Froomkin's first at HuffPo: Our Fuzzy President Is About To Come Into Focus

[Karmadillo]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/10/our-fuzzy-president-is-ab_n_255524.html

We're finally going to get to know the real President Obama.

Once the final outlines of health-care legislation become clear, we'll know what really matters to him. Where he draws the line. How he wields the levers of power. Whose ox he gores when there's goring that has to be done.

We'll know who's really in charge.

What's amazing is that more than six months into a presidency that Obama vowed would be the most transparent in history, we still know so little about some basic things like how he makes up his mind and who influences him the most.

<edit>

Eventually, however, a White-House brokered deal will emerge from the back rooms. And one of two things will happen.

One possibility is that Obama, to everyone's surprise, will come out with a strong bill much like the one he promised his supporters during the campaign. It is conceivable, after all, that the reason Obama hasn't publicly issued ultimatums and twisted arms and busted heads is that he believes it's best to do those things in private -- and only when the time is truly ripe. In this scenario, which I call the Obama-as-community-organizer scenario, the community's needs are finally met, but in a way such that even those who had thwarted the people's will are allowed to save face.

The other possibility -- well, I call that one the Obama-as-pushover scenario. In this one, Obama will come out of it having given away the store -- having neither significantly improved the health-care system nor lowered its costs, but rather having created a new entitlement that primarily benefits the health insurance, pharmaceutical and hospital industries.

So far, the glimpses we've seen from behind all those closed doors suggest the latter scenario. Most significantly, late last week, first the Los Angeles Times and then the New York Times broke the news that Obama had secretly made a sweetheart deal with former arch-nemesis Billy Tauzin, head of Big PhRMA. The same man who during his presidential campaign so ardently pledged to let Medicare negotiate prescription-drug prices with pharmaceutical companies, has now apparently agreed to block any Congressional efforts to do that -- or anything else that would rein in the industry's obscene profits, for that matter -- all in return for $80 billion in promised cost savings over 10 years and, it turns out, an $150 million ad campaign in support of "reform" efforts.

more...

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Guessing possibility #2.

Well, more than guessing.

[Laelth]

2. There will be some arm-twisting and goring either way.

With scenario #1, it's the Blue Dogs and a few Republicans, perhaps, that will receive the President's ire.

With scenario #2, it's the Progressive Caucus that will have to take a beating.

I agree with the OP that we will see who the real Barack Obama is when we see who he chooses to slam.

:dem:

-Laelth

[rudy23]

3. We've already seen which side Rahm wants to slam, and Rahm speaks for the President.

Until Obama rebukes Rahm publicly, we have to believe they are on the same page.

[liberalmuse]

4. I think it's time Rahm spent more time with his wife and children.

There's got to be someone else who can do his job better, right?

[rudy23]

5. I think he's doing exactly what he was hired to do---be the bad cop for Obama's right-leaning agenda

All while posing as Democrats. This is the last time I have "hope" for a political candidate.

[Laelth]

6. I fully understand your disillusionment.

Personally, I was happy that Obama plucked Rahm out of the House and, in the process, cut off one of the two heads of the DLC, making Rahm an employee that the President could fire at will. I was happy about that only because I assumed Rahm would have to do the President's bidding and not vice versa. I can not really believe that the President wants to advance a right-wing agenda. Rahm might, but I don't think the President does. The stimulus bill, after all, was a more significant piece of liberal legislation than anything Clinton managed to pass in eight years. So ...

I remain guarded and undecided. As I said, I think we will know who our President is when we see how he chooses to act on "health insurance" reform.

:dem:

-Laelth

[rudy23]

8. I don't doubt that Rahm IS doing the president's bidding on this.

I used to have hope that part of Obama's strategy was to have a team of rivals working for him. The lack of progressives and Obama's first seven months of "bipartisanship" have pretty much snuffed out that hope.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

7. There will be some trade-offs between Obama and the Blue Dogs

and what passes probably will not be as "meaty" as most of us would like but if we can get some of the key provisions passed such as preventing insurance companies from denying coverage, portability, and some other *nuggets* I think that these kind of things will make things better for a lot of people- and President Obama and Congress can continue working on it throughout his 1-2 terms in office. What's most important is that we get the ball started rolling. We may all agree here that Single Payer might be superior and I don't think any of us can understand the mentality that can't or won't accept the benefits of a government-run health health care system despite its obvious successes in other countries but so far Obama and the more progressive members of Congress are having significant problems, primarily with the Blue Dogs, in getting even a robust "public option" through the legislative process, so it's a fair bet that, absent some titanic changes in the situation, a watered down "public option" or some other alternative might be the most likely scenario. But once we start changing things, as President Obama suggested in his presser, I believe that more change will ultimately be inevitable (which the Repukes and probably some Blue Dogs are surely worried about). The goal IMHO should be in getting the ball rolling and not blocking the undeniably positive changes that currently stand good chances for passage and going back for the rest later.

[Laelth]

9. It's highly unlikely that the public option can be "beefed up" later.

As Kip Sullivan argues, it would be better to do nothing than to pass a weak public option that will further strengthen the insurance industry with a massive infusion of Federal dollars. How are we ever going to get single payer if we keep making insurance companies stronger?

See here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6260867

:dem:

-Laelth