The Fallacy of Burger King ObamaCare

Watching today's "health summit," I keep thinking of Burger King.

Why Burger King? Because Obama keeps claiming that he's trying to find common ground - in essence, saying that he's willing to let everyone have it their way so long as everyone agrees to eat the sandwich he's serving.

Here's the problem: The meat is spoiled, and there's nothing that can be done to change that very basic fact.

The American public has taken a look at the way ObamaCare has gotten to this point and many of the specifics within it, and they've decided that they're not going to swallow it. So now Obama and his Democratic allies are desperately searching for something, anything, which they can do to change their minds.

So their solution is to go through this Kabuki dance of asking Republicans whether they'd like tomato, ketchup and/or pickles on their sandwich, or if it might be more appealing if they photographed it from a different angle. They fail to show even an iota of recognition that, no matter how many condiments you toss on top of it, the meat went bad months ago.

Once that happened, everything else became completely irrelevant. You can change the bread it's served on. You can pile condiments sky-high. None of it matters. The meat is still rotten.

Until Democrats experience that reality check, this debate is going nowhere.

Obama at the House Republican Retreat

One of my favorite bloggers, Ann Althouse, put up a post on yesterday's interaction between Obama and the House Republicans at their retreat. I'm reposting here my intial comments which I originally left at her site:

I agree with the general assertion that Obama didn't really say much yesterday that he didn't say in his SOTU speech. Nor was his tone any better. He repeatedly blamed the Republicans for his and his own party's inability to move his agenda forward. Shocker! Then he ludicrously repeated over and over again that it was the responsibility of Republicans to come to his side of the aisle.

The biggest takeaway in terms of actual news - rather than just spin - is that Obama was forced to admit repeatedly that the Democratic talking point of Republicans having "no ideas" or being the "Party of No" is, and always has been, a big fat lie. Republicans got him on the record about him having received copies of their legislation over the past year. "I've read that...", "I've seen that...", etc.

Since at least half of the Democratic electoral strategy going into the fall was attempting to paint Republicans as nothing more than obstructionists with no ideas of their own, Obama absolutely shattered his own party's plans for what he thinks was a short-term political gain. Yet another example of getting outmaneuvered in the long run.

There is a huge difference between "you haven't proposed any ideas," and "you've proposed lots of things with which I don't agree." To that end, Republicans wound up getting the better end of that argument as well. Obama was forced to swallow all his own talking points about Republicans. Go back and review Obama's many speeches about how we should pass his agenda because, hey, it's the only option available to fix a broken system. Turns out, he's been lying all along and yesterday he was forced to admit that too.

He backed Pelosi and Hoyer into a corner in the way they manage debates in the House. Every time Pelosi/Hoyer shuts Republicans out of the debate, Republicans will be able to march up to the cameras and point out how they're not living up to the bipartisanship House Republicans have with Obama. That sets up a very nasty inter-necine fight between the House leadership and Obama going forward.

Obama seems to forget he's not the entirety of the Democratic Party. He needs Pelosi/Hoyer to move his agenda. While he didn't explicitly throw them under the bus yesterday, he might as well have. He set himself up as the good guy, and the Republican caucus got to look like good guys for inviting him to their retreat and broadcasting their interactions. Guess who was missing? Guess who the Republicans immediately issued invitations to have the same kind of conversatino with? That's right. Pelosi and Hoyer. Now guess who will never show up to do that.

Now who looks like the ones who are getting in the way of accomplishing things on a bipartisan basis? That's right. Obama just set up the dynamic to make the Democratic House the bad guys...How many additional seats do you think this costs them in the fall?

What's Up With Mel?

Cassy's post reminded me about an odd piece of news out of Florida the other day: namely that Mel Martinez wouldn't be returning to his seat in the Senate after the August recess. While she, and others, are rightfully thinking about the implications for Charlie Crist who is the current governor and has already stated his intention to run for the Senate seat, I'm simply struck by the oddity of the announcement itself.

While some people may immediately draw a parallel to Sarah Palin, I fail to see any similarity other than the obvious one that they both resigned their offices after announcing that they would not seek another term. Palin was being subjected to an abuse of the ethics complaint process and had much brighter prospects outside the governor's office anyway. Martinez, on the other hand, has no such prospects and has not been the subject of anything other than the normal level of abuse one would expect as a national officeholder.

It does beg the question: why? I have to believe that he did so for family reasons of one type or another. Whether it was due to the threat of an affair being revealed, an illness or other personal problems, it would be pure speculation to hazard a guess. No matter the reason, he decided that he could no longer do the job that he was elected to do and stepped down. Too bad more politicians don't have the decency to do the same.

Republicans, 2010 Election, Congress

GOP Puts Out a Fishy Ad

The GOP cut together the previous clips of Obama stating his desire for single-payer health care into a web ad:

Somebody needs to turn them in to flag@whitehouse.gov because Linda Douglass is definitely going to find this fishy. Somebody needs to make that Barack Obama guy quit spreading disinformation about the goals of ObamaCare.

Barack Obama, ObamaCare, Disinformation, Republicans