The last thing I want to do is write another blog about healthcare. I’m tired of being asked what I think about the healthcare proposals, the latest inquisition coming from own primary care physician who was less than delighted with my response. Having visited more hospitals around the world than I care to count, and having investigated many healthcare delivery systems, I can simply state that Americans who think they have the world’s only good healthcare system are deluded…it just isn’t so. But our healthcare system isn’t the topic of this column.
I wonder how or why President Obama decided to stake the success of his presidency on healthcare. Whatever his administration has or hasn’t accomplished during the past 13 months is completely obscured by the fruitless and endless debate over healthcare. Nothing else the president has done, or intends to do, is even on the radar at this point…and the Republicans love it.
For some reason President Obama has chosen to draw his line in the sand with the healthcare bill. Perhaps Hillary Clinton should have taken the president aside and given him a little free advice. More than anyone, Mrs. Clinton knows the toxic nature of the healthcare debate. No topic engenders as much fear, intransigence, and inept grandstanding as healthcare. A political life can survive lying, cheating, adultery, mismanagement, and just about anything else…but not the healthcare debate.
By failing to dismount what is now a dead horse, President Obama has given the opposition manifold opportunities to entrench healthcare as symbolic of his failed administration, at the distraction of any other initiatives or accomplishments, permitting them to characterize him as a quixotic juggernaut bent on providing health insurance to 30 million Americans while nearly that many are unemployed, the economy is in a shambles, and foreclosures continue at unprecendented rates.
Despite the president’s admirable State of the Union address that prioritized issues of epic consequence and accurately positioned his daunting inheritance from the Bush administration, his follow-up has been to move healthcare back to the front pages, providing yet another opportunity for Republicans to rally. Whether the president likes it or not, he is polishing the Republican sword that will pierce the heart of his presidency.
If things keep going as they are, the mid-term elections will definitely result in Democratic losses. Even now it’s obvious that some are already abandoning what they perceive to be a sinking ship, and will continue their flight as the failure of the administration’s key program becomes more and more obvious.
However, the greatest injustice and unfortunate loss in all of this is that the extremist right-wing views and “spoiler” mentality that has come to characterize the Republican party is reaping political gains while they get away with political murder. Their unabashed antagonism and self-serving cynicism is going unnoticed, if not rewarded, at the expense of the fresh start and new hope that characterized the last election.
Time is running out. The President has two years before the election process starts all over again. If he is to deliver any of the hoped-for change he promised, it’s time to fight the battles he can win. Healthcare legislation may be important to him but it just isn’t resonating with the American people.
