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Editorial
See other Editorial Articles

Title: What Will Democrats Do? A Commentary By Susan Estrich
Source: Rasmussen Reports
URL Source: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/pub ... estrich/what_will_democrats_do
Published: Dec 16, 2009
Author: Susan Estrich
Post Date: 2009-12-16 19:55:39 by packrat1145
Keywords: Economy, Democrats, Republicans
Views: 277
Comments: 16

Whatever it takes.

Whatever Joe wants.

That's the short answer to what the Democrats will do to get health care reform passed. If Joe Lieberman doesn't want 55-year-olds to buy into Medicare, they won't. Poof. Gone.

There is only one number that matters right now, and that number is 60. Anything that would cost the Democrats 60 votes will have to go. The perfect is the enemy of the possible. The possible is the art of politics. This is not about getting a perfect bill -- just one that can pass.

Opponents of reform have taken to the airwaves. The ads are great, really. If you haven't seen them, watch them. Once. Too many times and you may start worrying. Forget Harry and Louise, who shot down Hillary and Bill. Barack and Harry and Rahm have their work cut out for them.

The ads are moving numbers. They're convincing undecideds, jolting Democrats and confirming Republicans' worst horror-show scenarios. If you're wondering why even some of those most likely to benefit from the Democratic plan -- people who don't have insurance or have terrible plans -- are worried about what Harry Reid is doing, you have to do no more than turn on the television to understand. Whoever you are, there's a story to scare you.

And if you don't think that scares politicians in marginal districts even more, you need medicine.

This is not, for many Democrats, an easy vote. If the bill passes, the potential for those who voted for it to be blamed for anything that goes wrong with everyone's health care forever is both real and undeniable. Imagine how much Hillary would have been blamed for everything that went wrong had her plan actually passed.

But the only thing scarier than the current campaign that is turning people against health care reform is the price Democrats will pay, starting with the man on top, if they can't get something through. The Obama administration has gotten closer to achieving this major step than any prior administration, notwithstanding their best efforts. But that, potentially, only makes failure harder to swallow.

This is not horseshoes. You don't get credit for getting close. Quite the contrary: The closer you get the more scorn gets heaped onto you for losing. Then it's really your fault. Vince Lombardi could have run political campaigns. Democrats cannot go to voters in the midterm elections campaigning on a platform of failure: Good news, we couldn't do it. And by the way, big war!

So the numbers are falling. So be it. Democrats can't afford to pay attention. They will fall even more if they fail. Failure is even less popular than health care reform.

Fortunately, there are some good signs for Democrats, even as the ads warn of a terrible future where everyone gets health care. For one thing, whether the recession is over or not, things are definitely on the up. There is not a sense of relief, but there is at least less of a sense of impending doom. The banks are back to making money instead of borrowing it. The market is back. Any day now, there might even be more jobs, which counts for more than anything else.

And the Republicans, God bless them, will do everything in their power to steal defeat from the jaws of victory. At a time when they are actually succeeding in convincing the country of their fears about health care, much, much more of their energy is going into attacking each other. Taking a page from the book of the Democratic Party of my youth, they seem to be more interested in being right than in winning, which almost always leads to failure.

After all, the perfect really is the enemy of the perfectly OK.

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#1. To: packrat1145 (#0)

FOR SOME, the Holocaust and the Nazi era are levity-free zones. Hogan's Heroes, The Producers, and the "Soup Nazi" episode of Seinfeld each managed to offend by daring (stooping?) to reduce Nazism to a punch line. Last May syndicated columnist Susan Estrich stated the case against Holocaust humor in writing about the YouTube videos. "Hitler is not funny. Killing six million Jews is no joke," she wrote. "Sixty years, almost to the day, from the founding of Israel out of the ashes of the Holocaust, can it be that putting words to the rant of the most evil man of our time is the key to Internet fame, if not fortune?"

Susan Estrich?

Myth busted!

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   20:04:20 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: packrat1145 (#0)

Sweet goodness.

Susan had several more than a few brews before penning this drivel.

Lod  posted on  2009-12-16   20:05:52 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: packrat1145 (#0)

But the only thing scarier than the current campaign that is turning people against health care reform is the price Democrats will pay, starting with the man on top, if they can't get something through

O dear lord yes, pass something, ANYTHING!

Where have we heard this refrain before?

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   20:11:21 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: packrat1145 (#0)

And the Republicans, God bless them, will do everything in their power to steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

Hey stupid.

There is but one party.

If you cannot acknowledge that, then go elsewhere with your drivel.

Cynicom  posted on  2009-12-16   20:14:36 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: Cynicom, packrat (#4)

go elsewhere with your drivel

Or at least provide higher quality drivel to disprove and denigrate.

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   20:17:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Cynicom, Dakmar (#4)

And the Republicans, God bless them, will do everything in their power to steal defeat from the jaws of victory.

Cynicom: Hey stupid.

There is but one party.

If you cannot acknowledge that, then go elsewhere with your drivel.

Dakmar: Or at least provide higher quality drivel to disprove and denigrate.

Maybe I should be a gentleman and pretend I think your comments are directed towards the author; or that perhaps you believe just because I post an article I agree with it.

Nahh, the hell with that gentleman shit; you both can stick your ignorance up your asses and pretend it's a Bill Clinton cigar.

But for the record, IMO, the national leaders of both major political parties are almost as ignorant as you two clowns, not to mention their proclivity for selling the conservatives of America down the river. Hopefully, that's one quality not shared by you two, idiots though you seem to be.

packrat1145  posted on  2009-12-16   20:42:30 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#7. To: packrat1145 (#6)

You're talking a lot of bullshit for a bot that backed Bush's wars from day 1.

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   20:46:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#8. To: Lod (#2)

Sweet goodness.

Susan had several more than a few brews before penning this drivel.

Unfortunately, it seems the majority of our elected officials and those who are supposed to keep us informed as to their actions are all idiots, traitors, or simply don't give a damn.

packrat1145  posted on  2009-12-16   20:48:05 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#9. To: Dakmar (#7)

You're talking a lot of bullshit for a bot that backed Bush's wars from day 1.

"...Bush's wars..."

You're not only ignorant, you're dishonest.

packrat1145  posted on  2009-12-16   20:53:45 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#10. To: packrat1145 (#0)

What Will Democrats Do?

They will do what they always do. Make matters worse.

"The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Director, CIA 1973–1976

The purpose of the legal system is to protect the elites from the wrath of those they plunder.- Elliott Jackalope

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that justifies it." - Frederic Bastiat

F.A. Hayek Fan  posted on  2009-12-16   20:58:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#11. To: packrat1145 (#6)

Maybe I should be a gentleman and pretend I think your comments are directed towards the author; or that perhaps you believe just because I post an article I agree with it.

Nahh, the hell with that gentleman shit; you both can stick your ignorance up your asses and pretend it's a Bill Clinton cigar.

I suggest that if you plan on posting articles here that you learn to recognize to whom the resulting posts are directed.

I for one will not post a diagram for you to follow.

Further your language is coarse at best, do try to clean it up. This is not LP.

Cynicom  posted on  2009-12-16   21:00:44 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#12. To: packrat1145. all (#8)

Unfortunately, it seems the majority of our elected officials and those who are supposed to keep us informed as to their actions are all idiots, traitors, or simply don't give a damn.

No argument here.

Time to give anarchy a chance.

Lod  posted on  2009-12-16   21:06:46 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#13. To: Lod (#12)

Time to give anarchy a chance.

:)

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   21:13:49 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#14. To: Cynicom (#11)

...your language is coarse at best, do try to clean it up. This is not LP.

Nice try...

First you attack me with insults for no good reason and then you lecture me for responding harshly to those insults. Further, your attempt to detract from your own (first to be an asshole) ignorant and insulting comments by admonishing me to "clean up" my language is easily seen through.

This is not LP.

Agreed. You wouldn't last on LP!

Oh, that's right... you didn't, did ya... lol

But why you would wish to tempt someone into disparaging this site by impugning the integrity of another one is beyond me. Just another example of your ignorance, I suppose....

packrat1145  posted on  2009-12-16   21:47:16 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#15. To: packrat1145 (#14)

Oh, that's right... you didn't, did ya... lol

You are right, I refused to carry water for the Jews.

You lasted didnt you?????

Cynicom  posted on  2009-12-16   21:50:03 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#16. To: packrat1145 (#14)

What would you do for a Klondike bar?

In 2007, the FBI reported on concern about white supremacists recruiting soldiers, saying "hundreds" of neo-Nazis were in the active military. But in April, a Department of Homeland Security report on extremism that reiterated much the same point was widely criticized by veterans groups and some conservative politicians as being unpatriotic, leading the Justice Department to retract the DHS report.

Critics acknowledge that extremism in the Army is a touchy political subject.

Dakmar  posted on  2009-12-16   21:54:22 ET  (1 image) Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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