It Takes Two to Tango

FROM THE LEFT: David Brooks wrote an op-ed that really caught my attention. Here are some snipits of what he wrote in his column “The Obama Slide”

“The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 percent. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast…Fifty-nine percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.”- David Brooks

I believe that the President is trying too hard to make this health care bill bipartisan. He doesn’t seem to understand that the Republicans are not negotiating in good faith. No matter what he puts in this bill Republicans are still going to fight against it. They believe that if they can knock down health care, they can take down the Obama Presidency with it. Senator Jim DeMint said as much with his recent “waterloo” comments. I understand that Obama campaigned on bipartisanship and that he genuinely wants to work with the Republicans, but as my father says “it takes two to tango” and the Republicans simply won’t dance.

As for President Obama and his slipping poll numbers, he needs to speak candidly to the American people next week at the joint session of Congress. If he delivers a performance anything like his last press conference, I am afraid health care is doomed.

-Chris V

The American perspective:

The American people voted for change in a variety of ways. Those who voted for transparency in government and bipartisan politics have already been very let down as the fantasy we hoped for, smashed headfirst into the reality of Barack H. Obama. If a majority of Americans wanted Mr. Obama to lead this country, and now there is a majority of Americans who disapprove of the direction he is going, it doesn’t take a political scientist to figure out that he is not doing what the American people expected him to. We are tired of feeling like the president is trying to pull one over on us before we have had time to study the changes he is trying to make. We want to see the man fulfill his campaign promises, we want to know what businesses are benefiting from his legislation, we want five days to go over every bill that comes across his desk.

The president has already done a great deal to underwrite the political process and smash healthcare through the legislative branch. Now that we have had some time to look at the thing we don’t like it. We are sick of seeing our government trying to move behind our backs, and that is why 57% of us would like to see all of them thrown out of office. We are not going to stand and watch a party with too much power push their agenda onto the American people, because we are sick of this behavior and we want what we have been promised. And we will not dance!

Luke H.

FROM THE LEFT: The truth is that Republicans are against all government all the time. They think that more government is always a bad thing and that more private sector is always a good thing. Well I have news for you, the world isn't that simple. These issues are complicated and nuanced, and we need nuanced solutions. The private sector alone cannot solve are problems and the government alone also cannot solve our problems. What Obama is proposing is not a government take over of health care. It is a plan that would give people choice, and would stop discrimination against sick people. Unfortunately Obama has not been out front with his message and has allowed this debate to turn into a mud fight.