When Obama wavered and Emanuel recommended against health reform, Pelosi

[old mark]

made them get to work. Pelose is the driving engine behind Obama's sudden effort to push the bill.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/21/health/policy/21reconstruct.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&src=igw

Peolsi, Barney Frank and a few other courageous REAL DEMOCRATS convinced the President to step up and with his support, they put this together and did the work to pass this historic bill.

Should Pelosi be president?


mark

[babylonsister]

1. So 'clearly not his first choice' has been ignored by you?

And I'd like to know who exactly knew Mr. Obama 'seemed open to the idea'? Every action he's taken for months disputes that.

If I've learned anything about this President, it's that he doesn't make hasty decisions but listens to all sides first. Sounds like that's what he was doing here as well. But you put up this negative post in record time, so props for that.


The White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, once Ms. Pelosi’s right hand man on Capitol Hill, was pushing Mr. Obama to scale back his ambitions and pursue a pared-down bill.

Mr. Obama seemed open to the idea, though it was clearly not his first choice. Ms. Pelosi scoffed.

[old mark]

3. Left to himself, I believe he would have gone with Emanuel's

position-he seems to really value the good opinion of the right, even though he will never get it...he is a fair minded gentleman, and he thinks others are like him. Sadly, he is wrong.
It would NEVER have been done without Obama, but it never would have been done without Pelosi pushing him to do it, either.

I really like our President - I don't worship him.
mark

[vaberella]

5. Of course...because Emmanuel is Cheney to Obama's Bush; b/c that's after all the eventual result.

nt

[babylonsister]

6. He was 'left to himself' and didn't listen to Emanuel. I know that

might be difficult to digest, but check out the results.

As for valuing the opinion of the right, he encouraged them to participate and they refused. Who is the winner in the end, and how do you know this wasn't all very calculated?

[old mark]

7. As I stated earlier, I like Obama - I think he is possibly the best president I have

lived under since Truman, but I don't think he was playing a great chess game here - I think he is very fortunate in who he chooses to listen to which is a great thing in itself.....

mark

[babylonsister]

8. And I'm just disputing your assertion he does what Emanuel says. nt

[karynnj]

16. I agree with you that without Pelosi this would not happen and I agree with you it needed Obama too

But, Emmanuel was not the only influence on Obama. The sentence says that taking Rahm's route was not his first choice. From that, it is clear that he wanted a comprehensive bill. There were many Congresspeople and Senators who were quietly said to have been working on how to salvage things. Pursuing that path seems to be what Obama has been behind for some time.

I interpret the comment Of Obama being open to it - as a possibility if his first choice did not work out.

I think Obama, Pelosi and Reid all deserve enormous credit. (As to why Reid, this depended on having the main structure of the bill passed with 60 votes - a daunting task when the Republicans clearly had a policy to deny him any votes. He needed to herd 60 Democrats, including Nelson and Independent Lieberman, without losing even one.)

[DFW]

2. No, she shouldn't

She will be 70 years old next Friday, and I think Howard Dean was right when he said we need new dynamism in the White House.

Howard said that even he (he will be 62 in November) was now too old to become president (not sure about
Howard being too old, but he is an exceptional individual).

If it turns out that Pelosi finally was the catalyst that made the bill pass, then good for her, but
that is her job in the first place.

[vaberella]

4. That's not true. Obama NEVER wavered on Health reform. NOT ONCE!

There are way too many people here who want to disparage the President. I love Pelosi and I give her much credit...but your assumptions are wrong. Shoot. I'm sure if Pelosi heard you she'd give you an earful---since if there was anyone who's an apparent fangirl for the President it's Pelosi.

[Donnachaidh]

13. so how many hours did you spend at the White House?

Did you sleep in the oval office?

"Never" wavered? Really -- you know this because....???

[FrenchieCat]

15. Let me tell you what we do know,

since like you I don't like to speculate on what we don't really know, which is what the OP has done, and perhaps what some of the DUers posting have done also...

So here's what we do know:
What we do know is that Barack Obama ran on Health Care Reform.
What we do know is that it was Barack Obama who initiated pursuing this goal after he was elected President.
What we do know, because he told us so, is that was willing to stake his presidency on this issue.
What we do know is that Health Care reform is about to pass.

There were many players in this,
Some may have been right, and some may have been wrong,
but when it comes to this President,
no matter what anyone says,
they cannot take this away from him.....
as he was the one who put up the biggest stake
and he is therefore the one that get the most credit, period.

[Jennicut]

9. Obama eventually listened to and took Nancy's advice.

He didn't listen to Rahm. If left on his own, he would have listened to Rahm? Please, all Presidents take advice from multiple people. During the debate in the administration about Afghanistan, Rahm wanted to pare down forces there. Obama did not listen to him then either but Rahm did not have bad advice then. I think perhaps you are reading too much into this.

[JohnnyLib2]

10. Not president, but given maximum credit for her efforts.

:thumbsup:

[ClarkUSA]

11. Your reading comprehension is off; the President convinced Barney Frank, not the other way around.

The NYT article also says that the President's idea (which many Democrats didn't support) to have a bipartisan HC summit bought the Pelosi time to rally votes. And I have read plenty of accounts (such as Ron Brownstein's over at National Journal) that states that Pres. Onama refused to pare down HCR as per Rahm's suggestion. The fact is, if it weren't for this president's latest push and sustained stamina, Pelosi wouldn't have had a chance.

Nice try at revisionist history, though. Guess some still can't give the President credit where it's due.

[firedupdem]

19. +1 n/t

[Donnachaidh]

12. oooh, see the triangulation

if for any reason, this bill doesn't make it Pelosi gets to take the heat. Wow -- what a MENSCH these guys are! :sarcasm:

Wonder if Nancy gets hazard pay for playing the fall guy so many times?

[bvar22]

14. Disagree.

After spending a full year giving away almost everything "Democratic" about the bill and getting NOTHING in return, Obama finally got the bill he really wanted.
Then, and only then, did he take to the Bully Pulpit demanding that Democrats help him push this mostly Republican bill.

"By their works, you will know them."

[LeftyAndProud60]

17. Great. Now Obama haters are going to try to discredit him in other ways. Obama proved his worth

from the State of the union on. He still seems to be the only elected democrat that can argue a variety of topics against his fiercest enemies.

[liberalpragmatist]

18. I think they both deserve a lot of credit

This is undoubtedly a triumph for both of them.

[applegrove]

20. Congrats to her then.

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. Pelosi did good.

Doing good occasionally isn't a real great qualification for President.

Obama won because nobody knew him.