Before the Nightmare
In October of 2016 I went to hear President Obama at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio. We were all still confident that Hillary would win, even though the blows of the leaked emails and the Comey letter to Congress raised concerns. But when President Obama walked into the room (I was in the “overflow” room, he came and spoke to us first) a world of hope lit up. The theme of his speech was Donald Trump, and it should have been titled “Come On, Man.” Obama laid out the case for not believing Trump to an accepting audience: truer words were never spoken.
“Come on, man,” you can’t fool us. “Come on, man,” don’t buy his brand of BS.
Second Debate, Part Two
I missed the second night of debates last night (I went to see the 80’s Rock group REO Speedwagon.) It’s still sitting on the DVR, waiting for three hours. I’ll get to them soon enough.
But I’ve now heard a couple of hours of analysis. Vice President Biden is running for President, in large part standing on his eight years in the Obama Administration. He is the frontrunner; for others to move up in the standings, they have to somehow raise their visibility. A proven way to do so is to attack the leader; it worked for Kamala Harris in the first debate.
Biden has done an effective job in defending the Obama legacy. He has wrapped himself in Obama, effectively locking in his leading status. Other candidates are finding that the only way to attack Biden is to do the unthinkable: attack the Presidency of Barack Obama.
President Obama has a +90% approval rating in the Democratic Party. He changed America as the first African-American President (an America that Trump is trying to change back.) He was a President with compassion, brilliance, and class; quite a contrast to our current leader. Can attacking his Presidency be a reasonable Democratic strategy?
Come on, man!
How the Sausage is Made
A key issue for all Democrats is health care. Every Democratic candidate has a plan to improve health care in America, from Biden expanding the Affordable Care Act with a public option, to Sander’s Medicare for all. Last night, the attacks came against the flaws and failures of the ACA, Obamacare, because that was how the candidates could get to Biden.
Come on, man!
Senator Klobuchar said it best the night before. It’s all-good to have great plans, or to claim you need a “revolution” to get your ideas put into law. But, as she noted, it takes sixty votes to pass something in the Senate. In our currently divided government, there seems little chance that a “Medicare for All” kind of program could get through Congress and it certainly wasn’t an option in 2010 when the ACA became law.
The Obama Administration took the problem, millions of Americans without health insurance, and made the best deal they could to win over their own Democratic Congress, and those few Republicans in the Senate. “How the sausage got made” was ugly, including Speaker Pelosi statement you’d find out what was in the law after you vote for it, but in the end the Affordable Care Act was a strong attempt to expand coverage to most Americans. How strong was it? It’s survived nine years of Republican attempts to destroy it.
Who Should be the Target
It’s not good enough, it needs to be fixed, and it was a Republican plan in the first place. But it was the best that President Obama could get, and attacking him to get to Biden is a mistake. Democrats who attack their own to raise their electoral chances aren’t helping themselves become President. They are giving away the championship win today’s game.
Come on, man.
It isn’t that Barack Obama should go without criticism. His administration failed to resolve the problems of undocumented migrants in the United States, finally resorting to an Executive Order Band-Aid to protect the Dreamers. But it wasn’t for lack of trying; it was from the absolute intransigence of Mitch McConnell and the Republican Senate. Their goal was not the “good” of America, but to defeat a Democratic Presidency. From their position, they were successful.
And that’s what Democrats need to be talking about on the debate stage. The motivating factor for the Democratic voters is Trump and McConnell and Tax Cuts. It’s not attacks on the most popular President alive, nor is it on starting a “revolution.” We’ve got a bigger challenge: how to stop the “regression” into a racist, misogynist, and cruel new era.
Come on, man. Get with it.
