The Blue Dog Problem for President Obama

CNN News: Reports that a leading Blue Dog Democrat, House of Representatives member, Mike Ross has stated he will not support a health care bill with a public option. The main problem for President Obama is not the Republicans, its his own Liberal base, if he does support a moderate health care reform bill, the Liberal base will go bonkers, thus Obama will have sweet talk them around, they can hardly vote against the first African - American Democratic President over such an important policy. Thus President Obama will have to turn on the LBJ treatment for his own party, he will need them to support his moderate policy and keep their mouths shut, otherwise you have a split party and the Republicans have a chance of taking Congress in 2010.

The Power of the Message and the Obama White House

Politico: Reports on how the Obama White House sells in message to the voters, it points out the Obama's Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel still thinks the New York Times matters in this day and age. Thus we have found the problem for the disaster that was August for Obama, in Mr Emanuel Obama has the wrong Chief of Staff, Mr Emanuel is a great political operator, he turned the Republican House back to the Democrats, that does not make him a good Chief of Staff. The very idea that the Liberal New York Times matters shows a slight miss reading of modern political communication. The Liberal NYT matters if you are an extreme Liberal, but the rest of the country hates the Liberal NYT. If you think that leaking to the Liberal NYT is worth your effort then you are in the wrong job. As suggested to the President in this blog at the start of his Administration he should have appointed James Baker, Chief of Staff to Ronald Reagan in the first term, Treasury Secretary in the second term, and Secretary of State to Bush 41. Also he helped get Bush 43 in to the White House in 2000. If health care fails the blame will be down to Mr Emanuel.

The Speech on Health Care Reform Tonight - President Obama

BBC News: Reports on President Obama's make or break speech on health care reform early Thursday morning UK time. It can be postulated from the leaks in Washington D.C and press reports that Obama is looking for a way out of the political mess that his Administration has created in August. In allowing the Congress to draft the Health Care Bill, Obama handed over his power to Liberal Leaders in Congress and in doing so scared the living daylights out of Blue Dog Democrats, Independents and Republicans. The Bill created by Liberals would have created a public option that would have covered all Americans, bought in rationing of care, prevented the folks from keeping the Doctor they want, told the Doctors how to treat their patients. Also would have created DEATH panels for the old and military veterans that would have told they to fall off their perch. The new compromise from the Senator Baucus would drop the public option, cut costs for health coverage, prevent the Insurance companies from not giving treatment to those with pre existing medical conditions, and place a penalty on those that refuse to take medical cover. Lets hope President Obama takes the moderate route tonight. It is right morally and politically.

Death in Afghanistan

MOD: Reports that a British Soldier has died in Afghanistan, the soldier was taking part in the rescue of a UK Reporter working for the New York Times that was being held by the Taliban/Terrorists. Thus since 2001 the UK has lost 213 of its Armed Forces Personnel in Afghanistan, of that total 182 have died in combat operations, while another 31 have died due to accidents, illness or other incidents. One has to point out according to news reports this is the second time that the Reporter has being taken hostage, Stephen Farrell while in Iraq was also a hostage, one has to ask if the Armed Fores should be used to rescue reporters who go in to War Zones and get taken hostage more than once. It could be argued that the Afghan Government in Kabul should get a waver from Reporters that if they get caught up in the War and are taken hostage the problem does not lie with the Western Forces to get their bacon out of the fire.