For MONTHS we've been shouting at politicians that backroom deals don't cut it, that we're TIRED of that kind of game-playing. Only AFTER they lose a supposedly secure Senate seat and are looking for something to replace health care reform as a central message, do they finally pretend to get it.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31990.html
After weeks of denials from the White House that the health care reform effort failed to exhibit the transparency President Barack Obama promised on the campaign trail, Obama is conceding that locking the public out of key discussions was a “mistake.”
“We had to make so many decisions quickly in a very difficult set of circumstances that after awhile, we started worrying more about getting the policy right than getting the process right,” Obama told ABC’s Diane Sawyer Monday. “But I had campaigned on process—part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up, transparency. ...The health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don't know what's going on. And it's an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.”
Nancy Pelosi has said repeatedly that this is the most transparent process America has ever seen. Now Obama admitted that the process was NOT transparent.
Some statements of his, however, need to be focused on.
"And it's an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals."
He must not have been paying attention. LOOKS like a bunch of back room deals? Maybe that's because there WERE a bunch of back room deals. Democrats would go into a room with disagreements and come out with new proposals and agreement. That's pretty much a dictionary definition of a back room deal. Whether it was the Cornhusker kickback or the union's deal on "cadillac insurance plans," the entire ObamaCare effort has been driven by the "what-deals-must-we-make-to-pass-this-bill" mentality.
“The process didn't run the way I ideally would like it to and that we have to move forward in a way that recaptures that sense of opening things up more,” Obama said.
On the contrary, the process ran EXACTLY like he wanted it to. Now that their effort is at best stalled, and Democrats face a growing backlash, it's time to pretend differently, but if he'd have wanted to run it differently there was nothing stopping him. In fact, MANY people were in fact BEGGING him to run the process differently. Sorry, Mr. President, but the process DID run the way you wanted it to, and the voters don't like it.
“Let's just clarify. I didn't make a bunch of deals,” Obama told ABC. “There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked.”
Don't blame me, it's not my fault. Simple message, and one that he's been using since he took office. He's been blaming Bush for everything... even for Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts. Now he's blaming Congress. No surprise, really.
Oh, and his "I didn't make any deals" statement is completely false. Remember the deal the White House struck with pharmaceutical companies?
As the process unfolded last year, critics complained not just about closed Congressional negotiations on health care, but about deals the White House worked out behind closed doors with pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, hospitals and unions.
In my personal opinion, this is just CYA time... damage control. PresBo did what he thought would work, what he thought we'd put up with... but not only did it fail, it also generated a voter backlash that threatens his Party's current status. So, now's the time to trot out some platitudes and utter meaningless phrases that might reassure a doubtful public.
But even as he's saying the process didn't work and wasn't transparent enough, he's being careful to make sure the blame for it doesn't attach to him.
However, Obama insisted Monday that the White House has delivered on the transparency he had direct control over. “I think it is important to know that the promises we made about increased transparency, we've executed here in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” Obama said. “I mean, this is the first White House in history where you know anybody who has walked into my office, anybody who has walked into the White House, you actually have a record of who comes in. We have put more stuff on the Internet than ever.”
And that will probably be the trademark of the Obama Presidency: "It's not my fault, blame them."
OOOO - Impressive! I can be transparent too. All I need to do is reset my FB status every minute. But that doesn't really tell people much of significance at all.
ReplyDeleteWho wants a record of the people walking through the Oval Office? Who cares if the White House puts 12,000 pages of garbage on the Internet. What we want to know is that they are reading the E-mails we write, listening to the phone calls from us and doing something about the legislation that will affect us and our children for years to come!
Come on Mr. BO. You sure have a cheap and superficial definition of transparency!