CE Week #2: “Rookie Mistakes: Time for Obama to Lead” Sept. 13th
Well, we survived August, which is good news. It was not a month that will be recorded in the Enlightened Discourse Hall of Fame. In fact, it was a national embarrassment — not just the steady stream of misinformation about the nature of President Obama’s health-care proposals, but the racism — both overt and opaque — the death threats, the imprecations (calling someone a Nazi is evidence of the evil of banality), the idiots bearing assault rifles at presidential events. As the lunatics took over the asylum, the President’s poll ratings dropped, and the chances for a truly bipartisan health-care-reform effort vanished, if they existed in the first place. Consequently, we have had a back-to-school fusillade of advice for the President from my columnizing peers — and an effusion of premature crowing from conservatives about the collapse of the Obama presidency.
The drop in the President’s poll numbers represents a natural political process. When politicians talk about spending their political capital, they are talking about their poll numbers — and the cliché is somewhat misleading. They are actually investing their political capital, hoping for a greater return if their gamble succeeds. George W. Bush invested his capital in privatizing Social Security, and the stock tanked. Barack Obama is investing in health-care reform. We are at the point of the legislative process where all seems hopeless, but Obama should be heartened by the fact that most of his Republican adversaries oppose the bill for crass political rather than ideological reasons. They assume that if it passes, his investment of political capital will result in higher poll numbers — which means they assume the public will like the changes he is proposing. (See TIME’s photo-essay “The Health-Care Debate Turns Angry.”)
And, I fearlessly predict, the public will. If insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for pre-existing conditions, or drop people who get too sick, the public will love it. If health-care exchanges give individuals and small businesses the power to negotiate lower premiums from the insurance companies, people will love that too. Making health care available to everyone, even if some people — young, healthy people — who are not buying in now are told they have to join up, will also be well received. The odds are better than even that a bill containing those provisions will pass in Congress this fall.
But even if most of the noise about Obama is nonsense, there is one area of concern that could affect the ultimate success of his presidency. It is his tendency to overlearn the lessons of past presidencies, especially when those lessons enable him to avoid taking responsibility for tough decisions. It has been widely observed that Obama overlearned the lesson of the Clinton health-care effort by deferring to Congress to write the legislation. It has been less widely observed that the President overlearned the lesson of Bush’s hyperpoliticized Justice Department by leaving to Attorney General Eric Holder the decision about whether to investigate the CIA for torture abuses.
What should the President have done? Well, there’s a path between the 1,300-page Clinton health-care plan and the 1,000-page Henry Waxman plan that will be voted on in the House. The President could have laid out a set of principles and said, “I will veto any bill that doesn’t contain the following …” (Indeed, he still could do so.) They should be clear, simple, popular and achievable. My list would include insurance reform, health-care exchanges, near universal coverage and tort reform. (Obama’s position on tort reform is another abdication of responsibility: he says he’s open to it, knowing the congressional Democrats are closed to it.) (See “Understanding the Health-Care Debate: Your Indispensable Guide.”)
The President’s deferral of responsibility for the CIA investigation is more serious than his health-care meanderings. This is a matter of national security that will directly affect the morale and behavior of our clandestine services. The President can’t say he wants to look forward, not backward, then allow his Attorney General to look backward. The most egregious practices, like waterboarding, were (outrageously) declared legal by the Bush Justice Department. How can you prosecute one interrogator for threatening a prisoner with an electric drill and let others who waterboarded a prisoner 83 times off the hook? Is it right for the interrogators to be prosecuted and the real miscreants — people, like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who ordered, and still approve of, the torture — to escape unpunished? Most legal experts believe that such cases would be difficult to prosecute. But whether you favor an investigation or not, this is a presidential decision the President avoided.
In the great sweep of history, this presidency has barely begun. The mistakes Obama has made are rookie mistakes that can be corrected. And the general tendency of his Administration — toward civility, as opposed to the ugliness we’ve seen in the past month — is the right one. But he can’t allow his desire for civility to neuter the requirements of leadership. He has to lead, clearly and decisively, starting right now.
A. After reading this article I learned that people out there still have hope for Barack Obama. Even though he has made some mistakes, and might continue to make them, there is still hope that he can pull out and be a good president. Obviously all of his time is going toward health care, which people seem to love or hate. The author who wrote this piece seems to think that the public will like the change though.
B. I think that Obama is trying to create change and make this world better; even though he could probably do better.
C. What kind of things that Obama says makes people dislike him? What kind of mistakes has he already made? “The drop in the President’s poll numbers represents a natural political process.” Why are his poll numbers dropping? I don’t know much about his presidency so far so I’d like to know more about everything.
A) I learned that the idea of a perfect Health Care plan is slowly fading away. It seems like it’s becoming less and less likely this Bill will pass. Making health care available to everyone sounds like a great idea, even if you don’t think you’ll need it it’s better to be prepared than to ‘expire’ (die).
B) This new idea of Health Care truly sounds epic when worded by this Joe Klein person. He makes it sound as if it could work, and it’s a good idea, but then he just turns around and completely changes his thinking. I think Health Care should be available to everyone, but I don’t think we should let people be taken into the ER if they don’t have it. I don’t think we should all rely on each other. If you can’t help yourself why should others have to help you?
C) I want to know the outcome of this topic and that’s about it. Either way the Health Care goes I still win in the long run. However, I do, somewhat, feel bad for those who can’t afford it.
CE Week #2: “Rookie Mistakes: Time for Obama to Lead” Sept. 13th
A. I have learned a couple of things from this blog on Obama. First off I really did not know much about what his Health Care program would do for businesses and most people individually, and reading this blog showed me what was going on. I learned that Obama’s Health Care program could give small businesses and individuals the right to negotiate for lower premiums from the insurance company. I didn’t know that his Health Care had enough power to make sure insurance companies accept everyone’s coverage for pre-existing conditions. I also learned that former president Bill Clinton had a Health Care program that he tried to make available, but failed. I knew Dick Cheney was a cruel and hardcore man, but I didn’t realize that he loved to torture people (that’s just sick). I also learned that Bush made water boarding legal. I do not watch news at all so a lot of the things I read are new to me, even if they are a couple years old.
B. I do not agree with the Health Care program. I do not think that because Obama thinks that his Health Care plan will help millions of people that people should have to join in the Health Care if they truly don’t want to. I think that it is smart of Obama to over learn the failures of other presidents before him. This is good, because he knows which roads to walk down and which to stay away from. Bush was obviously one of our worst presidents, and knowing everything he did wrong and making sure not to become the next Bush will make Obama a better president in the long run. For example, a lot of people do not agree with water boarding; I believe it to be cruel and unnecessary. If Obama was to make water boarding illegal, and come up with a plan for prisoners that is less brutal, then people would respect him more, and he will be liked instead of people having mixed feelings towards him.
C. How similar is Obama’s Health Care plan to the one of Bill Clinton?
What other plans and programs does Obama have for Americans, beside the Health Care program?
Response to Russ Zeeryup:
-I agree with you on the idea that we should all have health care, but I think it’s inhumane that you say that if people have no health care they shouldn’t be treated in the ER. If a person comes in with a bleeding stump of an arm and needs surgery or a man with a gunshot wound comes rolling in it would be wrong on so many grounds to turn them away just because they don’t have health care. You say that people who can’t help themselves should not be helped by us but then go on to say that you feel sorry for those that cannot afford health care. So therefore you feel bad for those stricken with poverty because they cannot afford health care but at the same time you are angry at them for requiring aid from others? Seems a bit hypocritical.
-I too merely want to know the outcome of the current reforms and hope that we eventually reach universal health care for everyone.
In response to Russ Zeeryp:
Why don’t you think that people should be taken into the ER if they don’t have health care? It’s not fair for them if they don’t have money or can’t afford health care to not be taken into the hospital to seek medical help. Obviously most people don’t like his health care program because his poll numbers are dropping. I agree with you that we shouldn’t rely on other people all the time, but that is all some people have to rely on. They need the other people to help them support themselves and if anyone thinks they are too good to help the poor than this world needs a whole attitude make-over.
In response to Kristina Nielsen:
“Why are [Obama’s] poll numbers dropping?”
There are a multitude of reasons. One reason could be that during his presidential campaign, Obama was turned into a savior/superhero (he was even on the cover of a Spiderman comic!), and when he didn’t deliver “change” immediately or in the way his followers wanted, they felt betrayed. Another explanation is that all Presidents’ popularity goes down while in office. We think of FDR as the optimistic healer of our nation during the Great Depression and WWII, but in truth, half the country hated his guts. A more recent example is Bill Clinton. During his presidency, he had as low as a 33% approval rating. Now, however, Clinton is up to about 62% approval.
In response to Drew Williams:
I disagree with your statement that Bush was “obviously one of the worst presidents.” There is nothing obvious about it. Every aspect of his time in office needs to be considered, even the future effects of what he did. For example, when Truman left office his approval rating was lower than even Nixon’s when he left office. However, now Truman is consistently in the upper ranking of the most favorably viewed presidents. Now consider the presidents people consider to be the worst. Buchanan is one of them, often regarded as one because of his inactivity. Nixon is obviously another, considered unfavorable because of Watergate. Bush entered the presidency just to have everything horrible thrown at him: Sept 11, Hurricane Katrina, recession. He did everything in his power to do what was best for the country and, like Truman, I expect to see public opinion of him go up, probably not soon, but when we are able to see the tangible effects of what he did.
Kristina~
Why don’t people like Obama as much any more? Well you kind of stated it for your self. Not many people know what is going on with everything, they want to know more. The mojority of the people in the U.S. only know that he wants “change”, such as health care.
NO CREDIT: Proof read more carefully; more substance needed = deal in specifics and site sources.
Russ Zeeryp~
I also disagree with you. Especially when you said “I don’t think we should all rely on each other. If you can’t help yourself why should others have to help you?”
If you never help anyone, what about when you need a little help with medical finacial needs or something? I think most things work much, much better when it’s a combined effort among atleast a few people. The more everyone helps with medical care for the U.S., which you are part of, everyone can get the treatment they need. They should be able to be sent to the ER if they are dieing! That is the whole points to hospitals, so people don’t die when something goes wrong!
In response to Russ Zeeryp:
How could you have the heart to say that someone without health-care should be denied of the ER? And that if you can’t help yourself, then no one should help you? That’s completely unjust, considering if you had the smallest problem most likely your friends and family would be by your side helping you out; or is that wrong because you can’t help yourself? I’d like to know what prompted you to think that.
However, I think I agree with you about the author changing his idea of what he thinks he is writing about…
A) From this article I learned that Obama’s mistakes are still correctable. His healthcare plan may still pass. He still can choose the qualifications for a bill in order for him not to veto it. I also learned it was the previous Justice Department under President Bush that legalized waterboarding.
B) I want Obama to do it. I’ve grown up in a nation that despises it’s own government. We’ve lost trust. If Obama can accomplish what he set out to do, that will be the first time for me that a President has been ‘victorious’ in their nation’s eyes.
C) How has Obama approached the waterboarding issue besides setting his Attorney General on the case?
In response to Megan Erickson (upon responding to Drew Williams)
I am so proud that you stood up for President Bush. He is a great man and should be treated with the respect he deserves.
I think of him as a good president. The only part I found any major conflict in his presidency was his handle on Hurricane Katrina. I disagree with your statement ‘He did everything in his power’. He should have reacted quicker and with more authority. He let a crucial day when many victims lost their lives and homes pass by when he was vacationing, completely unaware, at his ranch.
If Obama can accomplish what he says that will be something. But if he can react to the unknown issues that will emerge in the future, then he will be considered great.