Pelosi’s Office: We Got No Problem With Obama’s Public Option Leadership
In recent days there’s been a geyser of leaks from senior Senate Dem aides complaining that if only President Obama would show more leadership on the public option, it would be easier to round up enough support to include it in the final bill.
Nancy Pelosi, however, strongly disagrees, her spokesperson tells me.
I asked Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami today for a reaction to the complaints from the Senate side that Obama hasn’t pushed hard enough in demanding a public option, whether in public or behind closed doors.
“We disagree,” he said. “The President has made his position clearly known about the public option. He said, `If anybody else has a better idea…’”
When I pointed out that Obama hadn’t been forceful in insisting that a public option be included, Elshami said: “The President said before Congress and the nation his position on the public option. I don’t think that assessment is correct.”
The differing perspectives on Obama’s role reflect the difference in the institutional challenges Pelosi and Harry Reid face. Pelosi has much more control over her caucus than Reid does, and the public option has gained tremendous momentum in the House, so Pelosi aides don’t need Obama to push it over the finish line.
Reid, by contrast, is wrestling with a much tighter margin, and has less control over individual Senators, who tend to prize their independence and jealously guard their role as kingmakers. So you naturally hear much more hand-wringing about Obama’s alleged lack of leadership coming from the Senate — some well-intentioned, and some from folks looking to transfer blame for the public option’s uncertain status onto the White House.
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Mr. Sargent:
Hey! Let’s talk some POLLS, whattayasay?
Here’s Rasmussen’s Daily Presidential Tracking Poll:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
7 straight days of back-to-back double negatives! Whew!
And here’s Gallup:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/123806/Obama-Quarterly-Approval-Average-Slips-Nine-Points.aspx
Money quote:
“In fact, the 9-point drop in the most recent quarter is the largest Gallup has ever measured for an elected president between the second and third quarters of his term, dating back to 1953. One president who was not elected to his first term — Harry Truman — had a 13-point drop between his second and third quarters in office in 1945 and 1946.”
Steepest decline in decades…decades.
In fact, I think it took Dear Ole “W” about 6 years or so of the leftists and the MSM hammering on him to reach numbers as low as the Alleged Hawaiian has reached in 10 months.
What do you think could be the cause of it?
Racism?
Or maybe could it be that his promises have proven empty and his policies are anathema?
I’d look for the answer in the New York Times, but they’ve just announced that they’re laying off another hundred from their newsroom.
(This comes as a bit of a shock to me, since I was unaware that NYT HAD a “newsroom”).
I know how you enjoy polls, Mr. Sargent, so I thought of you when I saw these.
I hope you enjoy them.
I did.
Let’s face it: Nancy Pelosi knows how to get it done and knows you have to protect your president. So she’s taken the shots for the president as necessary and she’s walked the line. She knows her caucus and she knows good policy like a Medicare like public option will be popular tommorow if it sucks to vote today. She knows how to make the case.
Harry Reid has shown no leadership. He has a caucus of 60, some of these folks that are in red states like Ben Nelson of NE are going to need the party’s help; they can’t afford to vote against cloture. Others like Bayh will fold if hit. But he’s not walking the line and he’s basically folding and throwing the president under the bus.
Whatever the case may be; these senate aids shoulda kept this on lock.
l-l-l-let b-b-b-b-bilgeman have his day.
How’s that lack of testosterone going there bilgy?
http://news.aol.com/article/study-finds-mccain-voters-lost/729783
Rhoda — agreed, the basic difference here is that Pelosi seems more tuned in to the popularity of the public option on a very fundamental level. she recognizes the political potential passing it carries, even if it would take some time to manifest itself…
Yes,we all know Obama must be protected because his supporters seems to act like he can’t succeed on merit.
What an odd dynamic that leadership on the public option, or anything else for that matter, evokes a spine chilling fear of failure in BHO loyalists.
Either the BHO people are right, and Obama lacks the strength of recent presidents, or they’re wrong and they’re enabling destructive codependency that prevents lovestruck partners from using once in a generation majorities. The only potential for good is to stop treating Obama like a hot house flower because if he genuinely lacks traditional presidential ability, no amount of pampering will save his presidency.
Rhoda:
“Let’s face it: Nancy Pelosi knows how to get it done and knows you have to protect your president. So she’s taken the shots for the president as necessary and she’s walked the line.”
I suspect that Nancy Pelosi harbors aa much loyalty to Obama as he harbors towards her…precious little.
Her seat is safe, (even if her leadership post isn’t), and Obama doesn’t have to face the voters again until 2012.
So they’re not going to tear each other up over this, and will let the freshmen and vulnerables inhabit the no-man’s-land and take the potshots from Left and Right, Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky and the ‘94 Clinton budget-style, over this.
The REAL issue they should be concerned with is the economy…no-one is hiring and firms are still laying-off.
Health coverage is nice, but it doesn’t mean much when you can’t pay your mortgage, and businesses aren’t going to hire new employees, (or take out big ad campaigns in the New York Times, for example), if they expect that the Fed is going to soak them for yet another entitlement shortly.
General McKieran requested 30,000 more Troops for Afghanistan in the Summer of 2008. Bush/Cheney denied his request.
Bush/Cheney did not listen to their General in Afghanistan. He requested 30,000 more troops, and they refused his request. They did not support the Troops in the field.
Bush/Cheney left our Troops in Afghanistan unprotected, by Dick Cheney’s own standards.
“Health coverage is nice.” Yes it is. Its even nicer *when you can’t pay your mortgages and businesses aren’t hiring*.
Thanks for your support of health care reform. Glad to see you coming around.
Nelson, Conrad Say Dems, White House Leaning Toward Including Public Option In Senate Health Care Bill
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/nelson-conrad-say-dems-white-house-leaning-toward-including-public-option-in-senate-health-care-bill.php?ref=fpa
Senator Snowe said that she will not support an Opt-Out option, and would most likely filibuster a Public Option.
Kiss Snowe goodbye folks. She has returned to the fold, and is now being a good Stepford Republican once more.
muh-muh-muh mike from uh-uh-uh arlington:
“How’s that lack of testosterone going there bilgy?”
I didn’t know you cared, but my levels are just fine, thanks.
You seem to share a common misperception hereabouts that I voted for McCain.
I am a bit conservative in my politics, (you must not have noticed), so I couldn’t stomach the idea of voting for the RINO and then having him betray the base so that the moonbat sweat lodge could despise him by some practically immeasurable quanta of “less”.
Conservatives saw that play with 8 years of Dear Ole “W”.
You folks must miss him so! Every time he reached out to you, you’d kick him in the face for his troubles, but he’d keep crawling back.
I voted for Barr.
Seriously though, that link’s a howl!
I can only imagine that some scam artist will one day get a government grant to weigh individual men’s testicles on Election Day and after the Inauguration.
Really the only question is will this be subsidized through the National Science Foundation or the National Endowment for the Humanities?
I never expected Snowe to do anything else. I wonder how many GOP will vote for the final bill?
Got double digits in both houses for Medicare in 1965. I guess they were all traitors to “the cause”.
So, Bilgey voted for Bob Barr. I wonder who the other voter was. Probably Barr himself, or did one of his three Family Values Wives vote for him? Hmmmmm
@ Bilgeman
On your first post from Andrew sullivan:
The usual crowd goes wild. But any brief perusal of the data reveal a few things.
The decline in early presidential popularity has been pretty consistent since the 1980s, as American politics became more ideological and partisan. But here’s the thing: Reagan at this point was at 57 percent, headed to 51 percent in the fourth quarter. Clinton was at 48 percent. Those two were the last two successful two-term presidents, and they look very similar to Obama. The first Bush was headed up toward 69 percent, only to fail to win re-election. George W. Bush at this point was in the 70s headed to the high 80s, but that was obviously 9/11. Before 9/11, Bush was at 51 percent – not far off Obama right now. And he was not tackling the worst recession in memory, a stratospheric debt (he inherited a surplus) and two failed wars.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2009/10/gallup-declaresthe-9-point-drop-in-the-most-recent-quarter-for-barack-obamas-job-approval-rating-is-the-largest-gallup-has.html#more
Pacific John: President Obama has led. He’s made a variety of tough decisions both foreign and domestic. He’s also made mistakes: not going bigger on stimulus is key IMO. He’s reaping the heartache w/out the benefits and if he’d done a 1.5 to 2 trillion stimulus health reform would look like peanuts. You also have the auto bailout. Lately, the administration has taken a more populist streak and it looks like they’re looking to pick a fight w/Wall Street. That seems like the best way to deal w/bailout backlash in the mid-terms; coupled with using TARP for small business.
GITMO is another win in face of congressional opposition.
My point is, that Nancy Pelosi has taken a number of hits for the president in getting this legislation passed. COMMON sense b/c why bother deflecting right wing attacks back onto the president? Or left wing attacks for that matter? And when the administration has abandoned her on common sense stuff like the sod on the mall in the stimulus package; she’s shut up.
That’s what you should do, I wasn’t implying the president couldn’t stand alone. Hell, the Republicans did the same for Bush. The Democrats SHOULD have done the same for Clinton and WhiteWater might not have led to Monica.
I disagree w/what you’re saying.The president has often shown leadership, he’s made strategic choices that I think many think are wrong but that doesn’t mean he isn’t a leader.
At the end of the day, folks can think what they want and the administration can point to the score board.
“We Got No Problem?”
Why not just go the whole nine yards and write “We Gots No Problem?”
At Last The Truth Is Revealed.
The Reason Why The Taliban Have Come Back So Strong In Afghanistan Is:
During the Summer of 2008, General McKiernan requested 30,000 more Troops, in order to keep The Taliban from becoming a growing Presence in Afghanistan.
Bush/Cheney turned him down flat. It was Bush/Cheney that allowed the Taliban to Mushroom once more in Afghanistan.
Bush/Cheney did not listen to their General in Afghanistan. He requested 30,000 more troops, and they refused his request. They did not support the Troops in the field.
Bush/Cheney left our Troops in Afghanistan unprotected, by Dick Cheney’s own standards.
Bush/Cheney did not dither, or listen to Their General in Afghanistan. They just said no to him, and made it easy for The Taliban to spread through out the country.
Great ad ThinkProgress just put up for pro health care reform.
They need to keep injecting the human element into this fight more often imho.
limu:
Ahhh, so Andrew Sullivan feels he can interpret Gallup’s data better than Gallup itself can.
Mr. Sullivan is a very confused and conflicted man in many, many ways.
The data pretty much tells the whole story. The Alleged Hawaiian’s decline is the steepest and the faster that Gallup has ever measured since before they had computers with which to measure such things with.
That’s pretty much it.
I do enjoy his almost reflexive Obamapologia, though:
“And he was not tackling the worst recession in memory, a stratospheric debt (he inherited a surplus) and two failed wars. ”
Do you suppose that he has a macro key programmed to insert that sentence in his screeds?
Maybe he should think of programming one to do just that….it could be patented as the “AutoObamapologia Key”,
It may have slipped your memory, but Dear Ole “W” was coming off the most divisive and close-run election EVAH, and fresh on the heels of the Bilbo Clinton Impeachment,(which was a year’s worth of non-stop communal “Kumbayah” singing).
In fact, the incessant four-year “Selection 2000″ Noise Machine was just getting rolling and picking up momentum when the Michigan Militia attacked the World Trade Center on 9/11 and changed the whole dynamic.
So no President starts off surrounded by unicorns and butterflies, with pixie-dust scattered before his every step, they all have to grow into the job, or get squished by it.
And the data is pretty clear that Obama is getting squished faster than Carter or Clinton did.
Has there been any post on Grayson’s incredible harangue declaring Republicans the enemy on the Fat-hEd show? I haven’t seen one.
Can we now stop debating which side has gone completely over the top and declared the other side the enemy of the the USA and its people? I mean, he left no ambiguity about it, did he?
Rhoda:
“He’s also made mistakes: not going bigger on stimulus is key IMO.”
Pardon me. That sound you heard was my jaw hitting the desk…
Now we have Quarterbrain, The Wart On Big Fat PhlegmBall’s Arse, calling Ed fat!
Shorter Nancy Pelosi:”Unlike Harry Reid I have the nads to pass a strong public option all on my own”
Its amazing how successful Reid and a bunch of corporatist Democrats have been in making it seem like his job is SOOOOOO hard. Arguably Pelosi has a harder job dealing with a helluva not more people in the Blue Dog Caucus. But hey as long as Reid can keep making it seem like there is just no way to get Democrats to vote for cloture unless he caves and nobody pushes back on that then I guess the corporations win.
Bilgey voted for Bob Barr. Must have been because Barr is from the Confederacy, and Bilgey is a Neo-Confederate
Republicans are the enemies of Working Class Americans, and Republicans are the Brothel Courtesans of the Robber Barons Class!
That’s funny, Liam, since Democrats have been taking a lot more money from the “Robber Barons Class” in recent times, along with all the piles of money Obama sucked up from unscreened foreign sources. Wonder why that is?
Hey Bilgeman: Enjoy election night 2012 when Obama wins by 10 points or more. I know we will! And BTW: way to cherry pick those polls!
Liam:
“Bilgey voted for Bob Barr. Must have been because Barr is from the Confederacy, and Bilgey is a Neo-Confederate”
I was wondering how long it would take you to post your autistic anti-Rebel Yell post?
Late night last night?
and:
“Republicans are the enemies of Working Class Americans, and Republicans are the Brothel Courtesans of the Robber Barons Class!”
Tell your cell leader that their sloganeering committee’s output is doubleplusungood.
There are two very different sides to the Republican base today, the old Rockefeller Republicans, and basically the ex-Democrat Christian Working Class.
Guess which side I’m from?
Your sloagneering sounds like something puked out by the British Labour Party in a Yorkshire by-election back in the 1950’s.
Interesting for it’s naked Marxist class-war appeal, but in a quaint “point and laugh at the clueless campaign poster in the museum” kind of way.
The enemy of the Working Class is the party that wants to take it’s hard-earned wealth away from it.
In Obamamerica, that party is the Democrats with their taxing and their borrowing.
You had the chance, after Dear Ole “W”s profligacy, but you’ve managed to make his eight years’ spendathon seem like some sort of “Golden Age”, (economically speaking).
And that is quite a feat.
Nick:
“And BTW: way to cherry pick those polls!”
You’re new here, ain’t ya?
Cherry-picked polls is what the Plum Line is all about, mate!
“Enjoy election night 2012 when Obama wins by 10 points or more. I know we will!”
You mst not remember Bush 41 in about March of 1991.
Highest approval rating ever measured…
…and what happened next?
Noofus.
I have to laugh at a Bob Barr voter forecasting Obama’s defeat in 2012. The more people he gets to agree with him and support his candidate, the more likely it is that Obama will crush a divided opposition.
Seriously, I have a feeling that anyone who wanted to vote against Obama but didn’t like the McCain/Palin ticket will be waxing nostalgic for it in three years. Unless the Republicans have a charming state Senator out there somewhere who can take the party by storm between now and then, its going to really suck for them in 2012.
I guess the Republicans might be able to crow a bit about gains in the House in 2010, but as I recall the Democrats gained seats in 1982 and thought they were rebounding. Go figure.
From Bilgeman @ 4:59 PM:
“Guess which side I’m from?”
C). None of the above. The DEMOCRATIC working class remained Democratic; the Reaganite racists may have moved into the Republican fold, but no real Democrat ever would. And about that “Christian” thing…
“The enemy of the working class is the party that wants to take its hard-earned wealth away from it.”
As opposed to those who are determined that the working class never gets a chance to accumulate any weatlth?
“In Obamamerica (sic), that party is the Democrats with their taxing and spending.”
As opposed to the Republicans, who only believe in spending now and letting the grandkids pay for it, if they are able at minimum wage. And certainly not the rich, who have so much more to lose.
As for GWB’s “spendathon”, didn’t hear very many Republicans (of ANY stripe) complaining during his mis-administration. The debt can be very easily covered in the same way as WWII was: higher taxes; personally, I’ve always been a firm believer in the 90% surcharge on any income over, say, $5 million. After all, cocaine and hookers aren’t THAT expensive.
Don’t know about Depends, though…
Republican Math is a Fraud.
The truth:
Republican Reagan increased the US debt by 260%.
Republicans Reagan & Bush I increased the US debt by 400%.
Republican Bush II came in and more than doubled the US debt AGAIN.
Republicans are debtors who have indebted US by trillions, mostly to foreign countries that are NOT our allies.
Republicans indebted America even while REPUBLICANS INCREASED THE SIZE OF GOVERNMENT.
Republicans are con artists and frauds.
Republican voters need to realize they’ve been fooled, and need to realize that every time the vote Republican they get fooled again.
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