an irony of the republican framing: obama will now look STRONG for having passed health legislation

[unblock]

those of us who are familiar with the wonky details and the behind-the-scenes, inside-the-beltway shenanigans aren't especially thrilled with the way things played out.

but step back and look at it from a distance, and forget about POLICY and just think POLITICS for a moment.

the republicans have long framed this as obama's waterloo, salivating at the prospect of crippling his presidency should he fail to get a win on healthcare.

well, again, putting policy aside, obama is going to get what he can clearly call a "WIN".


had republicans taking the legitimate bipartisan route from the outset, they could have minimized the political scale of the issue. but no, they chose to make this THE DEFINING CHALLENGE of his early presidency. and not "could he get something GOOD done" but "could he get ANYTHING done AT ALL?"

well, he's getting SOMETHING done. so obama wins!


thank you, republicans, for lowering the bar and framing the issue so that democrats could succeed!

[Jennicut]

1. Once they said he would fail, not failing was the terms of the victory.

They are pretty stupid.

[unblock]

3. as usual, grand movements are done in by their own excesses

the silver lining of the republicans controlling all 3 branches of government was that they got too big for their britches.
they learned they could get away with anything.
they could win whether they earned it or not, because they starting on the goal line and the ref was paid off.

now they still have their fingers on the scale, but they have to earn it, they have to think, they have to work for it.
but it seems they've forgotten how to do that.


similarly, obama can prove he deserves to be president simply by producing a birth certificate.

that's as stupid as democrats were when we framed it so that clarence thomas deserved to be on the supreme court if there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of sexual harassment.

[pnwmom]

2. And they've put themselves in a lose-lose situation. They say they hate the earmarks

in the Senate bill, for example. So once the Senate bill is already passed, they should vote YES on the reconciliation bill that eliminates them, right? But they've already decided that they'll vote NO en masse. So they'll all look like hypocrites, or idiots, or both.

[msongs]

4. the irony - weak bill = look strong, aim low and shoot even lower lol nt

[unblock]

5. story of shrub's life!

[Cha]

8. You still talkin' about fuckin' bush..get over it.

[Fla Dem]

6. They lose, they have to have a silver lining to sell to their side. Or else what are they going to

say....it's good for Obama? This has been their tactic since Clinton. Say something negative (whether it's true or not) over and over again, as loud as they can and their peeps become indoctrinated. That's all the rethugs are good for, calling names and spreading lies.

[Aramchek]

7. definitely, he kicked the shit out of the Repiglets