Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Votes in the House - Health Care Reform



Slate: Reports on the voting patterns in the House of Representatives, the article states that Speaker Pelosi will have a hard time getting the votes, as stated in the NYT it comes down to Democrats who oppose abortion and those that think that the Bill will bankrupt the country. At the end of the day the heavy lift will have to come from the Oval, Obama will have to find his inner LBJ. In other words its down to what House members want, do they need money for their individual races, do they want the White House to get jobs for their friends, do they need Obama not come to their district in the Mid Terms. Or even more hard ball does the White House have any political dirt on House members, sleeping with their secretaries, tax avoidance, mob connections, etc. If so the Oval will have to use this dirt, its about winning not coming second. This is hard ball politics, lets put aside the issue of health care reform, lets look at the process, Obama needs a win, thus it time to put away his moderator hat and place his Chicago hat on, find what is the weakness of the voter you need and feed that weakness, leave the morality at the door. As the article states in less Pelosi can turn some votes the bill will " almost certainly fail. " This would be a crushing defeat for Obama, thus as Reagan rented House votes the Obama White House has to play hardball, otherwise the Democrats will lose the House in 2010 and the Presidency in 2012. Its real politics folks, that is what this blog would do if in the Obama White House.

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