The Healthcare Fight

Folks, all you need to know about the healthcare battle in the US is that Barack is so far ahead of the curve on this it's scary. I was starting to get depressed in August. I was starting to worry that the Senate was going to sink this thing, that the President and his advisers had misread the situation, that they'd caved in too far on the Public Option and that their naive attempts at bipartisanship would simply allow the Republicans to split the reformist coalition with their delaying tactics and their inevitable last minute blow-off. But I shouldn't have lost my faith. This guy is good. Boy, is he good.

The basic plan - set out some broad principles and let Congress write the damn bill (or several competing versions of the bill) - is a masterstroke because it manages to appease the inflated egos in Congress without staking too much on specific details that can then be thrown out. It gives the Republicans room to make havoc without derailing the three main points in the final legislation (i.e. universal or nearly universal coverage, no rescission or withdrawal of coverage for pre-existing conditions, and competition to drive down the cost of premiums in the long term).

Frankly, if Obama gets even two-thirds of this through in the bill, it will be a triumph. A triumph of political calculation, tactical thinking and good old-fashioned campaigning. Health reform eluded Theodore Roosevelt and Bill Clinton, and even Ted Kennedy didn't manage to get it done.

Critics on the left and the right have attacked the President for perceived weaknesses, or inaction, or for compromising too much. But through it all he has remained calm and astute and followed a well conceived strategy for getting the main elements into a bill that will pass Congress. He's used subtle pressure where necessary, and let his critics hang themselves by exposing them when they've gone too far in their attacks. He knows that the public trusts him more than they do the legislators, so he can still bully them when necessary. But, just as impressive as his power has been his restraint, his refusal to get too involved in the squabbling, even when progressives have threatened to withdraw support. He's called their bluff.

The obstacles facing him when he began this campaign were monumental. Even though the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress it was clear that Republicans would probably not support any attempt at reform because they simply saw healthcare as an opportunity to defeat the President and damage the rest of his term. And senate rules work against the majority by providing for a filibuster that requires a supermajority to overcome. This naked political opportunism is beneath the GOP, but sadly they are not the party they once were, the party of Lincoln, or even the party of Coolidge or Nixon. Today's GOP is a shallow parody of its former self.

If you want to read more about this, I recommend Nate Silver's analysis at fivethirtyeight.com or the sardonic but acute commentary from electoral-vote.com which updates every few days on the most recent developments. And for those who are disappointed with Obama's administration so far, they should remember what he's trying to undo: eight years of cataclysmic failure of leadership culminating in the worst economic crash since the Depression, two foreign wars costing trillions of dollars and thousands of lives, a nuclear-armed Iran and one of the most inauspicious political alignments in the Middle East for years, climate change that is already verging on the disastrous, the virtual implosion of Pakistan, an aggressive Russia, and a radicalised and hostile opposition that is simply trying to defeat him at every turn instead of trying to pass legislation that's in the interests of the country or the world.

Considering what he's up against, he's done an absolutely blinding job so far, and just the scale of his ambition and his determination is impressive, let alone his tactical political and rhetorical skills. So for God's sake get off his back you morons and help the guy try to save the planet before it's too fucking late. I've stopped reading the Huffington Post and Daily Kos, which I had enjoyed during the election, because they've both lost any sense of proportion or perspective. Even the NYRB, one of my favourite publications, is threatening to get down on BO, and it's not that he doesn't need constructive and progressive voices on the left to keep his agenda on track, but Guys, seriously, have you learned nothing from previous Democratic administrations? Politics is the art of compromise - that's what the President gets, and you, apparently, don't.

If you can't present a united front to fight the Republicans and the conservatives, how do you ever expect to hold it together long enough to get reform done? It's no wonder they feel bullish again. They can smell blood because us liberals are having hissy fits over the finer points of a bill that still might not see the light of day - not if they have anything to do with it. So get over yourselves and start kicking some Elephant butt.