Quote:
Originally Posted by VladtheImpaler
No, he simply doesn't lead. Typically, a president has a "vision" which he seeks to impose/finesse through the Senate and House. Obama essentially says - "see what you guys can come up with, and I'll sign off on it". That's not leadership. He had a perfect opportunity to impose his vision before 2010, and he abysmally failed to lead. Letting the two donkeys (Reid and Pelosi) take the point was stupid and an absolute abrogation of his position. As a result a golden chance was missed - he had the electoral mandate and control of both houses and came up with a bunch of half-measures that will make the system even more expensive.
Obama is a nice man, and he would make an excellent school board chairman, but a President is supposed to be out front a bit more.  |
This is how urban legends begin, I suppose. He didn't make the mistake of every Progressive since Teddy Roosevelt in bringing a national healthcare by over promising and under delivering.
Clinton "led" on healthcare in the 90's with a Democratic Congress. We know how that ended.
Obama learned from that mistake that you need Congress to legislate and "socialist" ideas like nationalizing healthcare just isn't a middle of the road idea in America. The healthcare law passed in a very polarized, center right political climate. The law keeps the current for profit insurance company structure that removes some of the more eggregious aspects like denial of coverage, denial based on pre-existing conditions, rescission of coverage and lifetime limits of coverage. Ideologically, it starts to change the dynamic towards single payer. Mikey likes it, he actually likes it should be slogan if the individual mandate isn't overturned by the Supreme Court.
Though not every "liberal's" dream of single payer, it is a very good start to changing the framework. Obama is not an ideologue and even during the campaign, his plan was criticized by the left such as Paul Krugman as not going far enough. He has kept his promise of implementing a healthcare system that will effectively cover more people and help bend healthcare spending downward in comparison to the current system which I think everyone can agree isn't working.
As far as leading by committee, you can ask OBL if the Prez can't make a decision unless you believe he delegated that decision to Pelosi and Reid too.