It's a complete coincidence that all these people siding with Obama are either in the conservative half of the Party or people who think they personally owned some part of the agenda.
Cooper was such a pig in '93/94, giving all the conservative Democrats cover to duck out of universal healthcare. The reason Kerry never wrote any major bill? Because Kennedy always hogged the process and the credit.
I'm fine with these people getting all the glee and fun with Obama. Sadly, a lot of time will be wasted as the next Presidency and session of Congress stalls and goes bust on their conservatism and vanities.
If Cooper's plan was passed, more people would have health coverage now than they currently do.
You can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
yes, but if you are a Congressman, and a new President of your party has a plan, you go along with it, not undermine it. If less Democrats had resisted Clintons plan, 1994's congressional results may not have happened.
get discussed a LOT more around here NOW.
If the plan is fatally flawed, or if you simply cannot abide by it, or your constituents won't abide by it, then maybe you don't.
it was NOT fatally flawed, it was a. the PRESIDENT's plan, and b. it covered everyone. It was only portrayed as that by the lobbyists, and Harry and Louise, who Barack Obama utilized in his ads.
I completely agree with you and this it the reason I get upset when Democrats blame Bill and Hillary for the Republican landslide in 1994. Bill and Hillary were not in the House and Senate. They were in the White House. They had no way of preventing Congressional Democrats from drafting their own bill on their own. I remember seeing an interview with Tom Daschle in which he said that if Hillary had taken a different approach, a bill would have passed and he said that Bob Dole even expressed interested in some kind of reform bill. Why didn't the Democrats in Congress do something? Maybe because it was easier to let the whole thing fail and blame it on the First Lady?
Yep, if there's one phrase I would use to describe Barbara Lee, it would be that she's from the "conservative half of the Party." Or are you suggesting that she thinks she personally owns some part of the agenda?
I really love how you paint anyone who supports Obama as either conservative or having an ax to grind against the Clintons. It's pretty impressive, the way you seem to block out of your consciousness the possibility - and the reality - that many in the progressive wing of the party have also backed him because they think he's the best chance to move the agenda forward.
The point of the article is that because of the fragile egos and infighting, Bill Clinton was not able to bring a crucial part of his agenda, affordable healthcare in 1994, and then the GOP managed to take out their 'contract on America' and decimate the middle class still further in the 90s.
let's not forget that the clintons played their party in this. washington isn't little rock, and it took the clintons several years to figure this out. afiac, bill clinton had the worst first year of a presidency in my lifetime...
