Another Day, Another Speech

Last week I went to SF and attended a health care reform (HCR) rally. A few hundred people showed up. It was rather depressing. There were some bright faces there, but most of the crowd consisted of union health care industry jobbers and Vietnam War protesting retreads.

If this is the public face of health care reform, then it's no wonder why it isn't going to happen. Yes, I believe some bill will get passed so the Democrats can save face, and I will support that bill, but it will be mostly a symbolic thing. Real health care reform - quality care with a real effort to constrain costs - will have to take place another time.

There is no wave of public support for HCR to counteract the nut job right wingers out there screaming about death panels and socialism. Many people are essentially like my Senator Feinstein: they have their health care, are in denial that they won't have it ten years from now, and are simply worried about one thing only: cost. They are in denial that the cost of health care is already ridiculously expensive, impeding their salary growth and impacting their taxes.

This issue is over. It was fumbled by Obama and Emanuel from the start. They had some ridiculous notion that they could achieve bipartisan support. They decided to play nice with the drug companies and give them a windfall in exchange for their support. They decided to play nice with the health insurance companies as well. They decided to play nice with Congress and let them handle the details. It has been one bad judgment after another.

Obama and Emanuel needed to be tough from the start. They weren't.

Hopefully on future issues, Obama and Emanuel will learn from this experience. Forget about "post-partisan" politics. The Republicans simply hate you and will always hate you. They hate you as much as they hated Bill Clinton; get used to it.

Forget about "post-racial" politics. At least 10 percent of the US hates you for being black and president and another 10 percent hates you because they refuse to not believe you're a Muslim. They hate you as much as they hate Jesse Jackson; get used to it.

People will lie. They will distort. They are still lost in the culture wars. If Obama and Emanuel didn't understand that six months ago, they should have damn well figured it out by now.

Tomorrow Obama will give a speech about health care. But both public opinion and the opinion of Congress have already solidified. If Obama uses this speech to lay down the gauntlet and say that he's learned his lesson and he's done with being Mr. Nice Guy on future issues, the speech will be of value long term. On the other hand, if he continues to promote the idea that we need to come together as a nation on health care reform, he'll just end up looking like a wimp.