I'm kind of pissed

[tavalon]

I publicly stated that I was done with the Dog and Pony show and I stuck to it. Unfortunately, it looks like I missed a really good ass kicking by Obama and the Democrats, et al. This "health care" summit thingy might have been fun to watch. OTOH, I have heard enough talking - it's time to do something concrete. And not just anything, something. Something substantial, something Ted Kennedy won't be rolling in his grave over, something that will help john Q. Public.

It was apparently a very satisfying verbal smackdown. If it is followed by some meaningful legislation, I will be really bummed I didn't see it live. But there is memorex, otherwise known as You Tube.

[Skink]

1. I got up early and went to the gym so I could see on the big screen.

[RKP5637]

2. I watched the whole thing! It was excellent. I thought the republicans sounded and

looked like damn fools as usual.

[tavalon]

6. Yeah, but if it isn't followed up with action

it will have been, sound and fury, signifying nothing. I've had enough of the "do nothing congress" and President Obama just phoning it in.

[RKP5637]

9. Yep, agree all the way. We now need action, real action! n/t

[salguine]

3. Entirely too many people on DU go berserk with glee whenever Obama or some other

Democrat gets in a zinger at a press conference, as if that's some kind of substitute for actually doing something. Sorry, stern words mean exactly shit to me, if they're not backed up by decisive action—and thus far decisive action is about as missing as Amelia Earhart.

[tavalon]

4. We're on the same page

I'm only a little upset at missing a sublime smackdown, sans teleprompter. I don't actually buy a single word any of them says (a couple of notable exceptions, Alan Grayson, Bernie Sanders). I used to but I've watched them say pretty words followed up by jack shit nothingness.

[salguine]

14. It seems glaringly evident now that Barack Obama was nothing more than a

Trojan Horse for the monied interests that control this country. Remember how he genuinely seemed like nothing else we'd ever seen before, like such a total breath of new air? For once, it wasn't an old white guy entering the office, and I think that gave so many Americans a genuine feeling that this country had turned a corner and a whole new America was just waiting to blossom. The optimism and faith in a new future was so palpable you could have drowned in it.

Which looks entirely to me now like those same monied interests had gotten the sense that the country was just about over old white guys and that a new marketing strategy was needed. Well, it worked...their man got in, and he's done nothing but kowtow to the financial elites ever since. Every single time Obama has had the opportunity to choose between helping out Main Street or helping out Wall Street, he's chosen to help Wall Street. Every goddamn time.

We got punk'd, but good.

[Hannah Bell]

5. the meaningful followup = cutting medicare. you didn't miss anything but more dogs & ponies.

[tavalon]

10. Yeah, I was appalled at one thing that may or may not have been said

I read the Rude Pundit's live blogging of the event and he said, Obama said that Medicare and Medicaid are the two biggest drains on the budget. Um, no. What about our nifty little war games all over the world. Doesn't he think, for even a second, that it might be those hefty checks that are clearing out the American Checking Account?

[NoNothing]

13. He probably meant those are the two single largest budget items

Which is true.

[tavalon]

17. Only because they play the shell game

Wars should be budgeted. Then maybe we wouldn't so gleefully wage them.

[NoNothing]

19. No, it's true even including the war costs.

Take a look at the numbers:

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2010/tables/10s0459.pdf

Note these figures are outlays, i.e., actual spending, *not* budget numbers.

[lunatica]

7. It was videotaped in it's entirety so it's now historical documentation

[timeforpeace]

8. Only thing worse than a quitter is a quitter who quits quitting.

[tavalon]

11. Huh?

[dmr]

15. That can be Palin's slogan if she runs in 2012 n/t

[tavalon]

12. BTW, unreccers

I don't give a shit if this gets to the Greatest Page and I'm only putting this here, to blatantly kick my own thread. Thanks for all the fish, you silly people.

[customerserviceguy]

16. It was whatever you wanted it to be

We applauded our guy's zingers, and the other side thought their boys got in a few.

It was an attempt to 1) see if the poll numbers could move on HCR, providing Blue Dogs with some cover if they joined the progressives, or 2) failing that, at least assign the blame for failure of HCR to the Rethugs.

We'll know in a few days if #1 happened, in a few weeks if it worked, and in about eight months if #2 was successful.

[tavalon]

18. Really good synopsis of why they did it

Probably spot on. Thanks.