if it's not a panacea, it must be killed.

Obama has failed to lead on this. Let's see what happens in the next couple of weeks, but I'm not encouraged by anyone's leadership on this issue. It's a sad harbinger of things to come, as the Republicans take control of the debates, and we get back on to issues like religious values, flag burning, earmarks, Terri Schiavo, illegals, etc.

I hope people remember this debate, as they all howl at the unimaginable rate increases in their health care in the next 5 years. Enjoy that Private Insurance coverage, folks, because you won't be able to afford much else...