Don’t you just love it when the progressive media takes a swipe at the Obama team? Camille Paglia’s latest piece at Salon illustrates the left recognizing the weakness of the rookie president and his royal court.
The following is her Salon story with the link at the end of this post.
Heads should roll — beginning with Nancy Pelosi’s!
By Camille Paglia
Aug. 12, 2009 | Buyer’s remorse? Not me. At the North American summit in Guadalajara this week, President Obama resumed the role he is best at — representing the U.S. with dignity and authority abroad. This is why I, for one, voted for Obama and continue to support him. The damage done to U.S. prestige by the feckless, buffoonish George W. Bush will take years to repair. Obama has barely begun the crucial mission that he was elected to do.
Having said that, I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy. When will heads start to roll? I was glad to see the White House counsel booted, as well as Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, and hope it’s a harbinger of things to come. Except for that wily fox, David Axelrod, who could charm gold threads out of moonbeams, Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys.
Case in point: the administration’s grotesque mishandling of healthcare reform, one of the most vital issues facing the nation. Ever since Hillary Clinton’s megalomaniacal annihilation of our last best chance at reform in 1993 (all of which was suppressed by the mainstream media when she was running for president), Democrats have been longing for that happy day when this issue would once again be front and center.
But who would have thought that the sober, deliberative Barack Obama would have nothing to propose but vague and slippery promises — or that he would so easily cede the leadership clout of the executive branch to a chaotic, rapacious, solipsistic Congress? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whom I used to admire for her smooth aplomb under pressure, has clearly gone off the deep end with her bizarre rants about legitimate town-hall protests by American citizens. She is doing grievous damage to the party and should immediately step down.
There is plenty of blame to go around. Obama’s aggressive endorsement of a healthcare plan that does not even exist yet, except in five competing, fluctuating drafts, makes Washington seem like Cloud Cuckoo Land. The president is promoting the most colossal, brazen bait-and-switch operation since the Bush administration snookered the country into invading Iraq with apocalyptic visions of mushroom clouds over American cities.
I agree with everything Paglia said. And she also left out the part about closed-door meetings and deals between the White House and Big Pharma. The President needs to take the reigns, stop cutting deals with corporate interests and do what the American people elected him to do.
Pelsoi has not been helpful in this debate. I doubt if she will step down but she needs to calm down.
In some other areas she has been a good leader, perhaps this is just something that is a very emotional issue for her. Leaders have to be careful that emotions do not overcome common sense and reason.
“American people elected him to do.”
One thing candidate Obama promised during the election was transparency in his administration. Unfortunately, he did not keep this promise. I don’t expect he ever will.
Folks. I can sum it up in one word. Transparency.
Other choices: Integrity, honesty, you pick it!
Obama has on this issue laid out several things he wants in a bill.
1) expand coverage to the uninsured
2) The bill must be paid for, It cannot add to the debt.
3) You must be able to keep your own coverage.
4) No funding for undocumented adults
5) No cuts in services to seniors
6) Eliminate duplicate testing
7) Promote Preventative Care
He has expressed preferences for other items but the top 7 must be met for him to sign a bill.
That said right now none of the current proposals are complete and I am not sure they all meet the President top conditions.
Mr. Benson,
Isn’t it interesting that, if those are indeed his top 7 priorities, they are priorities or changes that will have the LEAST amount of impact on insurance companies and big pharma.
In other words, you won’t see something like a government ability to negotiate drug prices on that list.
No, I forgot that point, which I thought unless I missed something, all the bills so far have included a provision to allow medicare to negotiate drug prices once again.
Mr. Benson,
Right, but the President, if you believe news coverage on this, negotiated away the right for the government to negotiate the cost of drugs. Of course, Congress may include it anyway, but the Obama position seems to be it won’t be part of a final bill.