Interesting debates on the Sunday shows. Someone needs to invent a Lying Hat that will light up when politicians are exaggerating, distorting and outright lying. On Meet the Press, Orrin Hatch was lying through his teeth, exaggerating at best, and for the most part, David Gregory let him get away with it.
The public option debate is way out of control. It's such a simple concept that has been mangled by the right.
On Meet the Press, I think Joe Scarborough nailed the root of Obama's health care problem -- Obama doesn't have all the democrats on board. That's because the democratic party is a larger party, more reflective of America, while the republican party is, as Paul Krugman called them, the "rump." I can't think of a better word.
So now Obama has this bigger divide among democrats to contend with, the liberals on one end and the blue dogs on the other. Liberals, especially, have bailed on Obama. They act as though they own Obama. They only have his back if they get what they want. Tavis Smiley says Obama is backtracking on the public option. I don't think so at all. The media made a big to-do over it last Sunday and liberals got scared. Liberals are scared like the Rump (republicans) is scared. The entire debate of healthcare reform was getting bogged down by the public option because the Rump was able to persuade enough people that the public option was a government takeover.
In the end, the bill will have a public option because it is a small, important sliver of reform. Obama's intention has always been to insure those who can't afford insurance.
I'm glad Obama is on vacation because healthcare reform turned into a side show.
Another side note, Tavis Smiley was dead on about the hate at the Obama rallies. As a society, we can't accept strapping a gun to your leg and then going to a presidential town hall as anger. It's not anger. It's irrational hate. These cockroaches have been drawn out of the woodwork. Scarborough also said that it's wrong and it makes the job of the Secret Service tougher. Scarborough said that most of the angry people have just taken up sides, and they don't even know what they're talking about. They couldn't even define public option.
Watch the entire show here.
