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March 31, 2010
Obama's coming to Maine. Er...why?
Earlier today, thousands of people braved the cold spring rain to get their hands on tickets to attend Obama's health care rally in Portland, Maine tomorrow.
The doors of the Expo have opened and tickets to see President Barack Obama are being distributed to the line of waiting people.The number of people who waited in line isn't all that surprising. According to the Maine Secretary of State's website, the city of Portland cast 36,840 votes for president in 2008. John McCain received 7,844 of those votes. Obama received 28,317 - about 77%. That's a full 20 points ahead of his statewide total of 57% of the vote. Portland is a liberal city in the most liberal part of the state.Nicole Perrine, who was the first in line at 12:45 this morning, walked in quietly, hands in pockets, and when she got the first two tickets held them up and smiled.
"I feel pretty good," she said. "Now I can go home and sleep."
Others leaving after waiting for hours held up tickets happily and smiled.
Carl Inkel, who was third in line, brandished his tickets and said, "Wooo-hooo, Obama rocks."
Which begs the question - why does Obama feel the need to sell his health care plan in the most liberal, urban part of a largely rural state? Shouldn't he be selling it to a less devoted area? Why not Penobscot County, where the election results nearly mirror the national percentages? Why not Washington County, where the result was almost 50-50? It's not as though Portland has a monopoly on Maine media. It has roughly the same number of television stations and newspapers as Bangor, which voted for Obama, but by a smaller margin. It's almost as though the president has purposely chosen the area of the state where he is guaranteed the friendliest, most liberal audience.
According to a Congressional report, the cost of operating Air Force One is $56,518 an hour. This figure does not take into account the cost of security and transportation of presidential vehicles. In addition, Maine taxpayers will foot the bill for the state and local police who will provide additional security at the event. All of this money is being spent to sell a health care reform bill that has already been signed into law to what is sure to be a mostly liberal audience in a deep blue state. In the middle of a recession, this doesn't seem like a particularly good use of taxpayer money.
Obama doesn't need to sell this law here, and frankly, I don't think that's why he's visiting Maine. It seems to me he's not here to convince Mainers this law is a good idea (we know otherwise), but to take a victory lap on our dime.
I hope a lot of tea partiers show up tomorrow.
Cross posted at The Greenroom
Posted by slublog at 08:44 PM | Comments (90) | TrackBack
March 19, 2010
So it's safe to say I'm ticked about the health care bill
I've had enough, thanks.
Posted by slublog at 10:18 PM | Comments (84) | TrackBack
Random Health Care Debate Thought
Senator Snowe,
The next time, "history calls," please do us all a favor and don't answer the phone, okay?
Posted by slublog at 02:36 PM | Comments (845) | TrackBack
March 04, 2010
The White Flag Presidency
With all due respect, when the liberal president of the United States has to essentially beg his fellow liberals to vote for his proposal, it's safe to say we have a weak executive.
President Obama's message to progressives who are dissatisfied with the Senate health care bill is two fold: First: Don't forget about the uninsured. Second: Don't forget what failure to pass this bill would do to the party and my presidency...What Obama doesn’t seem to realize is that his presidency is already damaged, no matter what happens with health care. If he manages to persuade enough Democrats to pass such a profoundly unpopular bill, the Democrats will pay in November. However, if he doesn’t pass it, the Democratic base will regard him as weak. Since those Democrats are basically all that are propping up his approval ratings, it’s hard to figure out which scenario is worse....Obama reminded the assembled Democrats that doing nothing would be politically disastrous. "To maintain a strong presidency we need to pass this bill," the President said, according to Grijalva.
The true measure of how far Obama has fallen, though, is how Democrats regard him. Few seem to be asking him to campaign for them, and his approval ratings aren’t at record lows, but they are likely nowhere near where Obama thought he would be at this point in his presidency.
Of course, Obama has no one but himself to blame for this. He campaigned as a moderate who could bring the country together, but lurched toward hard liberalism almost as soon as he took office, and is now urging Democrats to embrace the very ideology that crushed his approval rating. Obama underestimated how angry voters who believed his campaign rhetoric would get once they realized he was lying to them.
Obama’s approval ratings fell because Americans don’t like being lied to, and for that reason, those ratings are unlikely to improve until the president shows a willingness to respond to popular opinion. Frankly, given how Obama has governed to this point, I am not optimistic. I hope the American people deliver a firm rebuke in November, but more importantly I hope Obama gets the message. If he doesn't, then it may be time to start worrying about his ability to acknowledge political reality.
Cross-posted at The Greenroom
Posted by slublog at 11:26 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBack