maven&meddler

Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said Democrats had been pursing health legislation on their own for months, ignoring Republican offers to explore common ground.

Huh? What are they? Where are they? Perhaps they’re hiding under a rock on Glenn Becks show.

Obama is right that this all boils down to a contest between hope and fear. FDR, JFK and Lyndon Johnson were all accused of putting America on the slippery slope to ‘Socialism’. If that were true, we should have seen the effects by now, right?

My suspicion is that, should Obama stay the course and do what’s right by the American people - with a public option - then he will also go down in history as a courageous president.

In ‘Keeping the Audacity of Hope Alive’, columnist Jules Witcover, Tribune Media Services, so eloquently defined the challenges of Obama in this first terribly hot - in so many ways - summer.

“…In Barack Obama’s case it may be because as a candidate last year he preached so much about “the urgency of now” to bring hurried change across such [a] broad range of of problems.

He has compounded the pressure upon him self by taking on so many initiatives while having to tackle the huge unanticipated challenge of a plunging economy borne of Wall Street excess, a near-depression and dismal unemployment.

With no choice but to act swiftly through a federal transfusion to the economy, and then electing to sell it as a way to “jolt” the American engine of production, he unrealistically conditioned the public to a swift recover that has not yet happened.”

Yes, the problems are huge and the progress is slow. The naysayers are having a field day with dropping poll numbers - and as we all ‘know’, poll numbers count for everything - and Obama’s apparent inability to achieve his wished for bipartisan consensus on healthcare reform.

I wouldn’t take on his ‘learning curve’ for all the tea - or money - in China.

Yet, learn he will. This man is a man for the job and the ages. After eight years of a criminal half-wit, that we should be so lucky to have found not only somebody who would take the damn job, not to mention have the chops to excel at it is simply amazing.

Here’s a bit of good news: Obama still has the advantage of a leaderless and clueless Republican party, in addition to some very modest good economic news. The Republicans can stir up ‘tea parties’ of hysterical nitwits and cry foul of ‘Socialism’ but if Obama prevails, then they will be a minority and largely irrelevant party for a very long time to come.

The other evening, I went onto the Senate website and sent an email to each and every senator that I thought might actually listen about health care reform - with a public option. It only took about 30 minutes of my time.

Between efforts like that and this blog, I feel that I’m doing my part in these crazy times.

Now, some of the Blue Dogs and moderate Republicans have to get off the ideological fence and really do their share of the heavy lifting to bring this country back to what it could and can be.

maven