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.

Health Care Reform Compromise

CNN: Reports on a possible compromise health care package that has been suggested by Democrat Senator Max Baucus, this would ditch the public option, but would reform and lower the costs of the health industry. This is a work in progress folks, it would make Blue Dog Democrats happy, they could sell this back home, lower costs but also reform, lets see how the politics work out, its the Liberals that could block this compromise that would be a great reform for the people of the USA.

Appeasement by the Liberal LA Times

LA Times: Has an Editorial that could have been written before the Munich meeting between Hitler and UK PM Neville Chamberlain in 1938. In this case its US Foreign Policy towards Iran, the papers it seems has not learnt from history, the paper states that “…..critics are warning that Iran will use the talks to stall for time…….Obama must follow through…….pursue talks seriously,…not the assumption of failure. ” If Obama follows through with this idea he will get a sharp reaction from Israel, they will never allow a nuclear armed Iran, thus they will use their military arsenal to hit Iran. The policy that President Obama should use is the reverse of that of the Liberal LA Times, he should place brutal sanctions on Iran, make the civic society bleed, force the people back on the streets to demand a new government. This would allow Israel some breathing space and give her the option of not attacking Iran to see if the sanctions work. At the end of the day its this kind of appeasing editorial that lead to war, has the LA Times learned nothing form Munich and the selling out of the Czechs in 1938.

UN and the Afghan Election

The New York Times: Reports that the UN Agency running the Afghan Election will have a partial recount of votes due to the allegations of fraud. The NYT writes the following, " Afghans loyal to Mr. Karzai set up hundreds of fictitious polling sites...." Thus President Obama faces a long process of a weak government in Kabul, political tensions between the political elite, the chance that there might be a need for a second round of elections, which could deliver the same result, a President in Hamid Karzai who could make the job of Obama of selling the idea of more troops for Afghanistan ever harder, also Karzai has stated that he wants to talk to the moderate Taliban, a policy that has a twin edge. The new strategy by the US military is to bring in moderate Taliban, to break them off from the extreme Taliban, but what if Karzai brings in the wrong Taliban, as to place pressure on the USA. At the end of the day Karzai is running in an Afghan Election, he knows how the work the system, is fraud but its Afghan fraud. If the West in the shape of the USA start to act like an Imperial power in deciding who should lead Afghanistan this could lead to more trouble down the line. As this blog has argued Karzai is the new Diem for the USA, the question is what will President Obama do, he is from Chicago, the politics of Chicago would be at home with the Afghan fraud, thus the USA has had dubious elections in 1960 and 2000, this is the time for Obama not to hit the barn over or that barn might fall on US Foreign Policy, and the cost be the lives of US soldiers.