Bill Moyers with Mat Taibbi and Robert Kuttner: Something's Not Right Here

[Truth2Tell]

If you missed Bill Moyers with Mat Taibbi and Robert Kuttner last week, the video is up now on on Bill Moyers Journal:

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/12182009/watch.html

Best 30 minutes you'll spend all week.

[tblue]

1. Thanks! I will watch it. nt

[mmonk]

2. Thanks.

[Wilms]

3. Robert Kuttner:

"I think the other problem, frankly, is that those of us who consider ourselves progressives invested so much in this remarkable figure, Barack Obama. And we read our own hopes into him. We saw him as a potentially great president. We saw this as a potentially transformative moment, I certainly did, where he could've chosen to be the kind of president Roosevelt was. And it turns out that's not who he is characteralogically and that's not how he chose to play the moment."

...

We're going to have to do that anyway. In other words, these fights never end. We're going to have to go back and make a fight another day. And hopefully, that won't be 20 years from now. Hopefully, it will be six years from now. I think if this bill goes down it's going to be even harder to get the kind of legislation we want because the Republicans are really going to be on the march. So, the Democrats are really between a rock and a hard place here, because if it loses, there's one set of ways the Republicans gain. If it wins, there could be another set of ways that the Republicans gain. And this is all because of the deal that our friend, Rahm Emanuel struck back in the spring of passing a bill that's a pro-industry bill that doesn't really get at the structural problems.

[Wilms]

5. Matt Taibbi:

I mean, he could've taken Joe Lieberman back there and said, look, if Connecticut ever wants a dime of highway money again, you're going to have to play ball on this thing. That's what the president does. I mean, the president has an enormous amount of power. The leaders, the majority leaders have an enormous amount of power. And if they want to pass something, they can do it. And especially when there's a tremendous public mandate to get something like this passed. I just- the idea that they couldn't do this was- is a fallacy.

[iamtechus]

15. Taibbi is not too bright

Anyone who has been paying any attention to the "debate" is aware that Lieberman isn't susceptible to arm twisting. Obama would not have been able to pressure him because his ass is covered by the insurance cos. None of those senators opposing the PO and other things were affected in the least by polls showing them to be ignoring public opinion.

I lost whatever respect I had for those two guys when I watched that.

[Wilms]

17. Yeah. Sure. Whatever. n/t

[ChiciB1]

40. Wilms You Speak For Me! Moyers Is One Of My Heroes, Or At Least

he's been a person that talks with some logic and truth!

[Truth2Tell]

28. How would anyone paying attention know any such thing?

I've been paying pretty darn close attention and I haven't seen anyone at all try to strong-arm Lieberman into anything. So how would you or anyone else know if that would would work, when it clearly hasn't been tried? :shrug:

Of course the answer is as Kuttner explained - this deal with the Insurance Cartel was cut by Obama before this process even started. It's not even really about Lieberman at all.

[Jefferson23]

43. That is how I see it too, Obama was no where and no Michelle Obama either.

Great thread, thank you!

[Jenny_92808]

9. Obama is playing chess while they are playing checkers

[Donnachaidh]

24. that talking point is sooooo OVER

Chess? yeah right... :eyes:

[we can do it]

31. Cheese and Crackers

[Mojorabbit]

4. This is wonderful

and he always is. Great discussion. Thanks for posting it!

[amborin]

6. K&R

[earth mom]

7. Obviously a MUST SEE.

Bill Moyers: "Something's not right here. One year after the great collapse of our financial system, Wall Street is back on top while our politicians dither. As for health care reform, you're about to be forced to buy insurance from companies whose stock is soaring, and that's just dandy with the White House.

Truth is, our capitol's being looted, republicans are acting like the town rowdies, the sheriff is firing blanks, and powerful Democrats in Congress are in cahoots with the gang that's pulling the heist. This is not capitalism at work. It's capital. Raw money, mounds of it, buying politicians and policy as if they were futures on the hog market."

[highplainsdem]

18. +1

[L0oniX]

33. +2

[Hannah Bell]

8. Bill Moyers is obviously a heretic. Burn him.

[CoffeeCat]

10. Yes, yes...I agree...

Bill Moyers hates. Why does he hate?

[Hannah Bell]

11. because he's a hater. obviously.

[tan guera]

13. Why does Moyers hate Obama?

:-) sarcasm

[Hannah Bell]

14. because moyers is a dino, besides being a heretic, hater, & possibly a racist.

also -- just a negative kind of guy! not looking for the solutions, the win-win! not pragmatic!

[democracy1st]

12. K & R for Bill Moyers ...Goldman Sachs admin ! pure bs

[cornermouse]

16. Vote your conscience next election.

I think that's all we can do at this point.

[glitch]

25. That and be active locally. nt

[Truth2Tell]

30. Absolutely. This is still OUR Party.

Let's not forget that.

[highplainsdem]

19. K&R. Thanks for the link!

[Laelth]

20. k&r for the Great Bill Moyers. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[invictus]

21. K&R

[jgraz]

22. K&R

[bvar22]

23. Bill Moyers...the LAST of the "journalists"....

...and a true American Patriot.
:patriot:

K&R

[Echo In Light]

26. K&R - - thanks for posting

[mirrera]

27. k&R

[clear eye]

29. And now we can add the recess bailout of FMAE & FMAC

to the pro-corporatist actions that just don't seem right.

[Nikki Stone1]

32. Thanks for posting this.

Appreciate it very much!

[Delphinus]

34. Thanks - n/t.

[Goldstein1984]

35. I trust Moyers like I trusted Cronkite

Will definitely watch the video.

Thanks.

G1984

[MelissaB]

36. K&R with a snip

...snip

MATT TAIBBI: And I think, you know, a lot of what the Democrats are doing, they don't make sense if you look at it from an objective point of view, but if you look at it as a business strategy- if you look at the Democratic Party as a business, and their job is basically to raise campaign funds and to stay in power, what they do makes a lot of sense. They have a consistent strategy which involves negotiating a fine line between sentiment on the left and the interests of the industries that they're out there to protect. And they've always, kind of, taken that fork in the road and gone right down the middle of the line. And they're doing that with this health care bill and that's- it's consistent.

BILL MOYERS: If you were Republican, wouldn't you feel right now that it's going your way? I mean, the Democrats control the White House, they control Congress and the only thing they've been able to make happen this year is escalate the war in Afghanistan.

MATT TAIBBI: The Democrats are in exactly the same position that the Republicans were in once the Iraq War turned bad. All the Republicans have to do now is sit back and watch the Democrats make a disaster out of this health care effort. And they're going to gain political capital whether they're in the right or not. And I think it's a very- it's a terrible thing for the party.

[MelissaB]

37. and another

...snip

ROBERT KUTTNER: Right. And I think it's not accidental that the last three Democratic presidents have been at best, corporate Democrats. And one hoped because of the depth of the crisis and the disgrace of deregulation and ideology, and the practical failure of the Bush presidency, this was a moment for a clean break. The fact that even at such a moment, even with an outsider president campaigning on change we can believe in, that Barack Obama turned out to be who he has been so far, is just so revealing in terms of the structural undertow that big money represents in this country. The question is: Is he capable of making a change -- he's only been in office less than a year -- in time to redeem the moment, redeem his own promise?

[BrklynLiberal]

38. Thank you for the headsup.

[mother earth]

39. Is there any doubt at this point that corporate interests rule?

One has to be positively insane to believe there's a greater strategy going on, this is corporate rule, nothing less, expect more of the same BS we lived thru with GW, this is his third term.

Let me know when people start marching in the streets, new boss, same as the old boss...only the new one is black. Look how far we've come. :sarcasm:

Matt Taibbi & Moyers are telling it like it is. That's what you get with MT, no BS, just like it is.

I pray I'm wrong, I pray I'll be proven positively wrong. As for voting next time around, yeah right, tell us another fairy tale. We've already had two stolen elections. The corporate rulers are in charge, people. Get used to your owners.

[mother earth]

41. & Thank you, Truth2Tell for posting this, I hope every last

DU'er listens to this. K & R

[change_notfinetuning]

42. Required viewing. Telling line by Kuttner paraphrased - To the extent that

the White House was "working" the banking bill at all, in the committee, it was on the wrong side.

How sad.

[Nikki Stone1]

44. I've been watching this and it's easy to see that Robert Kuttner is still trying to play within the

rules as they are. He understands the rules and the problem of money in politics, but he is more worried about protecting the party than in any lasting reform of it. Taibbi, in my opinion, was not given nearly enough time to talk.

[postulater]

45. I get the audio podcast through Itunes.