“He’s a disillusioned, weak-willed, not-so-bright, closet conservative who is sexually immature and homo-threatened, and has no respect for the civil rights, gay and equal rights movements. He just likes to “mouth it” for a good crowd response. He is a weak, moral coward.”

Jesus what a hateful diatribe.  The man has only been in office for 6 months and you have declared him a moral coward?  Sexually immature?  LOL… in what way?  Please defend the statement.  It is utterly absurd. 

As a gay man I am not happy that he hasn’t moved on Gay rights yet, but I truly believe he will. 

I do not believe a single statement you made about his character or nature.  I think you are someone who expects all of the problems we fact to be magically fixed by one individual, and if he alone can’t do it in a few months then you attack beyond reason… 

You have the right to your opinion, of course.  But unless you can provide some basis of referring to him as sexually immature, or worse - a ‘conservative,’ I can’t take you seriously…

Well, I’m bettin’ against him.
“...Obama must simultaneously persuade Democrats that they are not living in the Republican congressional eras of 1995 or 2003…”

How can he do this when he is living in that past himself? He is not a progressive, he’s just a liar.

And the public option is nothing more than another insurance company. This is EXACTLY how Blue Cross got started during the last health care crisis. And they have become the WORST of the WORST.

A public option is just a ploy to get uninformed progressives to believe in him. It has nothing to do with single payer and everything to do with a cheap HMO. Thats all it is. I guess he got you with that word “public”, didn’t he?

Well, I expect Chump Change to do to health care what he did with torture accountability, spying on Americans, drone bombing innocent civilians, mortgage assistance, outsourced and offshored jobs, signing statements, every Bush policy that he has upheld, patient dumping, Medicare-raiding, secrecy, stealing taxpayer money for bailouts for corporations, Wall street and the TARP.

His record is horrendous and he has people believing he is actually succeeding.

He IS the EPITOME of the discouraged 80’s when Reagan and the crazy evangelicals convinced young Democrats to totally give up on a progressive agenda because it would be too politically dangerous. After all, back then some progressives met with unseemly ends. But it didn’t take long for the Clintons and the Obama-types to dance with the warmongers and the international bankers because it was “wiser” and “more politically expedient”. He’s a disillusioned, weak-willed, not-so-bright, closet conservative who is sexually immature and homo-threatened, and has no respect for the civil rights, gay and equal rights movements. He just likes to “mouth it” for a good crowd response. He is a weak, moral coward.

I’m bettin’ and praying to God in heaven against him. For the sake of the suffering.

“As a candidate he promised us a universal single payer system of health care.  Now he flatly refuses to consider it!”

Nonsense! 

The man never once promised a single payer system, no matter how much I wish he did.  But he knows it’s not viable to a public that has been brainwashed into believing single payer = Socialism.

So he promoted a new idea.  Basically he outsmarted the opposition. 

He is introducing a public plan to compete with the private ones knowing full well it will be cheaper and better run than private insurance, and because it will be cheaper and less costly, individuals and companies will flock to it. 

The Republicans are crying that it will destroy the private health insurance system.  I think private health insurance will remain for the wealthy, and that is just fine with me.  But that system will be seriously diminished, and it will cease to be the backbone of the healthcare industry. 

And to that I can only say, ‘Thank God.’ 

I don’t understand all those ‘progressives’ who are opposing Obama because he isn’t giving us ‘what we voted for.’  He sure is.  He ran on this concept of providing a public plan to compete with the private insurers.  We voted for him, so we voted for his plan. 

I believe it will work..

Pres. Obushama just secured an important vote in the Senate by scuttling the F22. Don’t underestimate its significance as the F22 carries 2 Senate seats as well as some Georgia Republican congressmen. It could be as the writer says about Obushama’s political viewpoint on power. He’s a Kenyan American and was not raised to be a victim because his family has no slavery heritage, which is the case with some, not all, african Americans.So far though I have to refer to him as Obushama and will do so until he proves otherwise. I vote for him, he doesn’t vote for me so I’m and other voters are what’s important.

Hulk 2008
Your dead wrong about what Obama promised.  He clearly stated in his campaign ” If I get elected to the presidency and we have the House and Senate then universal single payer would be my choice.”  We the voters delivered on our end and got him elected. But he is not delivering on his promises. Since that campaign speech he has been retreating from single payer as the cash flowed in from the Insurance and Pharmaceutical donations to his campaign.
  America need action now! We are in so many way under siege and more than ever need a strong LEADER to act.  Too many people are dying every minute we delay in useless wars and needlessly, from lack of health care; while mega crooks get rewarded for devistating our ecconomy.
  Obama promoted himself as the “white” knight to save us from the Bush legacy.  I’m beginning to think that Bush was just Obama “light”. The American dream for the poor and middle class become a grotesque nightmare.  Time is running out for our planet and our survival on it, because of the narcissistic interests of the sociopath, moneyed, elite who own Washington. No, we can not wait patiently while political pandering exacerbates the mess we as in. We need that CHANGE NOW!

Some of the comments on this blog fit the definition of a boomer:  Between the snarls and whimpers, the ego-possesed, self-involved boomer is like a child playing at adult life. Put bluntly, you seem to have the patience of a three-year-old - particularly one who constantly complains from the back seat, “Are we there yet?”

As long as Washington continues to pay more attention to loyalty and discretion than to vision or success meaningful legislaton of any kind won’t happen.

Cindi McCain during her husband’s campaign for president said, “Time to take off our Republican hats and put on our American hats.” What’s so obviously troubling in that statement is that apparently the two are, or can be, different. (Of course, inside Foggy Bottom they’ve been different for decades.)

To borrow a phrase from The Gipper, “There you go again…”.  Obama has been in office less than 7 months and has been beaten up by all sides for “taking on too much” or “moving too fast”.  Now progressives who thought he promised single-payer are moaning.  If you check all his campaign speeches, the one recurrent theme was “if you like what you’ve got, you can keep it”.  That surely means single-payer is only one of the options.  And, unlike Hillary, he has let Congress do their thing before he jumps in with both feet.
The Pres should publicly call the Repugs and pseudo-Dems at their word - maybe name specific names.  If they want to slow down, make THEM define a firm deadline - not something vague.  If they do have a working alternatives, dare them to spell out the details so the CBO can slam their ideas. AND he should demand they stay in town until their so-called “RIGHT” solution is done and CBO-blessed.  Governors similarly insist on extended legistature sessions when a problem remains unresolved.  Keep the recalcitrants in D.C. until their golf shoes get moldy. 
There’s a very old joke about the parts of the body competing to see which should be the “leader” - the brain for its smarts, the hands for their facility, the feet for their speed, the gut for its energy.  The joke ends when, without actually doing much, the Sphincter tightened up and within a week all other body parts capitulated. 
  And we all now know who the Sphincters of D.C. are…...

“Don’t bet against us.”
Who’s “Us?” The banks and insurance companies? I’ll take that bet. Because I think Obamaism is dying on the vine. The Democratic party needs progressives. That’s their base. Obama is flipping off the democratic base, and that is not going to work.

What the FU&# Planet are you on? What a pile of political H.S. this article is. 
  Obama so far has been a spineless failure extraordinaire!  As a candidate he promised us a universal single payer system of health care.  Now he flatly refuses to consider it!  Bill HR 3200 is a sham.  This bill is DESIGNED to nail the coffin shut on any possibility of ever having Universal Single Payer health care in this country.  D. Kucinich’s amendment will be tossed out, you can bet on it.  There is no way the insurance lobby will allow this exception to remain in.  This bill will represent permanent protection and huge revenue increases for the insurance corporations and we the tax payers will foot the bill. 
  Just like the fake climate control bill which is great if your a coal company!  It brings us no where near where we need to be to even begin to turn things arround.
  Moreover, Most of the people he has chosen for his cabinet are in them selves a disaster.  Change??? what change. For the most part they are either X Clinton crew or X or Corporate lackeys recycled for corporate interest.  No, this is straight pay back time, to the money elite and Corporate interests who own him.  Bush was horrible but reneging on the promises is definitely worse!  Our expectations have been shattered.  And if President Obama thinks he’s going to get a free ride next time around he ain’t reading the tea leaves right.  I am definitely voting for Nader!

I too am a progressive and have not been as appreciative of President Obama’s positions on more than a few issues.  However, in the meantime, I feel it is my civic duty as an American to contact “my representative” and let them know how I feel about all of the issues that they are supposed to be taking up on behalf of “we the people”!  I would hope that all of the people that are so disappointed in Mr. President realize: (1)the President doesn’t actually write legislation - that’s what Congress is supposed to do, (2)Mr. President alone cannot do it, it is going to take everyone - all of us contacting our representatives all of the time - reminding them why they are in office to face the challenges ahead and make the necessary choices for all of us!

Please don’t believe that simply because you voted, that is the end of your civic duty!  Freedom isn’t free, those in this country that have been led down the roads of apathy and lies regarding the real functions of government - you need to go back to class so that you understand that in order for our “democracy” to function properly it takes an informed populace!  In our current celebrity obsessed, corporate media info-tainment, diversionary me me culture very little real information is being “reported” to we the people, and no one appears to notice! 

So before you sit down to your next “Reality show” maybe you should really participate in the “real world” you start by talking to people that don’t look like you or have your same viewpoints, you just might be surprised!

Obama dumped the Left—the “progressives”—back in May of 2008, although his position papers showed he was an overt conservative before then.  There was never a battle for “real change”.  It is probably an improvement that we now have a rational, intelligent conservative instead of an ignorant right-wing radical in the presidency, and that we’ve shown that we can elected someone besides an old White guy to high office, but that’s about it.

Granted Obama is a huge disappointment and pulled a major “bait-and-switch” regarding gay rights, Wall Street, American jobs, green technology, rendition and black sites…

but he’s not a fool and understands his career is finished in 2012 if he does not deliver on health care. Furthermore, the pressure from multinationals for a more European system is enormous; as it now stands health care in this country is putting corporations into red ink, and results in further job loss.

True, the corporate health care insurance industry has lots of clout, but in bankrupting the economy from incredible greed, they’ve created their own downfall.

So I’m taking a “wait and see” approach while I continue to regularly phone and write my “representatives” in Congress for single payer. I fear whatever passes from the Junta’s government will be awful, but perhaps it will also be a beginning to establish a system that actually heals the sick and promotes health. I know, I’ve obviously been smoking something.

RE LostHills:

Nevertheless, I bet you’ll glom onto some free healthcare if it comes your way, won’tcha?

I have never seen a sadder piece of political propaganda in my life. Or one that was more out of touch with reality.

I don’t know if you’ve looked at the bill, E.J., but the summary and the commentaries and the parts that I’ve read, this bill is a pile of garbage.  It’s health insurance, not health care. 

Obama lost the battle for real change when he refused to allow single-payer advocates at the table.  Obama doesn’t get it, or he gets it and doesn’t care—as long as he can put “I passed health care reform” on his resume. 

The very weak public option doesn’t go into effect until 2013 and there is voluntary participation by providers.  I could go on and on, but so much has been written on this health care bill.  Obama should be ashamed of himself.  He is losing the entire progressive base, both Dem and Independent, like myself, over this issue and all of the other key issues.  This is not what we voted for.