Obama: "Hear that, Dennis?"

[Bolo Boffin]

I just heard that Obama was introducing some people at the Ohio event and came upon Dennis Kucinich. A man in the audience shouted, "Vote yes!"

Obama asked him to repeat it, and the man did. Then Obama turned to Kucinich and said:

"Hear that, Dennis?"

More details and a link as I get it. But for now:

http://twitter.com/jaketapper/status/10526100801

ETA: I hope he does hear it. I'm glad he made his stand back on the first House bill. But it's time to bring it on home. This bill isn't perfect by any means, but it is several steps in the right direction.

[lamp_shade]

1. Heard it. LOVED it.

[closeupready]

2. Shrug.

n/t

[G_j]

3. very enthusiastic applause when Obama mentioned Kucinich

they still love him!

[Bolo Boffin]

7. I love him, too.

And I agree that Americans need more than what this bill offers.

But the only way to get more is to pass this bill and then keep working on it. Letting this bill fail is disaster for the Congressional Democrats.

Kucinich isn't facing down the Cosa Nostra now. Progress is still progress even if it's only a couple of steps.

[EFerrari]

37. I think I disagree with you that Dennis is not facing down the Cosa Nostra.

The nuptials between our federal government and the corporati continue.

[deaniac21]

88. It's a disaster either way.

[joeybee12]

4. The good thing is Obama and Dennis appeared together, not how the vote goes...

...it just shows they aren't making it personal, like people are here.

[Fumesucker]

5. Vote yes to having the IRS force you to buy an overpriced and faulty product

From private greedheads..

What could possibly go wrong? :shrug:

[leftstreet]

10. But, but...it's the only way to keep them honest!

Oh...no, wait..

[girl gone mad]

55. and what's next?

Forcing individuals to buy Haliburton and Microsoft stock as a "fix" for Social Security?

Don't laugh, they want it.

[zappaman]

62. yes, that is next.

how did you find out about our secret plans?

[Mari333]

6. get in line, dennis. be a good boy and do what the insurance companies want

well, that is yet another slap in the face to progressives.

okie dokie, bama. we get the message.

the base gets the message.

[berni_mccoy]

8. You're gonna be heartbroken if he does.

[sabrina 1]

67. How much is his vote worth, do you think?

After all, the other Democratic sell-outs have received quite substantial sums of money for their votes.

Did you ever see Michael Moore's excellent movie, 'Sicko'? There is one scene in that movie that says it all.

A shot of members of Congress walking into the Capitol Bldg. Floating over their heads are little colored tags with the amount of how much each was bought for.

[spoony]

80. Not nearly as much as those who would be robbed of their sole hobby

of gleefully disparaging him in thread after thread. Who's the next target down the list? Helen Thomas, maybe?

[Vincardog]

16. If a REPUGlaKKKin (p)Resident had tried to force us to boost the profits of a private unregulated co

we would have been up in arms. I do not support the institutionalization of private profit driven parasitic corporations as our 'solution' to problems created by those same parasitic corporations.

[Echo In Light]

20. +1

[ProSense]

27. Yup,

good thing the President is a Democrat and the bill regulates the insurance companies.

[Vincardog]

29. Please show me one place where this caps premiums.

[flyarm]

45. you will hear crickets!! eom

[ProSense]

49. Here

Go here and play around with individual premiums.



more

Also note that this is in the individual market, not employer based, where this will apply

•The calculator does not apply to people with coverage available through an employer, where the firm is generally paying for a substantial portion of the insurance premium.

[Vincardog]

57. That is an amount of SUBSIDIES. Where are the rate caps? Where are the limits on out of pocket? How

does giving more money to the parasites help us?

[ProSense]

69. "That is an amount of SUBSIDIES." Nonsense

It also shows the full premium for those above the subsidized incomes.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Tailormyst]

9. Just like most of what he says

It doesn't mean shit.

[arcadian]

11. So Dennis is now supposed to represents one heckler in a Obama rally.

[patrice]

18. heckler? . . . What goes around comes around; careful what you ask for.

[Echo In Light]

19. *smirk*

[sellitman]

12. Dennis isn't one to be intimidated b

Not even by the President

A bad bill isn't one worth supporting and if it doesn't do anything better than provide Corporate Welfare to the Insurance companies I am glad Dennis has our back.

[HughMoran]

13. That's a cute way to put a bit of pressure on him.

[blue_onyx]

41. Too bad it's only...

progressive Democrats that Obama feels the need to pressure. When it comes to Republicans and DINOs, Obama bends over backward to please them.

[goclark]

61. Give it a rest ~ recall his Summit meeting with the Republicans

He has met with one and all including Dennis K.

[seabeckind]

66. You have a link to that so I can see what they said? n/t

[goclark]

73. It was here and everywhere on TV within the last month

nt

[sabrina 1]

84. I wasn't impressed with that summit at all.

It was a series of talking points from both sides, with Democrats pointing interestingly what many of us have been saying all along, that 'this bill includes many Republican ideas' so Dems couldn't understand why they would oppose it. Me too, but unlike Nancy and Obama, both of whom made that point in the summit, I know that Repubs don't oppose the bill, they are playing their role as the opposition party and will single out elements of the bill to attack in the campaign season. But they will never rescind mandated insurance, because as Nancy and Obama said, this is a Republican idea. The Summit was just for show, for political purposes but it accomplished nothing other than verifying that while Liberals get nothing in this bill, Republicans should be very happy with it.

[goclark]

94. Don't get it ?

It would have been for SHOW or GO~ he was THERE.

Bet GW would not have been THERE.

[sabrina 1]

96. Are you standards so low now that if a politician just shows up

you are grateful? How sad is that, how beaten down the American people have become.

[goclark]

98. My standards are NEVER low

I'll consider the source.

[blue_onyx]

75. Oh please

You are just blindly loyal. Obama was more concerned with winning over Republican support for the stimulus last year and we got a smaller, lamer stimulus package. Obama has been more concerned with the DINOs and accommodating their opposition to a public option/abortion.

The things progressives really wanted were a single-payer system, a public option, and/or medicare buy-in. Obama should be focused on Stupak and his fellow supporters who oppose the bill out of fear that there will be "publicly funded abortions" (which isn't true). Obama choosing to target someone who opposes the bill because he's thinks it's a bad bill is odd considering that Stupak will vote no for fake reasons.

[HughMoran]

77. Pot, meet kettle

blindly loyal??

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I fall on the floor laughing when a Kucinch cultist comes here talking that smack. OMG - what a joke!

[blue_onyx]

81. I'm far from a Kucinch cultist

I don't have any sort of loyalty toward him. Feel free to do a search. This may be one of the first (if not the first) thread involving Kuciuch I've replied to.

But your comment speaks for itself. That lack of content says a lot.

[sabrina 1]

83. Apparently it didn't work. Kucinich released a statement

saying he will not vote a bill that does not include a PO. I guess Obama has become used to weaklings who cave when a rightwinger calls them a name. He's not accustomed to dealing with people who have principles and are not so easily intimated.

It was a silly and childish thing to say, way beneath him especially considering that is the president who has demonstrated a lack of ability to 'hear' what the American People have been trying to tell him.

[NoodleyAppendage]

14. So, they are resorting to placing "ringers" in the crowd at events?

Something doesn't smell right about this. Obama's in Ohio to pressure Kucinich anyway and then the public rebuke from an "audience member"? I wouldn't put this past Rahm.

J

[closeupready]

32. "...wouldn't put this past Rahm." You know, I didn't think about that, but

that is certainly the type of scripted theatrics which someone like him has to be wise to.

[Bluebear]

86. :nodding:

[Bolo Boffin]

33. Umm, no.

Sometimes a boisterous guy in the audience is a boisterous guy in the audience. Obama is smart enough to think on his feet, but thanks for implying otherwise.

[NoodleyAppendage]

38. Obama is smart enough to realize the effectiveness of a 15-sec TV shot.

Get your head out of the sand. If Obama is SO smart, then why wasn't universal healthcare the initial default for the healthcare debate? You always position yourself farther away from your compromise position in negotiations. Now because of his brilliance and that of his Iago-like side-kick, Rahm, we are stuck with a health insurance corporate gift bill.

J

[Bolo Boffin]

43. It really threatens you that much to think some guy in a crowd might be expressing an opinion

different than yours?

Well, I'll just have to leave it to you. When you come up with the guy's paycheck, let me know.

[JVS]

74. +1

[Individualist]

79. Rahm or Harold Ford

[Echo In Light]

15. This would be locked also if not for couching the F.B. in Obama's remark

[Bolo Boffin]

26. F.B.?

And Obama made the remark. I didn't couch anything in the remark. Obama said it. Now it's your turn to deal with it, oh-person-with-whom-I-have-history.

[berni_mccoy]

You really are that desperate?

[Echo In Light]

39. Given how numerous such threads were just locked, merely stating the obvious

[Taverner]

44. Well yeah, DU Unwritten rule #4556 "Thou shall not speak ill of St Dennis"

Even when he says batshit crazy stuff like seeing UFOs, or shows his REAL stripes by voting for a flag burning ammendment to tne constitution

Nope - we cannot speak ill of him EVER

[Echo In Light]

46. Just b/c your two min hate was locked don't take it out on me, k?

[Taverner]

47. Hey, if we can have a "support" DK thread, shouldn't we have a "shame" thread?

I mean, there are a lot of us here who DISAGREE WITH HIM (shocking, isn't it?)

And it's not like it was hate either - since when has wagging your finger and saying "I disagree" been "hate"

Oh yeah, it is if your St Dennis can do no wrong in your eyes. Kind of like drawing a picture with Mohammed's head on a dog, isn't it?

[Mari333]

17. I just called Kucinich's offices and told him he has a lot of people who love him

not to let this bullshit get him down.

they said they have been getting a LOT of calls FOR dennis.

good.

[Bumblebee]

22. most of them from GOP, no doubt. He is their best hope.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. lulz

:thumbsup:

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

36. No, he's not.

DK's on the same side of the issue as Michelle Bachmann right now.

[seabeckind]

68. A local winger told me "I'm glad you agree with me"

My response was: "Please don't assume it was for the same reasons."

We were talking about opposition to this bill.

[Forkboy]

70. Your next deep thought will be your first.

[girl gone mad]

53. Some GOP, some Dems, some Indies..

Much of my family lives in his district and they span the political spectrum. They all support Dennis.

[EFerrari]

34. Good. I'll call, too. n/t

[flvegan]

25. Obama, your concern is noted. n/t

[Name removed]

28. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bolo Boffin]

31. This is what you call playing hard?

Sheeyit, this was just an opportune moment to refer in a humorous way to this issue. Toughen up!

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Marr]

30. I'm surprised they made Aetna's CEO stand on the floor like that.

[NoodleyAppendage]

48. LOL. n/t

J

[brentspeak]

52. You beat me to it

:)

[Owl]

40. K&R

[Taverner]

42. YES!!!!!

[Dinger]

50. What A Cocky Bastard (nt)

[ProSense]

54. What an odd response. n/t

[Hansel]

93. Yep, I think I have to agree with that. nt

[brentspeak]

51. self-del duplicate n/t

[elias7]

56. Right. Bend over, Dennis, just like a good Republican...

How many of us ridiculed the hierarchy of the Republican party, never out of line, never a stray vote. My goodness, here is a man standing on principle-- a democratic, nay a progressive principle--- and people around here getting on his ass for not toeing the line.

DU hypocrites.

[Bolo Boffin]

59. Purity is a luxury we can't afford.

Nice how you can throw all the rest of us out of the party on the basis of this one issue. No True Scotsman, eh?

I'm not here saying Dennis isn't a Democrat. I'm saying he fought as hard as he can for the best bill possible, and now it's time to pass this bill and pick up the fight for a better bill within this framework. This isn't all the way to the goal, but it's several steps closer.

No bill means an assured Democratic defeat at the end of the year and several steps and decades backward. Choose the steps forward, no matter how few they be.

[elias7]

71. DK's point is that the bill has no framework in which to improve

The leadership kissed Lieberman's ass, then Nelson's ass, et. al. ad nauseum, compromised and watered down the reform. Yet they marginalize one of the Dem party's strongest assets-- a man with principle who cannot be bought.

I'm not throwing anyone out of the party. I'm not in the party myself. I'm just calling a spade a spade.

How many posts have I read in the past months when folks realized that Obama did not have the courage of his idealistic convictions but rather was an appeaser and compromiser. So let down have people been. But now they want Kucinich to do the very same. Hypocrites.

Kucinich is one of the best things this country has going. I trust him when he says this bill does not have a framework to build on.

I pay $23,000 yearly to Anthem BC/BS and get great coverage. But I see no change in my huge costs with this bill. I work in an ER, and I see no change in my sucky shifts with this bill. There's no reform here.

[Bolo Boffin]

85. The exchanges are set up in the bill. A public option can be passed and added later.

All that takes is another bill at some point in the four years before the exchanges are up and running. The heavy lifting for what will be offered is also in the bill, in the standards for plans within the exchange.

And I don't think anything would stop a state from offering a public option of their own in the appropriate exchange. I'd be surprised if several didn't take the plans they already have and put them into one of the exchanges.

[seabeckind]

72. I think many have shown that this isn't a step forward...

I don't even think it's sideways. If you look at what the goals are for health insurance reform, this bill doesn't do much. It doesn't break the monopolies. It doesn't enforce standards across states for coverage. It doesn't provide coverage for everyone.

If you look at trying to reverse the bad parts of Medicare D, it really doesn't do much at all...the donut hole is still there, just a little smaller. Little comfort for those who remain in the hole.

Oh yeah, it'll add a tax on the "cadillac" plans and at the same time empty the taxpayer's pockets to give the premiums to the insurance companies.

I agree with helping someone who can't afford to pay for healthcare, but I sure as hel don't like the idea of doing it thru an insurance company.

[sabrina 1]

95. But you are asking someone who believes this bill

will not do anything for the people. That is a windfall for the very people who have caused most of the problems with our health care system, to vote against what he believes. I agree with him, and would be very disappointed, as I am in the rest of the Democrats, if he caved just for party loyalty.

Would you have advised Republicans who might have disagreed with Bush on his illegal war and The Patriot Act, that after mouthing their opposition they should just cave and vote in lockstep with the party?

When did we decide that doing this was the right thing to do? Airc, this was the main criticism of Democrats against Republicans who allowed themselves to be pressured into voting the party line.

Sorry, but when someoen is right, to just go along because of party loyalty is not helping anyone.

As far as the damage to the party? When a party loses its base, which this bill will accomplish, they do not win elections. That is what ended the Republican majority. They lost their base.

[Arkana]

58. Hee hee hee...

[cherokeeprogressive]

60. Calling me out in public like that would harden my resolve

to vote no. No heckler is going to change my mind when I've made up my mind over something I strongly believe in.

And, yes, he WAS a heckler. He yelled out a statement addressed to someone other than the person who was speaking, with whom he disagrees with. That's heckling in my book. And as other posters have said in this thread, there is every possibility he was a ringer, placed there by someone within the administration. The rethugs did it, and every day I feel like the party I have supported since I became of age is becoming more and more like them.

Why doesn't the administration just promise the people in his district milk, honey, and streets paved with gold, like they have Nelson, Landrieu, Dodd, and others instead of calling him out publicly like that?

Heck of a job.

[Bolo Boffin]

63. Well, when you get the fingerprint report back from the FBI, maybe I'll buy "ringer" then.

Until then, there is "every possibility" that this was someone who wants Kucinich to vote yes and spoke up all on his own.

The boulevard is not that bad.

[HughMoran]

78. LOLOL!!!! Your position has been hardened for MONTHS!!!

You're just projecting your hate-filled intransigence - AGAIN!!!

You're been a thorn in the side of anybody wanting progress here all year!!!!!!!!

[sabrina 1]

64. Lol,

I doubt that will influence Kucinich to vote for something that he knows is a Corporate written and sponsored bill and does not include a choice for the people.

If Obama wants Dennis to vote 'yes', he knows how to get his vote.

I wonder how much Dennis' vote is worth? Obama received over $20 million from the Insurance Industry for his support for the bill they wrote.

Never mind, I doubt even if they offered him millions, Dennis would not take it.

Go Dennis!

[Ardent15]

65. This bill is several steps in the WRONG direction

Mandating people buy insurance? Giving the insurance companies more power over the lives of Americans?

This bill is corporate welfare, plain and simple.

[RBInMaine]

90. They get subsidies and tax credits to buy it, and it is a START. What in hell don't you

and those like you frigging understand? It is a START. Just that. What do you want to do you fool? Wait another 100 years to get your pipedream bill? Get real ! Grow up ! Politics is the art of what is possible. When you can go into purple and red districts and get far-left progressives elected so you can pass your pie in the sky bills and ACCOMPLISH something, then fine. Until then, I for one am not waiting for you.

PS: We may even get the PO in the reconciliation bill. Let's give this a shot. Let's start somewhere. Enough of the god damn naysaying !

[Individualist]

76. DLC sucks

[RBInMaine]

91. Does it always have to come down to the DLC card? If so, go elect 535 far-left progressives. And

wake me up in a 1000 years when you are finished.

[Bluebear]

82. Oh, I was just told the President can't influence legislation like DADT repeal

He's not allowed to, he's not the legislative branch.

[EFerrari]

87. I can't wait until we're in the majority.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

89. "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome congressman?"

With apologies to Henry II and Thomas a Becket.

[dana_b]

92. a large portion of the electorate

want single payer.

http://www.wpasinglepayer.org/PollResults.html

"Hear that, Obama?"

[freddie mertz]

97. That event in Ohio was Obama's worst performance to date.

On so many levels.