Monday, August 17, 2009

The Healthcare Fight

I heart Rachel Maddow. She took the paint off of Armey and Coburn on Meet the Press, and got in the single best quote of the hour:


I think most liberals would probably prefer a single payer system, honestly. But ultimately, if the president decides that he’s going to go with a reform effort that doesn’t include a public option, what he will have done is spent a ton of political capital, riled up an incredibly angry right wing base who’s been told that this is a plot to kill grandma, grandma, and he will have achieved something that doesn’t change health care very much and that doesn’t save us very much money and won’t do very much for the American people. It’s not a very good thing to spend a lot of political capital on.

They should have her on every week. She fights smart, and she fights like it matters.

Now, I know that Obama's thing is that he's Mr. Cool and everything, but I need him to show what he wants. I want an honest to God visceral response out of him, not just a vague "it would be nice to have this or that".

I want him to show that he understands the stakes in the game, for himself and everyone else, and I want him to fight that hard to win. Dare the Republicans to vote against the bill. Say, "vote against it if you don't care about your constituents. If you love the insurance money more than people, vote against it. If you're ready to abdicate your role as a leader, vote against it. If you're ready to see the deficit eat up our future, vote against it. If you hate Medicare, vote against it."

That's how you fight, and that's how you win.

Related: Paul Krugman on the public option as a signal of Obama's commitment to the progressive agenda.

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