Friday, December 25, 2009

And Merry Christmas, too

Yes, yes...I know liberals are screaming bloody murder about the Senate health bill and selling out to ass clowns like Liberman and Ben Nelson.
They need to relax. Eric Alterman has a good point about that here.
The bill is headed to conference, were it will be merged with the much better House bill. No, there won't be Medicare for Everyone in the final version, but preexisting condition discrimination goes bye-bye (speaking as someone with a nasty autoimmune disorder, that's a damn good thing). Drug reimportation from Canada is going to get badly needed support from the White House next year, I'm guessing as a result of the insurance and drug lobbies rolling Obama so well on this bill.
The Stupak abortion language is likely to stand, although a return to the Hyde amendment is possible, I guess -- abortion is still legal and accessible in every state. Make Planned Parenthood one of your good causes to support and the insurance problems with Stupak will quietly go away by 2012 or 2014.
I think this whole experience will give Obama the cover he needs to be superpartisan on the stump next year, when he's out raising money for Democrats running against Republicans beholden to the Tea Baggers. After all, you can't be bipartisan when the other party says "NO!" to EVERY FUCKING THING you propose.
Sure, the president's poll numbers are off. That happens when all the cable news nets talk about for weeks on end is how bad you're doing. And he has bent over too far to engage Republicans. And he hasn't reasserted the government's power over Wall Street -- yet.
Consider what's he has done: saved GM and Chrysler, passed the first real healthcare reforms since the 1960s, somewhat reintroduced the notion that the rest of us don't exist to serve Wall Street, injected real money into infrastructure and renewal energy development and greatly rehabilitated the U.S. as a good, serious presence in world affairs.
The Obama you're disappointed in today is not the guy who will seek reelection in 2012. He will run on a record that you won't have much trouble supporting, against an opposition beholden to a minority of voters who insist on believing made-up stuff.
Chill, my friends.
And have a Merry Christmas!