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Growing Number of
Americans Fear Obama is "Taking the country somewhere they don't
want to go" Part Two of Three By Dave Andrusko "I can say it in two words
-- health care -- but it took Michael Scherer of Time magazine
more than 3,200 words to not say it." When Congress is away on vacation, as it is for two more weeks, there are even more stories/op-eds/essays than usual analyzing what's taken place and coaching the reader what he/she ought to anticipate. And when the context is an on-rushing November elections, a comparative trickle becomes a river becomes an ocean of commentary.
The most important insight Michael Scherer offers is that not only are many Democrats avoiding pro-abortion President Barack Obama, they are also running against him and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi--by name! The common mantra of endangered Democrats is that they are not part of "them"--aka the Congressional leadership which, oh by the way, is completely in the hands of pro-abortion Democrats. While not on the ballot, Obama is like an anchor wrapped around the ankles of vulnerable Democrats. With Obama's fortunes sinking fast, everyone is rushing in with an explanation why a man who came in with the highest approval ratings (68% in January 2009) since President Kennedy could 20 months later have sunk to the mid-40s. There are obvious factors: a natural decline from an inflated figure; an American public, which had only the foggiest notion of who Obama was before voting for him, that is now exasperated by a man who seems so distant; but most of all it is Obama's policy choices. However as the responder on the Daily Mail blog points out, most analysts simply do not grasp how much Obama's obsession to pass ObamaCare has crippled his--and his party's--fortunes. As Jay Cost succinctly summarized, "[T] he fact that the health care bill is no longer the topic du jour does not mean it is no longer an issue. The real questions are whether the health care bill moved voters away from the Democrats, and whether those voters have since moved back now that the debate is over. The answers are yes - the debate moved voters away from the Democrats; and no - the voters have not come back" (see www.realclearpolitics.com/horseraceblog/2010/08/health_care_reform_has_endange_1.html). When they do allude to ObamaCare, reporters and columnist often take the line hewed to by Scherer: that a "passive" Obama "ceded most of its clout to the liberal lions that controlled the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. That maneuver helped assure passage of reforms, but it also confirmed some of the worst fears about how Washington works." But that suggests that Obama was almost dragged, kicking and screaming, into supporting ObamaCare. In fact while it is true he bided his time, when push came to shove Obama pushed hard. But if there were sticks, there were also carrots. Obama also try to provide a shield for Democrats who'd previously voted pro-life, to embrace ObamaCare: the entirely bogus March 24 executive order which he said would prevent federal subsidies for abortion on demand. The difficulty for these Democrats is that NRLC has shown conclusively that these "barriers" never existed in the first place--and that the Obama Administration had no intention of preventing federal funding of elective abortions. (To take two examples, go to http://www.nrlc.org/press_releases_new/Release072910.html, or read the August/September issue of National Right to Life News.) In other words increasing numbers of people KNOW that ObamaCare is rife with provisions to fund abortion on demand and which guarantee rationing (see http://powellcenterformedicalethics.blogspot.com/2010/07/blog-post.html). Final thought for today, and it is crucial. After accepting that some of the explanations he'd listed for Obama's steep decline "may be valid," Scherer argues, "they are also incomplete. A sense of disappointment, bordering on betrayal, has been growing across the country, especially in moderate states like Indiana, where people now openly say they didn't quite understand the President they voted for in 2008. The fear most often expressed is that Obama is taking the country somewhere they don't want to go." Scherer is talking about the Obama agenda as a whole. But the sense that ObamaCare goes miles beyond where most Americans wish to go explains perfectly why ObamaCare is poison for Democrats who voted for it. Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. |
