During the presidential campaign of 2008 one of then candidate Obama’s biggest mandates was health care reform. Today, on the one-year anniversary of his presidency it threatens to all but destroy his credibility and his political agenda. The greatest marketing of a political candidate in history has left him unable to measure up to the image created. The hope and change mandate that took him to the White House, a central theme of his campaign has been redefined as: Is this the hope and change you were looking for?
In modern political history I cannot remember a time where democrats and republicans have been so polarized.-A time when their disdain for one another took precedence over the greater good for America.-A time when one party was willing to push their own agenda NO matter the cost or damage they would bring to their political future.
We as Americans are not against reforming the health care system. We are against the back room deals and underhanded dealings that have led to health care reform being maliciously shoved down our throats. We are frustrated by a President that has let his minions, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid run amuck with arrogance and disdain, far from what the American people expect from their elected public servants.
Our nation’s economy is by far the most pressing issue facing the American people today, not health care reform. With real unemployment estimates over 17%, foreclosures still at all time highs, and the threat of a commercial real estate collapse looming on the horizon, Americans are extremely resentful of this deception filled game the democratic party has decided to play.
I don’t know about you, but I’m fairly sure the cost benefit analysis for any reasonable democrat should have dictated some time ago that it’s time to change course. Our approach isn’t working comes to mind. Instead, the President agrees to special exemptions for union members, the House and Senate are trying to find a way to pass health care reform should Brown win in Massachusetts tomorrow. They’ll do this by convincing the house to accept the senate version or postpone as long as they can Brown being sworn in. Political suicide in my mind. Again, these are the same back door dealings that have led the democrats down the road to Brown on the verge of winning Kennedy’s cherished senate seat to begin with.
I firmly believe if the President would have taken the leadership role he should have, the democrats would be in a much stronger position going into the November elections. All he had to do is come out and tell the American people he was pulling the plug on health care reform. He’s pulling the plug because it’s too important to not get it right, and because there’s nothing more pressing in the foreseeable future than the economy. Had he of taken this sort of leadership position, I think the American people would have responded by lifting the President’s approval numbers 20 points over night. It would give him back much of his lost political capital. After all, he was elected to be a leader, not a follower.
Sadly, for all involved, this group of democrats does not understand what one of their own once said: There is no political liability in being honest. They will stay THEIR course. It will cost them Massachusetts and will be the beginning of the quickest modern day political reversal we’ve ever seen, to be followed by major losses in November. President Obama in all likelihood will reach lame duck status quicker than any president before him. Members of his own party will begin to distance themselves from him. The course of his presidency will be forever changed. Not quite the hope and change mandate that got him elected, and it certainly won't keep him in the White House.
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