What’s That Smell, Desperation?

Since the health care bill passed, there has been a stench in the air, it’s the smell of desperation. For the nutjobs, it’s manifested itself in death threats, armageddon, calling for a revolution and all sorts of crazy statements. For those conservatives that are less nutty (and I’m not sure there is much difference), it comes in the form of Maria Bartiromo foaming at the mouth on Morning Propoganda, John Boehner screaming “Hell no, you can’t” on the floor of the House of Representatives and other more subtle attempts at spinning it as a disaster waiting to happen. For the same reason, the Republicans tried every trick they could to stop the bill, they are now trying to pre-spin it as a disaster because they know that once it settles in and people see the reality of what was passed, it’s going to be pretty popular. The Republicans didn’t want to stop the bill because they really believe it is bad for America, they wanted to stop it because it is bad for their brand.

It’s been the law for just over a week, right? The President is out selling it and explaining it to the American people, trying to reprogram them from the vast amount of lies and misinformation that the Republicans, Firedoglake and the Teabaggers have been spreading for the last 6 to 8 months. It’s a tough job trying to get the truth out when the media is complicate in the misinformation, treating facts as just another opinion or an opposing viewpoint. And of course FOX just blatantly lies and is leading the pack of misinformation dogs. Fortunately the President has the bully pulpit and can get airtime and coverage whether the media is doing its job or not. It’s going to take some time to reprogram the brainwashed masses and many really don’t want to know the truth, they are happy in their little twisted worlds. These are the folks that cover their ears and go “la la la la la la la” because any information that might make them question their “truth” causes cognitive dissonance.

This desperation has led them to quickly take polls showing how much the “American people” don’t like the bill, before the president can get the truth out to them. They think by pushing the poll results, they can subtly affect the mood, the old bandwagon effect. Everyone is hating it so I guess I should too. That tactic works to an extent, but since the vast majority of people don’t watch the news and pay very little attention to the insider Washington game, I think it is a lot of effort for little effect. I think Mike Barnicle made the point on the Idiot Mika Show that the horserace questions in these polls are like trying to predict the winner of the World Series in spring training. I was surprised to hear those words come out of Barnicle, but even a dead clock is right twice a day.

I, for one, would not blame President Obama if he didn’t run again in 2012. Then all this prognosticating about his reelection and this or that poll showing the American people don’t think he deserves to be reelected would be for nothing. Cut them off at the knees. I really think that President Obama is not making decisions based on whether it will get him reelected and I love him for it. He should get as much done as possible and change the course of our country back to one of a caring, prosperous country for all people, not just the rich. The Bush administration did so much damage to every aspect of our country that there is still a lot of work to be done to fix it.