links for 2009-08-11

The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds—he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country’s heart and character.

He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans don’t take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they don’t know they want to go and being told it’s good for them.
It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose, but that was coming. It began with the spectacle of the president, impelled to go abroad to apologize for his nation—repeatedly. It is not, in the end, the demonstrators in those town-hall meetings or the agitations of his political enemies that Mr. Obama should fear. It is the judgment of those Americans who have been sitting quietly in their homes, listening to him

At his orchestrated townhall event today, President Obama defended the notion that his government-run public health care plan wouldn’t crowd out private insurers by referencing the symbiotic relationship between UPS, Fedex and the Post Office. Bad timing Mr. President. On Friday, the New York Times Business Section actually called for the privatization of the post office amid staggering losses, and even said it was in “General Motors territory.” So while the President sells you on his “post office” of health care plans, here are some questions to consider:

Barack Obama's denial that he has advocated a "single payer," Canadian style health care system may not have been the most comic moment of his Portsmouth dog-and-pony show. He also disputed the notion that adding a government plan to "compete" with private insurance plans would drive insurers out of business, indirectly creating a single payer system by indirection.

Obama acknowledges no competitive advantage accruing to a plan that will obviously draw at will on public funds and has no need to turn a profit. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a government plan, Obama said. "They do it all the time," according to Obama. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine…. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

What an argument. While the President sells citizens on his "post office" health care plan, the Heritage Foundation offers a few questions to consider:

Interesting result from Gallup in my e-mailbox today: When asked, "Would you advise your member of Congress to vote for or against a healthcare reform bill when they return to Washington in September, or do you not have an opinion?" 35 percent said vote for, 36 percent said vote against, and 29 percent said "no opinion."

UPDATE: Campaign Spot reader Avinash calls my attention to the July 14 Gallup results: "A USA Today/Gallup poll finds 56% of Americans in favor and 33% opposed to Congress' passing major healthcare reform legislation this year."

This is a 21 percentage point drop in support.

Nevada Rep. Dean Heller has decided not to run against Harry Reid (D-Nev.), robbing Republicans of their top recruit against the Senate Majority Leader in 2010, according to an informed source.

Heller, who was elected to the vast 2nd district in 2006, called National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) earlier today to pass on his decision.

Heller turned down the race despite internal Republican polling — conducted by the Tarrance Group — that showed him leading Reid by nine points. Many Republicans believe that Heller would have made the race had it not been for the political implosion of Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R). Ensign's acknowledgment of an extramarital affair with the wife of his former chief of staff is seen as extremely damaging to the Republican brand in the state.

Remember, the target audience for Republicans is Blue Dog Democrats in Congress. They won't panic unless they perceive organic anxiety. The White House's goal was to prevent the Blue Dogs from panicking. The swing constituents in these congressional districts aren't angry Republicans, and the Blue Dogs know this. They're political independents for whom the sanctity of the process is important. These are the type of voters who like President Obama because he appears willing to bring people together even though they don't agree with their policies.

President Obama wants you to stop talking and Robert Gibbs thinks you are all corporate-funded lackeys. But hey, they don’t question your patriotism. And now they welcome “a real vigorous conversation.”

Just keep it at an acceptable decibel level.

Shhhhhh:

But what concerns me is when in some of those town hall meetings including the one that we saw in Missouri recently where there were jokes made about lynching, etc., you start to wonder whether in fact the word socialist is becoming a code word, whether or not socialist is becoming the new N-word for frankly for some angry upset birthers and others. I hope that's not the case, but it sure does say to you what David Brooks said the other day on T.V. which is that more credible conservatives have to stand up and say that there's a line that has to be drawn, that there's a line of responsibility that's important, and that extends to the words that we choose including how choose even legitimate words like socialist.

What?

So now that we have a black president, words that have been used in our country for decades — words that have real meaning — suddenly stand for something else altogether that includes a racial overtone?

What kind of nonsense is this?

President Barack Obama will defend his efforts to overhaul the U.S. health-care system at a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, today after a series of protests met his fellow Democrats in recent days.

Democratic members of the House and Senate who have returned to their home districts have encountered protesters holding signs and screaming slogans such as “just say no” to the party’s health-care plan. The Democratic National Committee has accused Republicans of orchestrating the disruptions.

Obama and some Democrats in Congress are pushing plans that would offer the option to purchase health insurance from a government-run program, while requiring all Americans to get coverage and putting new restrictions on insurers. Republicans say the effort will increase costs and limit choices for care.

The White House disagreed this afternoon with the contention by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, that the disruptions at town hall meetings are "un-American," as the Democratic congressional leaders contended in a USA Today op-ed this morning.

"I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the comments.