It's a shame

[Hutzpa]

a doggone shame to see fellow members on DU insinuating that this President has sold us out on health care, this President

gave us conflicting messages on public option...really, how so? Never thought I'll see these atrocious lies on DU.

We have a President who stood by powerlessly as his mother suffering from cancer fought with insurance companies, watched

as his mother was unable to get the treatment she needed until it was too late, yet, this is the man that others are trying

to convinced me is fighting against public option? has sold us out to the insurance companies? have we become so introvert

that we allow ourselves to get carried away so much so that we ignore the facts but instead create an aura of acrimonious anxiety.

I know enough, but I don't know a lot, but what I know is that It's a shame and a doggone shame to see.

[lamp_shade]

1. Yes it is Hutzpa. A damn shame.

[phleshdef]

2. Its not a shame because some here are so shameless.

Anything short of forcefully shutting down the health insurance companies via executive order would be considered "selling out to the insurance companies" by a good many here.

[treestar]

8. That would not be enough either

You forgot stomping them into little bits and grinding them into a fine powder and throwing the CEOs into prison.

:hi:

[polpilot]

3. Yep. We just have to take what we can get until we elect a democratic president & have a majority.

[Phx_Dem]

4. It's more than a shame, it's nauseating.

:puke:

[Cronus Protagonist]

5. Are you really claiming that Obama, a multimillionaire, stood by powerlessly and watched"?

Perhaps I have an incorrect picture of the man, but I doubt he would stand by and watch his mother "powerlessly". Far from it, I suspect, is the reality of that situation.

[FrenchieCat]

7. Yes, you have an incorrect picture of the man.

His mother passed away 12 years ago, when his earnings weren't even remotely close to what they were in 2006. That is the year he started making money from his books.

[NYCGirl]

9. He was not a multimillionaire when his mother died. Not even close. NT

[Cronus Protagonist]

10. Only very, very rich then?

Sorry I don't have his tax returns for that year, but he was very wealthy and hardly powerless. I stand corrected on the multi-millionaire thing... perhaps he only had one million or thereabouts.

And I am absolutely certain that if he only had a nickel, he would still NOT stand idly by and claim to be powerless. It's just not believable. Unlike Republicans, I think that, if someone on our side is going to make up crap, they should at least make it believable.

[NYCGirl]

11. Nope. Still owed college loans and everything. His first book had just been

published and didn't make any money on that printing.

[NYCGirl]

12. His mother had just changed jobs and the new insurance company

rejected her due to her cancer being a pre-existing condition.

[Cronus Protagonist]

14. Oh dear!

He really IS ineffective and powerless. Is that was I'm supposed to glean from that? Why am I still in doubt about that?

[NYCGirl]

19. No, what you're supposed to glean from that is that he was just a regular guy.

He wasn't a multi-millionaire, he wasn't a millionaire. Seems you missed the meaning entirely.

[Cronus Protagonist]

20. I did some research for you and the OP

Since the facts of the situation are in question, I trust others will be edified by the following well sourced citations, because I was so amazed at someone here on DU claiming that Obama was powerless due to insurance company perfidy, it begs clarification.

On Obama's career at the point of his mother's death:

Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004.

And we all know a man like this, who works both as a professor and attorney, would be broke and um... powerless.

...about his mother's death

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1729524-7,00.html

In the fall of 1994, Ann was having dinner at her friend Patten's house in Jakarta when she felt a pain in her stomach. A local doctor diagnosed indigestion. When Ann returned to Hawaii several months later, she learned it was ovarian and uterine cancer. She died on Nov. 7, 1995, at 52.

They didn't know how long she had to live, and she went within 6 months of diagnosis. It was so sudden that Obama couldn't even be at her side when she died. No mention at all about her ever being mistreated in hospital or by any insurance companies. In fact, her prognosis was terminal. There was no long battle with insurance companies. Not.

The only powerlessness there was to be unable to be God and right his mother's illness. That's something which all of us have to live with.

SO, back in the REAL world, Barack Obama has been an exceptional man from very early on and continues his trajectory today. Any talk of Obama being either "normal", "regular", "powerless (due to unsurance companies)" is totally opposite to the facts as recorded.

Sorry, I don't like the unsurance companies either; I just prefer the truth to bullshit. And if you have a good case anyway, why embellish with dramatic fictions? It just weakens a strong case and is detrimental to progress.

[NYCGirl]

22. I never said he was "powerless," but he was not wealthy at that time.

And he does speak himself of his mother's worry about medical expenses.

[FrenchieCat]

16. I think as far as The politicians currently in Washington,

He wasn't rolling in dough whatsoever,
and in reality, compared to most of them,
he still isn't.

Obama's money
Net Worth: $1.3 million

Where he got it

After Harvard Law, Obama didn't exactly rake in the big bucks. He led a voter-registration drive and then worked for a Chicago law firm that specializes in civil rights and employment discrimination.

He earned $60,000 as an Illinois state senator, plus another $32,000 as a lecturer in constitutional law at the University of Chicago.

His wife earned a larger salary than he did for some time,
and in fact, According to the couple’s 2006 income tax return,
her salary was $273,618 from the University of Chicago Hospitals,
while her husband had a salary of $157,082 from the United States Senate.

These salaries fall quite low in the line of folks who have Yale and Columbia undergraduate degrees coupled with Harvard Law Degrees. And in particular when you come from a family who has no real net worth to hand down to you, because they weren't born with the priviledged silver spoon in their mouths like so many in politics today were.
-----------

Dennis Kucinich earned more than that as a House Representative, with an annual salary of $136,700 as far back as 1996 when he was first elected. (it is currently $175,000 annually).

Barack Obama's salary went up considerably when he became a Senator in 2004. It was then that it equaled Kucinich's....and in addition, that is when his first book started to sale due to his election to the Senate and his speech at the convention.



and you are a prime example of what the OP is talking about.
Folks who twist the truth for their personal reasons.

Now go and fucking hide......only to resurface later with
some more made up bullshit.

[Hutzpa]

15. It's easier to see where the

unrecs are coming from. I am not going to try and convince you otherwise, you can believe what you want to believe.

I'll leave that to others, but I'll make a suggestion though and that is to do some research.

[Cha]

6. They lie about everything else

regarding the Pres..why not this?

[DesertFlower]

13. i would love to have the public option, but

i'm not going to throw obama under the bus because we didn't get it.

[AuntPatsy]

17. Puts things more into perspective, he must understand, recommended...

I have said this before on Du but the truth is people are idealists generally, they see things in black and white...it is just not so, I might not like it and wish it were so simplistic but the fact is, the truth is, Presidents cannot just demand anything and expect such to instantly become reality, though many believe Bush the second to have had that power, I think we can safely say that such was not the case..

He had his handlers don't doubt it....and whether he realized it or lived in a fantasy world, he was not the boss, perhaps he did finally get it..in fact I am almost certain he did and was not pleased...

as many have stated our president now is not a stupid man nor does he live in fantasy land...

I had an uncle in politics who attempted his career in New Jersey...he was a registered dem....

when he passed away he was a raging glen beck type republican...

he spoke of the political scene like it was the plague, sadly he put all the blame on the dem party simply because that is the arena he entered..he never again entered that inner core or attempted though he did change his political status by registering republican...

his only error in my mind anyway was not realizing how it was in both parties not just the one..

if you don't play ball even on an entry level position, you might as well hang up your hat and focus on another career path...

I have no doubt even the good guys have some skeletons in their starting career and I honestly believe those good guys had good intentions as all must have at first or perhaps most of them...

If you doubt that, than you yourself have never had the "displeasure" of having to enter the inner arena that is not only dog eat dog but you scratch my back and I will ensure you get yours scratched as well or you can accept you will never get anything you want done, nothing...

It is about compromise to be sure, you really have no choice and I assume that some come to the realization that if they are ever able to ensure their beginning good intentions bear fruit and they can perhaps one day make a difference for the good than they have no choice but to play ball and play it by the rules already set in stone...


I cannot stand knowing that our system is so entrenched in corruption that it is impossible to remain clean as a whistle and accomplish anything, perhaps that is a way that ensures towing the line in the future will never be a problem for those throwing it out there...

For the most part, to me, the whole senate house debating we see on cspan is nothing more than a side show, where the members get to take out their frustration at how limited they are by attacking each other and in that light leaving us, the viewers believing that they actually had a real chance to accomplish the change this country honestly needs..

The only way that will happen , we being heard I mean is for humanity to lose the trait that transcends throughout time generation after generation...the trait of greed, power, and selfishness which is embedded in our human makeup...as long as there are some, and at this rate some is far too many who cannot control those traits than a continuation of what we are experiencing now will only change the faces of the players involved, but the same rules will always apply until people quit wanting to always know whats best for others, far too many of them if you want my opinion..

I find it sadly ironic how some refuse to listen to another's viewpoint and insist their way is the right way and in the same breath demand others adhere to their way of thinking period and despise others who do the same...these traits are in us all, at all levels of monetary standing etc, understand, what makes the laws in this country are not only the greedy and power hungry mongrels but the me me me crowed who is the right in knowing what is best for everyone crowd that make up the "public" whom also push for certain bills and or laws to even see the light of day which should have stayed in the darkness of a mere thought...

Like the seat belt law...are we serious? so many pathetic ignorant time consuming and downright wasteful hours have been spent worrying about seat belts..until we rid the world of idiotic issues such as this one, we will never waiver from the current climate of political game playing..never and so many are guilty of playing that way and refusing to admit they are wrong that I honestly do not see change coming any time soon at the political leadership level.

[depakid]

18. "atrocious lies?" -try cognitive dissonance

After all, the shoe seems to fit- in classic form.

[Peacetrain]

21. So true.. he would tell the story of his mothers conflict with the Insurance companies

He understands as well as anyone.. what is at stake