By Autumn Dawson
The darling president, who so famously turns his nose up at drama and scoffs at political theater, walked into the East Room, medical staff in-tow, during one of the wildest political stretches in recent memory. Oh let the fun begin.
While chaos reigned on Capitol Hill, the ever-immaculately-turned-out president stood center stage at the podium in the East Room, flanked by Doctors wearing long white coats and somber expressions. “At stake right now is not just our ability to solve this problem,” Obama said, “but our ability to solve any problem.” Wow, really? I had no idea!
The president, despite his repeatedly demonstrated preference to enjoy hearing himself speak, went on for only 15 minutes as to how he is going to go about gaining control of 1/6of our economy. Oops…I meant how he is going to go about fixing the problems with our healthcare system.
His remarks can be summed up like this: we have analyzed healthcare reform to death for nine months. Democrats and Republicans both agree the current system does not work. We have to do something. We have tried incorporating Republican idea. And I don’t like them. These are my proposals, and I want them passed. Now.
Aye, aye captain. There’s just one little problem with his plan—as anyone who has ever been around a belligerent two-year-old know: just because the kid throws a fit and stomps his foot, doesn’t mean that he’ll get what he wants. So the question is, can Obama’s autocratic style of leadership succeed while madness descends upon so many of our elected “leaders”; when Democrats are becoming increasingly worried about their political futures; while Republican rhetoric about overreaching federal power continues to resonate with a growing percentage of Americans?
I imagine we shall see over the next few weeks. And if those coming weeks are anything like the past few days, it should be entertaining if nothing else. For while Obama traveled to Savannah to speak about the economy, Washington had itself an interesting couple of days.
There was Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) who, despite his own Rep. colleagues’ outcries, made a stubborn last stand to delay a $10 billion spending bill for five days. There was the 79-year-old bow tie wearing Charles Rangel (D-NY), who announced that he would resign temporarily as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee because of an ongoing ethics investigation. Hours later, Democrats protested the appointment of Rangel’s expected replacement, Pete Stark (D-Calif.). Then there was the Republican National Committee, which created a fundraising memo depicting Obama as the Joker character from “Batman” and dubbed him part of “The Evil Empire.” Less than an hour later, a Democratic National Committee spokesman countered that “the Republican Party has been taken over by the fear-mongering lunatic fringe.”
And through it all was the memory of Obama’s final remarks in the East Room, pumping his fist emphatically as he concluded: “Let’s get it done!” Yeah, Washington will get right on that.