Newsweek's Fineman: Obama was "tired, same old talking points, missed an opportunity here."

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

BARACK OBAMA

It's frustrating that my only real after-conference analysis on the cable news networks comes from Rachel Maddow, as CNN is going straight to "Black in America 2" and Fox News is going straight to Bill O'Reilly, and you know where I stand on him.

Nonetheless, MSNBC offers me Newsweek's Howard Fineman declaring Obama "tired, offering the same old talking points... he missed an opportunity here."

Bottom line, I thought this was a particularly awful appearance, and if there's a headline, it's:

OBAMA ALLEGES VAST TONSIL-PROFITEERING CONSPIRACY AMONG DOCTORS

Obama wants to do several things at once with this legislation, and as I've said many times before — God, his rhetorical tics are contagious — some of them are contradictory. It's hard to pay for. It's trying to expand coverage to those who don't have it — and he seemed to pledge 97-98 percent of Americans would be covered tonight — and make sure no one finds themselves being denied needed care. But it's also supposed to cut costs, and it's hard to spend less money and more money at the same time. The Blue Dogs are not mean people who want to destroy Obama's presidency. They would love to have the big, grand bill-signing ceremony with Ted Kennedy. But they're terrified that the bill will cost Americans a bundle, deny some constituents some needed care, tie up everything with red tape, and their governors hate it. They're not gonna end their political careers over this.

Judging from his answers tonight, Obama does not yet grasp this.

07/22 09:08 PM Share