Althouse: This NYT article about the "journey" toward ObamaCare is an odd mix of juicy nuggets and dreamy blather.

March 21, 2010

This NYT article about the "journey" toward ObamaCare is an odd mix of juicy nuggets and dreamy blather.

The juicy nuggets:

1. The Scott Brown victory shook up the White House, and Rahm Emanuel proposed switching to a more modest reform, a "skinny bill." "Mr. Obama seemed open to the idea.... Ms. Pelosi scoffed. 'Kiddie care,' she called [it] derisively, in private."

2. Obama believes that health care is "what his presidency is about" (according to Tom Daschle). (Let me observe that this is not the way he presented himself during the campaign)

3. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama don't seem to get along too well. On February 4th, they had a conversation in which one of the lines, spoken by Obama, was: “I’m not a stupid man.”

4. "Many Democrats say [Pelosi's] upbeat, unflappable attitude buoyed them through the darkest days after Massachusetts. But faced with a member she considered intransigent, she could be 'scary tough,' as one person involved in her strategy sessions said. She would stand up, her high heels and imperiousness exaggerating her height, and talk sternly."

23 comments:

Anonymous said...: I remember the O's campaign ads on Health care. they were overtly designed to be moderate, although if you listened closely (and knew some of the details from the web) it was close to todays plan + public option.
The clear campaign was he would be a bridge for independents, not Pelosi's lap dog.

He's lost it and he public knows it. The worst possible way to go.; 3/21/10, 7:20 AM
HT said...: (Public option never really an option....any talk of it was just to get votes.)

How tall IS Nancy Pelosi then? She always seemed kinda petite to me.; 3/21/10, 7:34 AM
Kensington said...: The guy spent all of 2008 saying he would "transform" America. Why some of you didn't take him at his word still puzzles me.

You can be opposed to that, as I am, but I don't see how you can say you weren't warned.; 3/21/10, 7:43 AM
KCFleming said...: Obama is skeert of Mommy in stilletos.

Mommy, don't be mad.
I'll be good.
I'll be good!; 3/21/10, 7:46 AM
The Dude said...: He is not a stupid man.

Nixon was not a crook.

Clinton did not have sex with that woman.

Have I missed any other obvious admissions cloaked in the negative?

WV - hinesse - what Obama calls Pelosi.; 3/21/10, 8:00 AM
Hagar said...: The Borg queen does indeed look scary at times, and though the media talk almost entirely about the special deals made to entice votes, I have long wondered about the threats that might have been made to prevent members from straying.; 3/21/10, 8:14 AM
HKatz said...: She would stand up, her high heels and imperiousness exaggerating her height, and talk sternly."

Given that they're describing her as "scary tough" I expected a different conclusion to the sentence, not the relatively mild "talk sternly". I mean, did she wag her finger at them too? (Horrors!); 3/21/10, 8:15 AM
Deborah M. said...: What a bunch of girly men!

Obama the candidate clearly stated several times that this (healthcare lan) was just a "transition" and the public option was to come later.; 3/21/10, 8:19 AM
John henry said...: Nancy Pelosi is about 5' tall.

How can high heels "exaggerate" her height?

This statement would only make sense if she was a tall woman to start with.

John Henry
www.changeover.com; 3/21/10, 8:19 AM
HKatz said...: I have long wondered about the threats that might have been made to prevent members from straying.

Yes, that's the sort of thing I'd like to see reported. She could threaten them with a loss of lucrative arrangements or sweet deals. There could be political shunning involved, in which they become marginalized and voiceless in the party. It's also possible she has dirt on some of them at least.; 3/21/10, 8:21 AM
Deborah M. said...: There could be political shunning involved, in which they become marginalized and voiceless in the party. It's also possible she has dirt on some of them at least.
"SOME"?

OMG, they might lose their seat and before to go out and work for a living. The shame!

wv: finesi. November, 2010.; 3/21/10, 8:28 AM
HKatz said...: they might lose their seat and before to go out and work for a living.

Well, with the legislation they've helped enact so far, it's no wonder they think that working for a living is a scary prospect.; 3/21/10, 8:40 AM
traditionalguy said...: The government is the Obama jobs program, period. Any job not run by a government permission and union rake off is deemed a Obama failure. These DemonRat Rulers plan to succeed in their mission. Pelosi will have killed the American way of working and living, but she will be vety proud of her accomplishment.; 3/21/10, 8:58 AM
ricpic said...: ...the darkest days after Massachusetts.

What's "darkest days" supposed to mean in the context of the Democrats, a temporary timeout in the war on traditional America? Heaven forefend. The Agenda must go forward!; 3/21/10, 9:29 AM
Deborah M. said...: Well, with the legislation they've helped enact so far, it's no wonder they think that working for a living is a scary prospect.

Criminals are always able to find work.; 3/21/10, 9:58 AM
kent said...: in which one of the lines, spoken by Obama, was: “I’m not a stupid man.”

Pronounce the word "corpsman" for me, Barry.; 3/21/10, 10:07 AM
Unknown said...: Ann said...

But faced with a member she considered intransigent, she could be 'scary tough,' as one person involved in her strategy sessions said. She would stand up, her high heels and imperiousness exaggerating her height, and talk sternly.

and then HT said...

...

How tall IS Nancy Pelosi then? She always seemed kinda petite to me.

The key here is that she did this in her black leather corset and whip. That would turn all but the strongest to Jell-O.

Ann said...

Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama don't seem to get along too well. On February 4th, they had a conversation in which one of the lines, spoken by Obama, was: “I’m not a stupid man.”

I think Pelosi got this fairly quickly. She saw a lot more of him without TOTUS than us peons.

WV "rapper" (no kidding) What Barry is going to wish he became.; 3/21/10, 10:14 AM
Anonymous said...: "It is the story of how a struggling president partnered with a pair of experienced legislators — Ms. Pelosi and, to a lesser extent, Mr. Reid — to reach for a goal that Mr. Obama has often said had eluded his predecessors going back to Theodore Roosevelt. "

MOVIE! TENT POLE!

Streep as Pelosi, Matt Damon as Obama! It will be huge!; 3/21/10, 10:23 AM
Matthew Noto said...: "Health" "Care" "Reform" was just the centerpiece of the Reparations-by-another-name Plan.

The other parts were Cash-for-Clunkers, Mortgage renegotiation schemes meant to keep deadbeats in houses they can't afford (the 'victims of predatory lenders'), and the nationalization of as many industries (Banking, Automotive, Insurance, and now Health Care) as possible to provide government-jobs-for-life to people who are poorly-equipped to compete in the private sector and earn an honest living.

After all, that's what Obama's Liberation Theology bullcrap-that- he-didn't-listen-to-in-that-church-for-20-years, and all that Community Organizing was aiming at all along.

This is why Obama seems either incredibly arrogant or mind-numbingly stupid in his dogged perseverance in the face of overwhelming public opinion on Health Care; it's not about anyone's health -- it's still, and always has been, about making someone pay for the sins of Slavery.

And for white liberals, it's all about the chance to control many more aspects of people's behavior by making the State the final arbiter of whether they live or die. They're willing to give other-people's money away in unprecedented amounts just for the chance. They're just not brave enough to actually stand up and admit it by voting on the actual bill.

Two liberal birds killed with one stone in "Health" "Care" "Reform".; 3/21/10, 11:43 AM
Chef Mojo said...: Sounds like the NYT is beginning to lay the groundwork for buffering Obama in case this monstrosity goes down. The plan seems to be to drop a loss in Pelosi's lap and say that she overreached and that the WH was certainly open to a slimmer fix.

wv: bris - Oy vey! The knives will be coming out...; 3/21/10, 11:50 AM
Big Mike said...: Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama don't seem to get along too well.

On the Charlie Rose show, prior to the election, Nancy Pelosi made it pretty clear that she and Reid expected to be able to roll Obama anytime she felt like it. So I can't say that #3 surprises me very much.; 3/21/10, 12:04 PM
Sydney said...: I knew they had plans for healthcare from the moment they became the majority party. I haven't slept well since November 2008.; 3/21/10, 12:30 PM
Adam said...: Other things Barack Obama is not:

1. honest
2. trustworthy
3. wise
4. forthright
5. an actual former constitutional law professor
6. reelectable; 3/21/10, 7:39 PM