I was watching "The West Wing" where Leo McGarry tells

[whyverne]

candidate Santos,

" Forget about a four year term, the presidency is 18 months. That's your window. After that, there's midterms. No one on the Hill has time to do business with you, they're too busy getting re-elected. Then suddenly, you're running again."

According to Leo, Obama is running out of time.

BTW, I watch it on surf the channel.

[bobbolink]

1. That's exactly right, and its time for savvy people to get this.

The window is closing.

Thom Hartmann, who is usually a very smart man, has said that if you look back on presidencies, most of their "legacy" is accomplished in the first year.

:(

[sandnsea]

3. And the HELP Bill was out in June

Was better than most of what we've got now, even in the House - but did we really around it so we could get on to the rest of the agenda?? Well noooo, we made him waste his entire first year on fantasies.

[truedelphi]

13. Oh phooey on that. Obama never once asked us to rally around that or anything else for that matter.

We were told to shut up because we needed to see what the "final bill" would be about. "Just wait till the bill is figured out and then you can rally" is what we were told.

And he even was saying that to the Tea Baggers in August "Uh, remember, the public option is just one tool of many tools and no one knows whether the public option will even be in the final bill, and."

In the end more and more of us have come to the realization that Obama himself was the tool.

The only Hope he offered was for his Corporate Masters.

[sandnsea]

14. Oh man, yes we were

There was organized meetings across the country. Do you know what happened? The Single Payer people crashed them and demanded we all reject the HELP bill and go single payer or nothing. Don't you remember that?

[Raineyb]

16. Now you're blaming the people who wanted single payer?

Is there anything you'll actually hold the party itself responsible for?

[sandnsea]

17. I've blamed them since June

Since they launched this ill-conceived single payer or nothing attack on anything Congress did on health care. Well, congratulations, we got nothing.

[truedelphi]

19. We didn't "launch" any attack on "Single Payer or nothing.

We had no Bully Pulpit.

We were grumbley on the internets, shure as shooting, but we had voted for Obama and we HOPED that maybe there would be some CHANGE, change that would not be all that hard had he been a statesman.

Some of us were around when real changes came down the pike. For instance, in the mid-sixties, LBJ signed off on the Civil Rights Legislation, which is something that he had urged other Dems and Republicans to get through the House and Senate. It was a fight, but he rolled up his shirt sleeves and made an effort.

But in this case, we had as a President someone who was still saying in August that no one knew what the final bill was. As I type this, Obama's people are putting together a "White Paper" on the economic model need for job recovery and financial reform. Where was a similar "White Paper" from the WH last summer? No where! That's where.

What a shame that he was not a statesman, but a politican, one who has been Rahm-directed every step of the way.

[sandnsea]

20. Single Payer doctors crashed the White House

The denial is just stunning to me. There has been nothing but attacks on this health care plan since Kennedy's came out. You pretend it was just grumbling?

There was a coordinated effort across the country to disrupt the Obama health care organizing meetings. Again - are you really going to deny this?

The left attacked, the right attacked, the teabaggers were formed, and that was really the beginning of the end.

As I said - if we had all rallied around the Kennedy HELP Bill, created momentum, this would have been done a long time ago and so would climate change and probably even DADT. We didn't. Consequently August was spent beating back the right wingers, and yes Obama said there was no final bill.

That doesn't excuse the left for their dreadful tactics on this. You can't nitpick legislation apart and expect anything to ever get done.

[truedelphi]

24. Those party crashers had no power. None.

Nada. Zippo. Zilch and zero.

You are blaming the messengers, and not the cabal of Big Medical Interests who convinced Obama to remain quiet "while the COngress drafts a bill." You are overlooking the actions of Rahm who prevented most people, including Obama's own past personal physician, from attending health care reform lunches, unless 30 K was paid up front.

You are ignoring the implications of a President surrounding himself with the likes of Emmanuel and Ezekiel Rahm.

But the public will not ignore those implications.

[truedelphi]

25. AND HERE IS HOW CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS INSULATED

themselves from any claims by onlookers that they were in collusion with Big Pharma, Cigna, Aetna and Blue Cross:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7554178

[napi21]

2. I loved that show. Watched it fervently every Wed! Why can't they

bring something like it back???? I end up watching MSNBC, and when Keith is repeated at 10, I tune to a L&O rerun or the food network!

I HATE the stupid reality shows, and most of the comody shows (except two & 1/2 Men) are stupid!

[FailureToCommunicate]

15. It may be available from your library. Great show that is even better without commercials!

[ChicagoSuz219]

21. It kept me sane during the Bush years...

...I watched & pretended Pres. Bartlet was my President!

[Greyhound]

31. Because Aaron Sorkin is fat & happy now whereas he was still struggling

to build his reputation when he did WW?

His writing was brilliant and you can tell which episodes he wrote and later when he and Schlamme left the show there was a noticeable drop in the quality of the story lines.

[kudzu22]

4. I think Obama knew that

and that's why he was rushing to get HCR done. But Brown's election threw a wrench into the plans. I think he was counting on having 60 seats for the finale, and they crafted a bill that could pass. If they knew they'd only have 59 at the end, they would have written the bill differently and pulled in some Republicans (Snowe, Collins, etc.)

[bobbolink]

6. Obama could have accomplished health care months ago, and so could congress.

[elocs]

11. Right, HCR should have been done last fall.

The Republicans' plan to delay, delay, delay worked for them.

Where was the fire in the gut to get HCR done last summer while the Blue Dog senators and the odd Republican was being courted for their support and compromises were being made all over the place? The "secret" that should have been very clear is that none of them ever intended to support any serious HCR.

Also, last summer it sure seemed like the message for HCR and the town hall meetings were given up by Democrats to the Teabaggers who were allowed to spread their lies with impunity.

Yes, HCR should have been a done-deal months ago and we could be on to other things now and Brown would never have been elected because a lot of his message would have been gone as well as Obama supporters who were angry about HCR.

[SharonAnn]

9. It sure didn't look like he was "rushing" to get Health Care Reform done.

[Cleita]

5. I have the DVDs of the entire series.

I like to watch it every now and then when real Washington depresses me. It's so much of what it could be like. But that's a fantasy world, I'm afraid.

[MadBadger]

7. Remember the episode where Bartlet floats nominating his own people for the FEC

It was called 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet.' At the end, Leo realized they were all playing everything too safe and needed to Let Bartlet be Bartlet.

That's how I feel about the Obama Administration right now.

[whyverne]

8. Yeah, I was thinking about that one too.

But I was responding to all the folks saying, "It's only been a year."

[Control-Z]

10. I love West Wing

I got the complete series as a gift this Christmas. It is quickly becoming one of my most prized possessions.

I've never been much of a TV viewer and only discovered West Wing through reruns a few years ago.

[truedelphi]

12. I find the info your snippet of West Wing conveys

Rather frightening.

Rahm was part of the Clinton WH. And it was Clinton WH staffers that the show's writers consulted with, again and again, to get their scripts for West Wing to be realistic.

So, if the WH is acting like it doesn't know about that 18 month "window": it can mean only one of two things - One, with voting machines the way they are now, there is no way in hell to vote Obama out.
Or two, Obama is being set up to fail. (And worst of all, of course, he is destroying the little that is left of our democracy and our struggling middle class while he fails.)

[Greyhound]

18. And even that's optimistic today as the primary season stretches.

My favorite episode, and the one I wish the Obama administration would watch a couple of times, is "Let Bartlett be Bartlett". The administration had become obsessed with not pissing people off and not making mistakes, which of course, led to more mistakes and no accomplishments beyond bureaucratic housekeeping.

[ChicagoSuz219]

22. Is that the debate prep episode?

Where, at the end, Bartlet KO's his opponent in the first question & Josh yells 'GAME ON!!'?

I loved that!

[Greyhound]

23. I think it was the finale in the first or second season. n/t

[ChicagoSuz219]

27. More likely the 3rd...

Wasn't each season a year in the White House? It started the first day of the first term, I think. This would've been when they were running for re-election.

[Greyhound]

29. Well now I have to look it up...

OK, season 1 episode 19 (not the last).

When a damaging memo which is critical of the President is discovered, the White House press cover it with zest, much to CJ's dismay. Later it is revealed that Mandy wrote it when she was working for Lloyd Russell. Sam, Toby and Josh are involved in a series of meetings which go nowhere and result in nothing; Sam knows no progress is possible on getting a policy in place so that gays and lesbians can openly serve in the military; Josh confronts a group of Republican Congressional staffers who threaten him with poison-pill legislation if he even thinks about pushing for campaign finance reformers on two newly opened Federal Election Commission seats; and Toby screams to Leo that they've had only one victory in office and that was putting Judge Mendoza on the Supreme Court. The staffers and the President feel listless and ineffectual in their jobs, and worry that they will be unable to achieve anything meaningful due to the constraints of the political system.

The staff begin to realize that the Bartlet administration has been ineffective because it has been too timid to make bold decisions, focusing instead on the exigencies of politics. Finally, Leo confronts President Bartlet with his own timidity, challenging him to be himself and to take the staff "off the leash." - in other words, he seeks to "Let Bartlet be Bartlet". The President and his staff resolve to act boldly and "raise the level of public debate" in America.

]Leo: "Listen up. Our ground game isn't working; we're gonna put the ball in the air. If we're gonna walk into walls, I want us running into them full-speed."

Josh: "What are you saying?"

Leo: "Well, you can start by telling the Hill the President's named his nominees to the FEC. And we're gonna lose some of these battles. And we might even lose the White House. But we're not going to be threatened by issues: we're going to put 'em front and center. We're gonna raise raise the level of public debate in this country, and let that be our legacy. That sound alright to you Josh?"

Josh: "I serve at the pleasure of the President of the United States.

Leo: "Yeah?"

CJ: "I serve at the pleasure of the President."

Sam: "I serve at the pleasure of President Bartlet."

Leo: "Toby?"

Toby: "I serve at the pleasure of the President."

Too bad life isn't imitating this art.

[ChicagoSuz219]

34. LOL... we're talking about two different episodes...

...you're still talking about 'Let Bartlet be Bartlet.' I was talking about 'Game On!!'

Where did you find that? It's awesome... and could've been written this week!

(btw, I never did like that Mandy.)

[Hippo_Tron]

36. It was in the first season

The staff basically comes to the conclusion that other than putting Mendoza on the court, they've had no major accomplishments in a year and Leo gives the President a come to Jesus talk and Bartlet decides to put his guys on the FEC rather than who the majority leader wants. Josh in the next episodes tells the majority leader to "take your legislative agenda and shove it up your ass".

Also this gem of a scene was in that episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_f7js0mLwY4&feature=related

[iris27]

30. I think that was later (3rd season), but awesome.

Governor Robert Ritchie, R-FL: My view of this is simple: we don't need a Federal Department of Education telling us our children have to learn Esperanto, they have to learn Eskimo poetry. Let the states decide, let the communities decide on health care, on education, on lower taxes, not higher taxes. Now, he's going to throw a big word at you - "unfunded mandate." He's going to say if Washington lets the states do it, it's an unfunded mandate. But what he doesn't like is the federal government losing power. But I call it the ingenuity of the American people.

Moderator: President Bartlet, you have 60 seconds for a question and an answer.

President Josiah "Jed" Bartlet: Well, first of all, let's clear up a couple of things. "Unfunded mandate" is two words, not one big word. There are times when we're fifty states and there are times when we're one country, and have national needs. And the way I know this is that Florida didn't fight Germany in World War II or establish civil rights. You think states should do the governing wall-to-wall. That's a perfectly valid opinion. But your state of Florida got $12.6 billion in federal money last year - from Nebraskans, and Virginians, and New Yorkers, and Alaskans, with their Eskimo poetry. 12.6 out of a state budget of $50 billion. I'm supposed to be using this time for a question, so here it is: Can we have it back, please?

[renate]

26. I didn't know about Surf the Channel

:party: I'm so happy!

I've been watching "The West Wing" on Bravo in the mornings while I eat breakfast, but they show two episodes a day and I only have time to watch one, so this is AWESOME.

Thank you so much!

[AngryAmish]

28. I was watching Starsky and Hutch when they talked to the pimp...

[davidpdx]

32. Sadly it's true

Once the midterms start, it's going to be harder to push through things.

[asdjrocky]

33. Something really funny?

Josh, on the show, was based on Rahm. Obama knows all about the 18 months and I'm just afraid these 12 have gone according to plan.

[bobbolink]

35. I'm afraid you are completely right, and it saddens me to the point where I have left this

all behind.

Que sera, and all that.

Not surprised, just sad for this once great nation.

It was a fine experiment, while it lasted.