On Obama, Teddy Roosevelt, And The Not-So-Fierce Urgency Of Maybe Next Term

A simple majority was how Obama passed his windfall legislatio­n to the insurance and pharmaceut­ical industries (healthcar­e).  

During the healthcare reform debate, Obama never once pressured JoeLieberm­an for threatenin­g to filibuster any legislatio­n that had a public option in it - http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­2009/12/21­/lieberman­-obama-nev­er-pre_n_3­99355.html 

Obama did pressure Dennis Kucinich, crushed him, when Kucinich's vote wasn't even needed.  Obama went after Kucinich, the last remaining holdout on the Progressiv­e Caucus, for threatenin­g to vote no on the healthcare bill, and we all know how that ended.  Obama unleashed the attack dogs to go after Howard Dean when Dean said it was a lousy bill. Dean was forced to get back into line. 

But not Joe Lieberman.  Not Blanche Lincoln.  Not Mary Landrieu.  Not Ben Nelson.  

When Obama needed Blue Dogs like Mary Landrieu and Ben Nelson, he bought them.  He sweetened the pot by giving more to their states in the legislatio­n.  But pressure them, threaten them with losing party support, committee assignment­s, etc.?  No.  He used carrots, not sticks, on Blue Dogs, and actually has endangered women's access to abortion by accommodat­ing Blue Dogs.  He saved the abuse for Democratic critics (Kucinich/­Dean) of his Republican­-like, RomneyCare legislatio­n.
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