Archive for 2013
November 6, 2013
BOB MCMANUS: The Coming Cuomo-deBlasio War. “Cuomo’s in no danger of losing, of course, but there is the matter of dominance in the frog pond. (And what that might mean for the governor’s national ambitions, now overshadowed by Hillary Clinton.)”
OBAMA’S NEW SCAPEGOAT: It’s Germany’s Fault.
JAMES TARANTO: Who Sabotaged ObamaCare? Not Republicans, who opposed it openly and honorably.
One of the excuses for the technical incompetence of ObamaCare is that the president and his team were the victims of “sabotage” by congressional Republicans. Todd Purdum, a leftist longtime New York Times reporter, put forward this claim in a Politico op-ed last week, and yesterday the Washington Post’s Jonathan Capehart, perhaps Obama’s most effusive male admirer, echoed it, citing a deeply reported story by his Post colleagues Amy Goldstein and Juliet Eilperin.
The idea that Republicans have “sabotaged” ObamaCare is ludicrous on its face. Sabotage entails destroying or damaging something by subverting it–by stealthily undermining it from within. Republican opposition to ObamaCare has been neither stealthy nor “within.” Every Republican member of Congress has opposed ObamaCare consistently, openly and honorably.
But as the Goldstein-Eilperin piece demonstrates, there is some truth to the notion that Republican opposition has had a detrimental effect on ObamaCare’s technical efforts, and there is some truth to the notion that those efforts were sabotaged. But the truth is more interesting than partisans like Purdum and Capehart are capable of seeing. The Goldstein-Eilperin piece is well worth reading in its entirety, but the bottom line is that “the project was hampered by the White House’s political sensitivity to Republican hatred of the law–sensitivity so intense that the president’s aides ordered that some work be slowed down or remain secret for fear of feeding the opposition.” . . .
The story Goldstein and Eilperin tell is one not of GOP sabotage but of Obama administration self-sabotage. The geniuses who were sure they were capable of running the entire medical industry were so unnerved by the prospect of political opposition that at every stage of the way they undermined the president’s own signature “achievement.”
This is in part a story of political incompetence and hubris. Obama and his allies in Congress were unable to win a single Republican vote–and it doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that a monstrously complicated law enacted by a slender partisan minority might prove especially difficult to implement. As Obama himself admitted yesterday in a rare truthful statement: “Now, let’s face it, a lot of us didn’t realize that passing the law was the easy part.”
That’s what America gets for electing a president with charisma but no known skills apart (arguably) from delivering speeches.
Indeed.
WHO NEEDS JOBS? Yet another gun company packs up and leaves New York.
SO LAST NIGHT SOMEONE WAS ASKING IF I COULD GET The Appearance of Impropriety out on Kindle. If people would like that, the best thing you can do is click through the link, then click on the “Tell The Publisher I’d Like To Read This On Kindle” link on the right of the page (you’ll have to scroll down just a bit.)
IN RESPONSE TO OBAMA’S PLAN FOR TWO-YEAR LAW SCHOOL, Zelinsky: Add a Fourth Year to Law School. “First, there is today much more law to learn than there was in the past.”
ALSO, FUNDRAISING AND GOLF: President hits the road to shake Obamacare blues.
President Obama will attempt to shift the political conversation away from the glitch-filled rollout of the Obamacare website to the merits of his health law, traveling to Dallas, Texas on Wednesday, the first stop in a three-city trip.
Obama will meet with canvassers and so-called “navigators” at Temple Emanu-El, a Reform congregation, hoping to showcase the ways people can sign up for Obamacare other than through healthcare.gov.
The administration has been on the defensive not just over the problem-plagued website, but also Obama’s false claim that all Americans could keep their health plans under Obamacare if they liked them.
He should be met everywhere he goes by people with signs saying “You Lied.” Or maybe just “404.”
DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ can’t pronounce “misled.”
Two thoughts: (1) If it were Sarah Palin who’d done this, it would be all over the MSNBC/Daily Show/Colbert/Maher circuit as proof that she’s an uneducated rube; and (2) honestly, I’ve always thought “myzled” was a more evocative pronunciation, ever since, at age 8 or so, I found out that wasn’t actually how it was pronounced.
ROLL CALL: Democrats’ Anxiety Grows Over Obamacare Problems.
When a loyal leader on your own team says there is a “crisis of confidence” surrounding your signature initiative, you’ve got trouble.
That’s the phrase Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland used repeatedly Tuesday morning to describe the rollout of the new health care law as she questioned Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the health agency tasked with overseeing the law’s implementation.
“I believe that there’s been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the website, the canceling of policies, and sticker shock from some people,” said Mikulski, who has generally been a strong ally of the administration.
She cited a news report that 73,000 people in her own state are getting cancellation notices, “so there has been fear, doubt and a crisis of confidence” — and she’s worried people, particularly the young, won’t enroll as a result.
Indeed, the Affordable Care Act’s website woes, combined with millions facing the cancellation of their individual policies despite President Barack Obama’s assurances that would not happen, have put Hill Democrats in an increasingly awkward position — with no easy way out.
After celebrating their victory over the GOP during the government shutdown by sticking firm on Obamacare, vulnerable Hill Democrats are now looking for cover.
Indeed they are.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Median wage falls to lowest level since 1998.
ALSO, PLEASE STOP TALKING ABOUT THE OBAMACARE TRAIN WRECK: The Hill: Holder questions NSA phone data collection.
November 5, 2013
I admit that all the recent Obamacare troubles are … well, let’s face it, they’re huge fun.
It’s true, I supported Obamacare–I favor universal health care, and still think it’s a good idea to try to inject competition through the “three legged” mechanism** of the exchanges before resigning ourselves to some kind of Medicare-for-all scheme.
On the other hand, it’s hard not to witness the current Obamacalypse without getting more than a little spark of serotonin. Here’s the self-righteous, cocooning, progressive “coalition of the ascendant,” disdainful of triangulation, dismissive of all the 90s-era Charlie Peters neolibs with their worries about bureaucracies and perverse incentives and their focus on the mechanics of government, suddenly discovering that neglecting the mechanics of government can be a big, big mistake. The Education of Ezra Klein continues, at great expense to the nation. We might as well enjoy the spectacle.
Heh. Yes, it’s one of those “teachable moments” we’re always hearing about, usually from those who have a lot to learn.
A STORY OF HEROISM, about Primitivo Garcia.
SHOCKING HEADLINE: Election Results Mostly Conform to Expectations.
Plus, quick thoughts from Stephen Kruiser on Virginia and New Jersey.
AUDIO: Joy Reid Can’t Bring Herself To Admit That Obama Misled With His False Insurance Promise. “Misled” is kind. He lied.
WELL, JOE BIDEN AND JUAN WILLIAMS HAVE GONE ON TO PROSPER, BUT THEY’RE DEMOCRATS. Matt Welch: Rand Paul’s Plagiarism, and the Weird Man’s Burden. “If your goal is to genuinely compete in a general election with your once-marginalized ideas, instead of building a revolutionary movement at the margins, then you don’t need to be as clean as the competition–you need to be cleaner.”
My thoughts on plagiarism in politics — including a defense of Joe Biden — can be found here, excerpted from the book Peter Morgan and I wrote, The Appearance of Impropriety: How The Ethics Wars Have Undermined American Government, Business and Society. I have to say, nothing has happened since it came out in 1997 to suggest that its thesis is obsolete. . . .
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Flowchart of President Obama’s “You can keep your plan, period” defenses.
FOX NEWS PROJECTS McAuliffe to win in Virginia. But it was closer than polls predicted. Both Christie and Cuccinelli beat the spread, but Christie enjoyed it more.
IF THE ELECTION HAD BEEN NEXT WEEK, I THINK MCAULIFFE WOULD HAVE LOST VIRGINIA BY 5: Obama falls to 39% job approval in new Gallup poll; Update: Under 50% among Latinos too. “Latinos are big supporters of ObamaCare under normal circumstances, but a month of Glitchpalooza and lies about people keeping their plans isn’t ‘normal circumstances.’ He’s at 49 percent now, down nine points since the week before.” Things are just starting to sink in with the lower-information sectors of the electorate.