« BACK  |  PRINT

RS

FRONT PAGE CONTRIBUTOR

Jim Messina probably shouldn’t talk about first day Presidential promises.

Head Obama for America flack Jim Messina’s got yet another reeking-of-desperation fundraising email out complaining that – Prepared to be terrified, folks! – the GOP candidates are all promising to take a stake through the heart of Obamacare and kill it dead, dead, dead on their first day in office.  This is, of course, a fringe position – if one can define ‘fringe’ as ‘supported by somewhere around 52% of the population*,’ which the Democrats will certainly at least try to do.

Anyway, Messina’s a bit wordy when he’s whining.  That means that I can cut down the meat of his argument, such as it is:

Most candidates promise to do something great, even historic, on their first day in office.

But this year’s Republican presidential candidates are oddly and singularly focused: They’d all repeal Obamacare on Day One, and take our health care system right back to where it was.

Several thoughts on that, in reverse order:

  • “[T]ake our health care system right back to where it was?” With a promise like that… here’s the link to the RNC’s donation page.  Mean-spirited of Messina not to provide it, seeing as he’s doing our fundraising for us with statements like that.
  • “But this year’s Republican presidential candidates are oddly and singularly focused…”  Really.  Indeed?  Do tell.  The populace wants us to take Obamacare and stake it through the heart, Messina.  Try to keep up.
  • “Most candidates promise to do something great, even historic, on their first day in office.”  You mean, like… signing an Executive Order closing Gitmo?

How did that go, again?  Of course: straight down the memory hole.  Well, how about the Executive Order where the President froze White House salaries above $100K? …Oh, right, never mind.  Hey, there was that entire Presidential records transparency thing… which didn’t happen either. Enhanced interrogation? They won’t say.  Detainee policy generally? Well now**.

In other words, Jimmy-my-lad… what exactly is the real difference between all the stuff that your guy promised to do on his first day in office, and all the stuff that my eventual guy is promising to do on his first day in office? – Besides the obvious one that my guy will actually do it, or suffer the consequences from his own side…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

*That’s the better news for the Democrats.  The worse news is that the above poll – of adults, by the way – finds that 2/3rds of the population want to kill the individual mandate.  They want to kill it with fire.

**Honestly, it’s a miracle that this site cataloging Obama’s Executive Orders isn’t always down for maintenance.

COMMENTS

  • iamhungry

    Of course, if we lived by that poll then gay marriage would be legal.

  • Adjoran

    but everything I’ve seen shows it lagging projections. They are auctioning off dinners for $3 a head, not a sign of strength.

  • snowshooze

    All he has to do is pick up the phone.
    Call GE.. pull in a couple favors…
    He doesn’t rely on the personal donation. That is just fluff to him.
    He has the Unions, ( Although damaged there.. ) he has Medical Corporations, Insurance Industry, he can further blackmail the Oil Producers… and international interests are a premium for him.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    …Well, actually: no, they’re not.

  • http://www.timothy-bladel.com/ center77

    I find that to be just silly. If choosing a nominee is about who the party wants to run, then Romney is a man without a conservative mandate. We are told that we are supposed to now fall in line a be happy with the nominee we have, but that is not fair to the many people who care about liberty a nd making the Republican party different that the dirty backroom deal making democrats. Obama lied his way to his party’s nomination and into the white house, and we made a fuss about it, claimed we were different. But after the Tea Party dragged the Republican brand out of the mud, saved it from the electrical abyss it a headed into, the party elders and there media entities have deemed their will be done. They helped Romney crush all who stood in his way. They deemed the Tea Party dead.

    Now they are asking these same people they just spit on to rally around Romney, and then to come out in force for him. They say its not prudent to not support the Republican ticket, but after being promised a new party, why should the Tea Party suffer anymore bites from the master dogs. Some people can see past this year, and realize that if the establishment can get away with this now, then they will always get away with it. If 2010 only taught them to work harder at manipulation. The party needs to change within, and Romney is going to have to win some people over, why others will treat him like they did McCain. People were sick of the Republicans bailing out banks and other big gov stuff. Bush lost the hope of the party, and Romney wants us to run under this banner once more. Then they wonder why some will not fall in line.

    I’ve talked to about 30 people from all over the country through a social media project at school, and this is what I’m hearing, not scientific, but relevant non the less.

  • http://www.timothy-bladel.com/ center77

    weird because I did not even open this article yet. My tab is acting strange.

  • acat

    historically quite Blue – as you put it – at the State level.

    4 Republican governors in the last 100 years. 4. The other 20 were Dems…and they’ve picked some characters!

    Same story regarding their Senators – Vitter’s the first Republican in the last century.

    Reps and statehouse races get a little different, but .. claiming Louisiana is either Red or representative of the GOP is .. very wrong.

    Look, Monday morning, walk over to the journalism department, and ask the department chair where you can sign up for a class in basic fact-checking.

    Mew

  • johnt

    over their bodies? Shocking! OK when it comes to abortion, death, but we can’t let guvmint allow freedom over fundemental health issues, Who do we think we are?
    If the predators control this they control it all.

  • http://www.timothy-bladel.com/ center77

    but Romnye only took away the 200,000 plus more group, talk about trouble in November.

    Even if it was a blue state, so was illinois, and they said that was huge for Romney, but it was not anywhere near as big as this, Santorum almost doubled what Romney brought in.

  • acat

    after so short a time. Give ‘em a while. We may have a long enough baseline by 2016 for such statements.

    Is Jindal the new normal, or his he a statistical outlier?

    Mew

  • iamhungry

    Thanks for the reply. You’ll need to point out how its relevant though.

  • iamhungry

    So are you a fan of Citizens United or not? It sounds like you’re anti-free speech.

  • iamhungry

    Are you so in favor of giving people back control of their bodies that you’d allow them to take whatever drugs they like?

  • iamhungry

    that was meant for johnt.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    You’re going to have to point out why you’re relevant.

  • renl57

    …than I do with ObamaCare’s mandate.

    There is an argument to be made that same-sex marriage is enabling more Americans–gay and lesbian citizens–to have the right to marry.

    ObamaCare’s mandate is TAKING AWAY a right–the right to say I don’t want to buy a Government-approved health insurance policy from a private insurer.

    And while some social conservatives might disagree, I wouldn’t mind this “Grand Bargain”:

    The right to same-sex marriage, in exchange for killing the ObamaCare mandate.

  • renl57

    We don’t claim that unions have no right to support candidates of their choice. We just don’t agree with their choices.

    You claim that the CEO of a company has no right to support candidates of his choice.

    You’re the ones who are against the First Amendment, not we.

  • renl57

    …than I do with ObamaCare’s mandate.

    Stopping–or at least vastly reforming–this dumb “War on Drugs” (America’s longest war by far, with countless casualties) would give Americans back their right to decide what substances go into their bodies.

    Whereas ObamaCare’s mandate is TAKING AWAY my right to choose not to buy a Government-approved health insurance policy from a private insurer.

    I would rather see Americans be free to smoke pot AND be free to reject ObamaCare’s mandate.

    This is the second time you’ve tried to draw analogies with social issues. So let me set you straight.

    We’re NOT all Santorum supporters here. I do *NOT* want to restrict Americans’ rights to gamble online, to download adult porn, or to enjoy recreational sex on birth control.

    It is YOU LEFT-WINGERS who keep stretching the Commerce Clause as far as you can to reach full-blown socialism. It is YOU LEFT-WINGERS who can’t make a Constitutional argument against a full-blown command economy, in which Americans no longer have economic freedom at all because the Commerce Clause dictates every aspect of their economic life.

    You are the totalitarian. Now leave us and think long and hard about that.

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I was going to make him apologize for lying – he clearly wasn’t thankful for me mocking him at all – but the fellow probably doesn’t deserve the personal attention of two site moderators. Honestly, he’s not providing the profile right now of somebody who deserves the primary attention of one.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    I’m thinking this one is probably a 24 hr waiting period holdover from the “evolving” post.

  • http://www.hakubi.us/ Neil Stevens

    I’ve since seen more comments by you that answer the question for me.

  • freedom555

    During this campaign Romney has wanted to skp past the argument over insurance mandates…very quickly.

    So he hasn’t gone into his own reasoning behind the flip on mandates.

    I want to hear more from him on WHY HE OPPOSES MANDATES……

    and I want his current version to be at least as convincing as his previous ABSOLUTE SUPPORT FOR MANDATES.

  • Tbone

    “walk over to the journalism department, and ask the department chair where you can sign up for a class in basic fact-checking.”

  • Viet71

    Jane Hamsher, who runs Firedoglake, pushed mightily for Obamacare. Later, after it was enacted and her minions began complaining loudly they hated the mandate (they all wanted single payer), Jane changed her tune. Poor Jane. She keeps coming up on the wrong side of history, but at least with a sense of remorse.

  • snowshooze

    To the candidate of it’s choice. ( Since it is mine anyway…)
    No quibbles with that at all.
    I guess you are unaware of the General Electric Relationship?
    Unions… well.. when I was in the Union I wasn’t happy at all that my Union was tossing money to Democrats and there wasn’t a thing I could say or do about it. I think that is just wrong.
    C.U. helped to level that field in my opinion.

  • rulken

    I don’t know any union worker, that should be supporting him after the deal with China, worth Billions to build bridges, and highway infrastructures. That were recently granted to the Chinese over local and state union construction workers.
    Actually, this only serves those union bosses that practically, live at the white house! Their union members should be looking to soften their heads with their baseball bats !!!