It's true. Obama tried to rise above the politics, but it's not working. I do think Obama has a serious fighter in him. I'm hoping that's why Obama took an extended vacation-- to get that extra think time that Gordon Brown highly recommended.
Obama is a cut above most politicians but republicans are ruthless and they've shown that even though they're the minority they can make the biggest noise. They won't stop at anything to get what they want. They've sent out their thugs (or haven't stopped them or cowed them or disowned them) to pray for Obama's death, to carry guns to his town halls and to compare Obama to Hitler.
Moyers says the debate going on around health care reform is deranged but it's All American.
Poor Obama. He came to town preaching the religion of nice. But every time he bows politely, the harder the Republicans kick him.
No one's ever conquered Washington politics by constantly saying "pretty please" to the guys trying to cut your throat.
Let's get on with it, Mr. President. We're up the proverbial creek with spaghetti as our paddle. This health care thing could have been the crossing of the Delaware, the turning point in the next American Revolution — the moment we put the mercenaries to rout, as General Washington did the Hessians at Trenton. We could have stamped our victory "Made in the USA." We could have said to the world, "Look what we did!" And we could have turned to each other and said, "Thank you."
As it is, we're about to get health care reform that measures human beings only in corporate terms of a cost-benefit analysis. I mean this is topsy-turvy — we should be treating health as a condition, not a commodity.
As we speak, Pfizer, the world's largest drug maker, has been fined a record $2.3 billion dollars as a civil and criminal — yes, that's criminal, as in fraud — penalty for promoting prescription drugs with the subtlety of the Russian mafia. It's the fourth time in a decade Pfizer's been called on the carpet. And these are the people into whose tender mercies Congress and the White House would deliver us? read the rest of the essay.
