Obama's politics of hope inform healthcare, climate change efforts (LA Times)

[pinto]

LA Times / D.C. Now - Obama's politics of hope inform healthcare, climate change efforts
- Michael Muskal

December 19, 2009

President Obama today praised progress on two fronts, healthcare reform and climate change, using similar language to argue that important, even historic, steps had been taken, but that there was still significant work to be done.

December was supposed to be a joyous month for Obama. He was picking up a Nobel Peace Prize, was going to Copenhagen to push for an international agreement on fossil fuels and was expected to fulfill a major domestic priority by signing healthcare overhaul legislation.

Some of that happened, but they were balanced by other, less favorable factors. Obama, the peace laureate, ordered a major escalation in the Afghanistan war. The climate pact is nonbinding and there are questions whether it helps much in curbing emissions. And the final healthcare product is less than what liberals, part of the president’s constituency, wanted.

Further, polls show Obama’s popularity has fallen from the dizzying heights of the post-campaign period just a year ago, amid questions of his domestic and foreign policies.

So instead of taking a victory lap before a joyous holiday celebration, Obama today spoke in praise of the Senate’s action in crafting a compromise that seemingly has the backing of the 60-member Democratic caucus and of his own efforts to negotiate a climate agreement in Copenhagen. Both are first payments to future progress, he argued.

“Today is a major step forward for the American people,” Obama said of the Senate moves on healthcare. “After a nearly century-long struggle, we are on the cusp of making healthcare reform a reality in the United States of America.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2009/12/obamas-politics-of-hope-inform-healthcare-climate-change.html

[Ken Burch]

1. Inform them of WHAT, though?

n/t.

[laughingliberal]

2. perhaps that hope is for losers? nt

[pinto]

4. I thought twice about posting the title, since it's such a catch phrase. Read the piece, though,

it's a pretty good blog-type entry in the LA Times on-line content.

:hi:

[pinto]

3. Obama's summation, at this point -

“And one of the things that I’ve felt very strongly about during the course of this year is that hard stuff requires not paralysis, but it requires going ahead and making the best of the situation that you’re in at this point, and then continually trying to improve and make progress from there,” he said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/dcnow/2009/12/obamas-politics-of-hope-inform-healthcare-climate-change.html

[laughingliberal]

5. Would be nice to believe he plans to improve on this HCR thing

Will wait and see. Really, not much choice at this point. But I'm in the 'once bitten twice shy mode' at present

[pinto]

6. It's been a convoluted process, no? And it's not over.

Fascinating and frustrating at times.

[laughingliberal]

7. Scary and frustrating for me. It was maddening to watch all the capitulating

We have a horrible health care system in this country. I was a nurse since before the for-profit corporations took over the industry. It wasn't perfect but wasn't the nightmare we have now. I'm not happy we're going to enshrine the for-profit corporations, now. I hope they change it some but not holding out a lot.