Reply #30: Poor guy. President of the United States and head of the DEMOCRATIC Party, yet

[No Elephants]

completely helpless against a DEMOCRATIC Congress.

Yes, he supported the public option in his speeches to the people--who strongly support it to this day, but he also referred to it as a "sliver," and "my liberal friends" started taking lot of crap from the WH.

As to Congress, however, he put the kibosh on single payer and refused to lead with public option. Obama started the process by meeting with health insurers, PHRMA and big health care providers. He refused to meet with doctors who advocated single payer, though. He even refused to meet with members of the House until after the Senate bill was all but finished.

He praised Baucus to the skies, both during the August town meetings and just after the Senate passed its bill on Christmas Eve. No bill from the WH until after Brown's election.


The WH seems to want to have it both ways on a number of issues. One is the public option. Another is a DEMOCRATIC President just washed the DEMOCRATIC Congress and can't do a thing with it--but he's not weak, and, further, whenever Congress does something perceived as desirable, the WH should get the credit.

BTW, he did lead on banning re-importation of drugs from Canada. And he got what he wanted. And PDQ, too.