Posted on 12/04/2013 1:38:35 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
For years, MSNBC host Chris Matthews has been sitting patiently behind the emergency glass waiting for President Barack Obama to come wildly swinging the ax of panic. As recently as August, Matthews cited Obama’s careful avoidance of the network, which just last month was forced to discipline two hosts for conduct so indefensible they could not continue to represent MSNBC, as an indication of his and his colleagues’ neutrality. On Tuesday, the air raid sirens blared and the president came screaming out of the fog begging for aid. Matthews’ interview with the President of the United States will air on Thursday.
This is just the latest in a recent spate of poorly conceived, ill-timed strategic decisions this White House has made since the end of the government shutdown and the cosmic implosion of the Affordable Care Act. The political identity of Democrats – both in the grassroots and in Congress – is so inexorably tied to the ACA that they cannot abide the level of negative press this law has received continually since mid-October. The party’s left-wing, besieged and disoriented, is dragging the president by the nose into one bad move after the next.
This phenomenon has been evident for nearly six weeks. Since the avalanche of bad press began to entomb the ACA in posterity’s rebuke, the president and his allies have engaged only in short-term thinking and damage mitigation.
By October 21, just days after the government shutdown ended, it had become apparent to all observers that the ACA’s early implementation was simply disastrous. The federal insurance exchange website was an abject failure and successive waves of insurance policy cancellations had already created an atmosphere of crisis in the political press. Lawmakers had begun to abandon the president, calling for changes to the ACA that could threaten its financial viability.
Pressed into action, and against all better judgment, the president delivered a Rose Garden address designed to shore up support for the ACA. The results were spectacularly embarrassing. Twice, Obama told viewers to call a 1-800 number in order to get around the broken website. Subsequent fact-checking revealed that the call center was no help at all; its operators were still required to enter the information they collected from users into a broken web portal. Of the 13 ostensible ACA beneficiaries that flanked Obama, only three had been able to sign up for private insurance through the exchanges.
In November, as polling showed that even rank-and-file Democrats were losing the will to continue to publically support the law, the president’s party in the Senate pushed the button on the “nuclear option.” The president knew that sound bites of both himself and his vice president would emerge from 2005 in which they savaged Republicans for considering the very same option they had just embraced as an affront to America’s democratic tradition. The White House was aware that, amid a credibility crisis, this move would only exacerbate the poisonous condition of a public which no longer trusts their president. No matter. A weeks-long defensive crouch had become intolerable for Democrats. The party’s left-wing demanded action, any action.
This brings us to today. Late Monday night, the president announced that he and other Democrats would be mounting a daily campaign to attract users to the ACA website which, after nearly a month of triage, NBC News’ Chuck Todd charitably described as “workable.” But it is not workable. A story gracing the front page of the Washington Post on Tuesday detailed how the backend of the site continues to be plagued by serious errors, including the fact that up to one third of users who believe they have applied for private insurance will discover in January that they have not.
Again, no matter. The crisis that these errors will create in January is January’s problem. Today’s crisis, one of internal cohesion within the Democratic Party, is more acute. The left demands that caution be abandoned in favor of a hollow display of force.
These panic-inspired offensive operations against ACA opponents are not designed to achieve any strategic objective. They are politically inspired and are aimed at achieving a political goal. Each has had the temporary effect of increasing Democratic unity, but the president cannot overcome the static conditions of the terrain on which they are fighting. The underlying problems associated with the ACA are fracturing the Democratic Party. So long as the ACA remains unreformed, the Democrats are in a losing position.
This White House’s transparently toothless maneuvering is not coming from a position of strength. Republicans and the public at large see this. When Democrats finally come to the same conclusion, their position will be dramatically weaker than it even is today.
Chrissy Matthews hosts “face to zipper with telepromper commanded ‘tard president Obama”?
It seems that your President is following along the same lines as our Prime Minister did before the last election which they lost in a landslide. One can only hope for all our sakes that this is the collapsing of a house of cards that even his media whores cannot prop up!
Mel
“Entomb the ACA in Posterities rebuke”. Steyn is a master with the written word. Would that I were so able as to command English to do my bidding
Notice how the word “Obamacare” is being carefully replaced with “ACA”, even in a seemingly negative article? Even RINO’s are referring to it as the ACA... Delinking Obama from his signature legislation, in order to save his bacon, ya think?
The ACA never had financial viability to begin with. It was designed to fail in each of its parts, a built in redundancy to ensure success of the failure so that Congress will have to "do something" and pass Single Payer.
He’’s actually going to touch his leg??
Wow! That should be a lightshow.
Obamatollah won’t zip away on his magic carpet this time.
Barring a 2/3 GOP Senate after 2014, his bacon is not at risk of needing saving (his Legacy, of course, is another matter).
Fact is, Zero is not appearing on any ballot, going forward.
Therefore, his Act should be renamed DemocratCare, or 'Ratcare for short. Because plenty of 'Rats will be on ballots in 2014 and 2016!
Let them explain WHAT IS AFFORDABLE IN THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT? UNLESS IT IS parasites receiving 100% SUBSIDIZED WELFARE HEALTHCARE... WHICH ALL WORKING PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR... WHAT IS AFFORDABLE?????
Try this repubs: Use the words “the democrats’ healthcare bill” whenever you speak of it. Every second or third time add “which NO republicans voted for” Stay on that and you’ll make a little headway. Now ignore me and go back to being the “stupid party.”
I guess the heart felt apology from Tingly and the punk POTUS that Ted Cruz that he was the only one right on this issue is off the table? (snicker)
“Use the words “the democrats’ healthcare bill” whenever
you speak of it. Every second or third time add “which NO
republicans voted for” Stay on that and you’ll make a
little headway.”
Agree. Without the parade of lemmings that didn’t even read the Cliff Notes version of the bill, it wouldn’t have passed. Make them live with it until the next election.
I have noticed the Media is still carrying Obama’s water by now calling it the ACA.
Now we see RINO’s doing the same thing.
It will always be Obamacare to me. The most terrifying bill to ever come out of the Congress, and it belongs to the Democrats.
With last night’s announcement, Obama has rolled out another strategy: Carpet bomb the insurance industry with money. Since the Obamacare subsidy software isn’t even built yet, the Regime is just going to pay the insurance companies based upon estimates of the subsidy for each company and they will “settle up” later. How many more billions or trillions will this cost? Obama doesn’t care.
The Democrats ran against Hoover for 40 years.
“The party’s left-wing, besieged and disoriented, is dragging the president by the nose” ...
And all this time we thought his lengthening nose was a aresult of all his lies.
Excellent idea. Thanks. I’ll do it!
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