Obama takes the GOP more seriously than "the left"? (WP) [View All]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/22/AR2009082201163.html

Health Care Reform Drawing More Criticism From Left
By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, August 22, 2009; 12:52 PM

Through most of the summer, opposition to President Obama and his health-care initiative has come almost entirely from the right. In the past week, however, the president has been trying to tamp down a noisy uprising on the left. The immediate cause for the rebellion is growing concern among Obama's progressive allies that he is prepared to deal away the public insurance option to win passage of a health-care bill. Obama insists that he still prefers the public option as part of any eventual legislative package, but some of his friends on the left now clearly doubt his resolve.

That has given way to broader criticisms: Is Obama tough enough to defeat the interests arrayed against health-care legislation? Has he lost the passion that was such an asset during the campaign? Have his rhetorical skills been muted as he descends into the dry, arcane details of health care? Is he too enamored of bipartisan consensus, given what is seen as Republican implacability? Has he given up the moral high ground in the health-care battle?

From liberal commentators to progressive bloggers to grass-roots activists who went door to door during the campaign, there has been a chorus of concerns raised about Obama -- on health-care strategy, on the deals he and his team have struck with the health-care industry, on the stepped-up troop commitment in Afghanistan, on detainees and torture policy...

Obama seems to regard the flare-up on the left as less serious. He coined the phrase of the week in describing the state of play in health-care politics when he said that in August, Washington often gets "wee-weed up" over some change in the landscape. He urged everyone to calm down.

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Best comment for Obama:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/22/AR2009082201163_Comments.html

cfeher wrote:
The President needs to pass the legislation favored by those who voted for him instead of bending over backwards to the point of groveling to try and please those who didn't vote for him and who will not, even if they wrote the entire bill themselves, vote in favor of health care reform legislation.
President Obama, I hate to break it to you dude, but Chuck Grassley's just not that into you. Cut him loose and move on with your life.
8/22/2009 1:07:42 PM