Fantasy Obama lives!
Remember Obama the Fantasy Construct? The pacifist feminist lightworking Savior who lives in people’s heads? He’s still here!
Of course he’s never gone away, but as the gulf between Real Obama and Fantasy Obama approaches Grand Canyon proportions, it’s amusing to watch people scramble to hang on to the dream. Amusing, that is, in a double Xanax, Mexican Mudslide, Fuckitol kind of way.
I keep reading “faith based” musings from Democrats and liberals who assume that Obama has some greater purpose that he isn’t telling us yet. Like this one from Robin Wells:
Joking aside, I have this fervent belief that Obama has somewhere, deep down in his pockets, the keys to escape.
Or this one from Michael Moore:
I take all of the things that make me nervous about the decisions that Obama has made, and I look and them through that lens – that it’s some kind of master plan. It’s like his continued support of a government-run option for health care. If a true public option is enacted – and Obama knows this – it will eventually bring about a single-payer system, because the profit-making insurance companies won’t be able to compete with a government plan and make the profits they want to make. At some point most of them will probably have to bow out of the business.
It sort of reminds me of Saint Paul telling us that we see through a glass darkly but soon all will be made clear. Surely, the judgment day is coming when Obama will return and smite his enemies and usher in an era of liberal paradise. We cannot know the day or the hour. But it’s coming. We mere mortals shouldn’t question his ways of Obama. Um, this is creepy. I even see Paul Krugman almost slipping into this mindset. But the signs do not point to an Armageddon followed by 1000 years of New Deal-Great Society 2.0. Can we just put away the glazed out expressions and deal with reality here? Obama is not a god and we don’t have to make burnt offerings and read the smoke to figure out what he wants. There is no such thing as 11 dimensional chess. He’s just not a very strong or progressive president and he’s not going to save the day. Period.
What she said.
Over at Washington Monthly, Steve Benen quotes an interesting exchange in the White House briefing room. Here’s what a reporter said to Robert Gibbs:
“I don’t know if you think it’s unfair to say, but it occurs to me that if the President finds himself at a town hall meeting telling the American people that he does not want to set up a panel to kill their grandparents, that perhaps there, at some point, the President has lost control of the message.”
Jesus, ya think?
Benen — and Gibbs — blame right-wing disinformation for that misbehaving runaway message. But honestly, did Obama ever have control of the message? What is the message, anyway?
If this president were serious about healthcare reform, he could have marshalled his forces from the moment he took office. He could have called on the vast goodwill he enjoys (enjoyed) in the artistic and progressive communities to generate documentaries and videos clips and easy-to-understand public service announcements. He could have sold this thing. Especially Medicare for All, which is both easy to explain and compellingly right.
Instead we have the White House cutting backroom deals with Big Pharma and Obama yammering in town halls about how much the Post Office sucks.
Fuckitol.
19 Responses to “Fantasy Obama lives!”
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janicen says:
Totally agree. Hubby and I were just talking about this yesterday. If the Democrats were serious about reforming the system, they would have passed reforms and never set one foot in a townhall meeting. I believe that the townhall meetings are like show-trials. They accomplish nothing because their purpose is to communicate a message. In this case, the Democrats are saying to the American people, “We really want to reform healthcare, but those dastardly Republicans won’t let us.” The massive campaign contributions from health insurers to Democrats tell a different story.
August 13th, 2009 at 9:29 pm EST -
lalala says:
Can’t believe this is the same Michael Moore who thought Al Gore wasn’t liberal enough for his vote over Nader. Yet now he defends Bush III – I mean Obama – and his Republican-lite policies. What a hypocrite and a coward.
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yttik says:
I think Fantasy Obama just has a secret diabolical plot to make us all so sick from watching the health care debate that we just start begging the government to give us health care. Anything to make it stop, anything I tell ya….
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monchichipox says:
You’re exactly right Violet. I’m opposed to Obama’s plan and any health care run by the government. BUT if we are going to have the government running it then I would get on board for a sensible, nothing hidden, single payer option. I don’t think there can be this cut and paste this and that approach. Shit or get of the bedpan Obama.
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sister of ye says:
I’m opposed to Obama’s plan and any health care run by the government.
I’m opposed to Obama’s plan to the extent I can figure out what the hell it is, and also on general principles because I plain don’t trust him.
That doesn’t mean that a plan that is run by the government has to be a failure. Sometimes the devil is in the details, specifically in the intentions of the people who are running things.
You want Florida election votes in 2004? FEMA runs just fine. You want to say fuck-you to poor and Democratic NOLA in 2005? FEMA is an unmitigated disaster.
It’s one of those odd coincidences that places like the southern and western U.S. that tend to produce more anti-government railers have benefited hugely from projects like the TVA.
Just as our “free market” financial sector is all for government handouts for them and laws stacked in their favor, but heaven forfend that you pass consumer protection legislation.
And many of our tort reform supporting Congress critters have a long list of petty lawsuits they’ve filed, certainly petty by the standards they want average people to live by.
I have a brother who can rail with the best of them on how irresponsible people suck off the government. He’s filed bankruptcy twice and didn’t hesitate to cash the FEMA check he was sent after Katrina.
Benjamin Franklin, like the other Founders, was wary of government tyranny. Yet he supported public schools, public libraries and, yes, a public post office.
We long ago determined that some things are important enough to do as a society – i.e., thru the government. Those are the things we want to reliably depend on, like roads, bridges, and food and drug safety. What kind of TV I buy I can happily leave up to the vagaries of the free market, such as it is. The medical care that determines whether they live or die, not so much.
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Lorenzo says:
I thought the US went through this all under Bill and Hillary in 1992-94. Is there any sign the Obamatons have learnt anything useful from that experience?
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Faith based musings « Donna Darko says:
[...] Violet agrees: What she said. [...]
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Violet says:
No no no, sister of ye! Government is never the solution! It’s always the problem!
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Briar says:
I enjoy the benefits of the NHS. Like the vast majority of my fellow citizens, I love it. And even the minority who don’t, still benefit from it however much they whine. Health care run by the government, to the extent that the funding comes from the taxpayer and the rules ensure we all get health care free, works.
Read this for some straight thinking:
http://www.nextleft.org/2009/0.....n-nhs.html
(Note: “US residents are much less healthy than their English counterparts and these differences exist at all points of the SES distribution … The US population in late middle age is less healthy than the equivalent British population for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, myocardial infarction, stroke, lung disease, and cancer … These differences are not solely driven by the bottom of the SES distribution. In many diseases, the top of the SES distribution is less healthy in the United States as well.”)
And if you are still squeamish about “socialism”, then here’s an article which leaves open an insurance option without sacrificing the poor, the elderly, the black, the chronically ill etc. for the sake of ideology:
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masslib says:
I just can not fathom why any liberal supports Mitt Romney’s health plan. It’s bizarre. Micheal Moore is a sell out. I read somewhere the DNC and Moore had worked out a deal to use sicko to help sell national Romney-Care! WTH???
And, what’s with the trojan horse public-option supporters? If Obama supports single payer why do we need a trojan horse? My Lawd, I’d be eligible for Medicare by the time the trojan horse became single payer.
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RKMK says:
I haven’t seen Sicko, myself, but someone told me that Moore totally rakes HRC over the coals for not doing enough for health care/backing down to private insurance in the 90s. Hillary Clinton, who’s been one of the strongest proponents of public health care in America for decades.
It would be nice if he’d have the courtesy to smack Obama around a bit for blatantly, egregiously selling out the American public.
We long ago determined that some things are important enough to do as a society – i.e., thru the government. Those are the things we want to reliably depend on, like roads, bridges, and food and drug safety. What kind of TV I buy I can happily leave up to the vagaries of the free market, such as it is. The medical care that determines whether they live or die, not so much.
Repeated for truth. (Add in education, safe & affordable water supply, etc.) Civics 101, which right-wing talking points have been trying to tear apart for decades.
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myiq2xu says:
Does this mean we’re not getting a pony?
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Violet says:
They’re on back order.
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Nadai says:
And the pony factory is in Antarctica.
We do have loads and loads of pony shit, though. Help yourself!
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Swannie says:
And the shovels are cheap … only $650 .. now if you want one with with a handle , that will be extra .. because the handle is only covered in the pony premium plan .
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Toonces says:
Ahahahaha! Thank you for posting that vid, Violet. I’ve never seen it before. It’s great. (“Libertarian magic dust!”)
I wonder if they’ve done one on the wonders of media deregulation…
P.S. I recommend watching Nurse Jackie while you’re hopped up on Fuckitol.
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Joan says:
RKMK-I haven’t watched Sicko lately but my recollection is that Hillary was treated at least fairly and perhaps even better? If he had been mean to her, I think I would have remembered that because I would have been furious! I believe that I am only currently angry with him about Gore and Obama. lol. I recall that Billy Tauzin had the villain’s role in Sicko-what a sell-out he was/is.
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RKMK says:
Joan – I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know… but wayback in 2006, my roommate – who loved HRC prior to seeing it, and had been eagerly anticipating her run in 2008 – was all, “[RKMK], dude, I don’t know if I want her to be President anymore,” and started talking about selling out to insurance companies. I suppose now would be an interesting time to go and watch/re-watch it, i.e. get a little perspective on the extent the primaries warped the Democratic psychological landscape (Hillary Derangement Syndrome, what was considered the bare minimum Democratic position on health care pre-Cult of Sparkle Pony Personality, etc.)
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soopermouse says:
He accused Hillary of having been bought by the insurance companies. So yeah,fuck him.
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