The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Health Care Summit Review: ‘I Laughed,
I Cried, It Was Better Than Cats!’

Posted on | February 26, 2010 | 23 Comments

Rave reviews for Republicans all around, but Allahpundit highlights David Gergen’s review on CNN:

“The folks in the White House just must be kicking themselves right now. They thought that coming out of Baltimore when the President went in and was mesmerizing and commanding in front of the House Republicans that he could do that again here today. That would revive health care and would change the public opinion about their health care bill and they can go on to victory. Just the opposite has happened.”

Clifton at Another Black Conservative says Republicans “brought their A-Game” and Rep. Paul Ryan “stole the show.” Even Gloria Borger (!) admitted: “The Republicans have been very effective today. They really did come to play. They were very smart.” John Dickerson at Slate:

[I]t wasn’t a good day for congressional Democrats. According to strategists involved in 2010 races, fence-sitting Democrats needed to see Obama change the political dynamic. He needed to show how health care reform could be defended and how Republicans could be brought low. He did neither. White House aides and the president himself said he was going to press Republicans for how their plans would work, but he did that only twice—and mildly. There was no put-up-or-shut-up moment.

At the end of a long “fact check” column, the Associated Press admits:

Several times in the 2008 campaign Obama vowed to hold open negotiations in reworking health care. But once in office, Democrats in the White House and Congress conducted negotiations as usual, making multibillion-dollar deals with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, other special interests – and each other – in private. And beyond Thursday’s televised session, there is no indication Obama or the congressional Democrats plan further open talks.

The big take-away is that Democrats can’t depend on Obama’s magic to solve all their political problems. Republicans are no longer afraid to stand up to The One, and polls indicate that the GOP’s status as the “Party of No” is actually a winner.

“No” is good. People like “no.” Go with “no.”

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Category: Barack Obama, Health Care, Republicans

Comments

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  • http://qwertyaltofuori.blogspot.com Red

    ‘NO!’. I like the sound of it ;-) ”Yes, we can” versus, “No, you wont’” (not on my dime anyway).

  • http://qwertyaltofuori.blogspot.com Red

    ‘NO!’. I like the sound of it ;-) ”Yes, we can” versus, “No, you wont’” (not on my dime anyway).

  • Fat Man

    OOps unclosed tags. Delete the previous & use this.

    The Writings of Herman Melville; The Northwestern-Newberry Edition
    Correspondence: Volume Fourteen,
    Lynn Horth (Editor)
    p. 186
    To Nathaniel Hawthorne
    [16 April?] 1851 * Pittsfield, MA

    There is the grand truth about Nataniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no, —why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unencumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag, —that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.

  • Fat Man

    OOps unclosed tags. Delete the previous & use this.

    The Writings of Herman Melville; The Northwestern-Newberry Edition
    Correspondence: Volume Fourteen,
    Lynn Horth (Editor)
    p. 186
    To Nathaniel Hawthorne
    [16 April?] 1851 * Pittsfield, MA

    There is the grand truth about Nataniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no, —why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unencumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag, —that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.

  • Fat Man

    Try this one:

    The Writings of Herman Melville; The Northwestern-Newberry Edition
    Correspondence: Volume Fourteen,
    Lynn Horth (Editor)
    p. 186
    To Nathaniel Hawthorne
    [16 April?] 1851 * Pittsfield, MA

    There is the grand truth about Nataniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no, —why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unencumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag, —that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.

  • Fat Man

    Try this one:

    The Writings of Herman Melville; The Northwestern-Newberry Edition
    Correspondence: Volume Fourteen,
    Lynn Horth (Editor)
    p. 186
    To Nathaniel Hawthorne
    [16 April?] 1851 * Pittsfield, MA

    There is the grand truth about Nataniel Hawthorne. He says NO! in thunder; but the Devil himself cannot make him say yes. For all men who say yes, lie; and all men who say no, —why, they are in the happy condition of judicious, unencumbered travellers in Europe; they cross the frontiers into Eternity with nothing but a carpet-bag, —that is to say, the Ego. Whereas those yes-gentry, they travel with heaps of baggage, and, damn them! they will never get through the Custom House.

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  • Sue

    The GOP have showed no plan to bring in the uninsured, and until they do, Obama will win the moral argument.

  • Sue

    The GOP have showed no plan to bring in the uninsured, and until they do, Obama will win the moral argument.

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  • Live Free Or Die

    And once again, Pelosi, and Reid show off their senility.

    There is no ‘Right’ to ‘Free HealthCare’.
    If I want a service done, that I cannot do myself, I must pay for that service. As it is written, ‘For the workman is worthy of his meat.’
    Expecting ‘Free HealthCare’ is like eating at a restaurant, and then running out without paying the bill, let alone stiffing the waitstaff.

  • Live Free Or Die

    And once again, Pelosi, and Reid show off their senility.

    There is no ‘Right’ to ‘Free HealthCare’.
    If I want a service done, that I cannot do myself, I must pay for that service. As it is written, ‘For the workman is worthy of his meat.’
    Expecting ‘Free HealthCare’ is like eating at a restaurant, and then running out without paying the bill, let alone stiffing the waitstaff.

  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere
  • http://thecampofthesaints.wordpress.com Bob Belvedere
  • RES

    We heah in The South know what will foller whenver some smart guy stands up and shouts “Hey ya’ll, watch this!” the way Obama did Thursday.

    An Sue, honey, to quote the sage, just ’cause you don’t know their plan don’t mean they don’t have a plan.

  • RES

    We heah in The South know what will foller whenver some smart guy stands up and shouts “Hey ya’ll, watch this!” the way Obama did Thursday.

    An Sue, honey, to quote the sage, just ’cause you don’t know their plan don’t mean they don’t have a plan.

  • http://www.khaaan.com furious

    “Republicans are no longer afraid of the One”

    They’ve realized that Obama is an empty suit spouting empty words. When they challenge him he shows both his fangs and his poor grasp of the facts (“I don’t want to get into the details” = “I haven’t a clue”). So much for the poised, detached cool.

    The rubes who fell for Obama’s campaign schtick are starting to realize it, too. This debate, and his Administration, are not going to end prettily.

  • http://www.khaaan.com furious

    “Republicans are no longer afraid of the One”

    They’ve realized that Obama is an empty suit spouting empty words. When they challenge him he shows both his fangs and his poor grasp of the facts (“I don’t want to get into the details” = “I haven’t a clue”). So much for the poised, detached cool.

    The rubes who fell for Obama’s campaign schtick are starting to realize it, too. This debate, and his Administration, are not going to end prettily.

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