WaPo: Obama Like Bush

By Big Tent Democrat, Section Media
Posted on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 08:24:24 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)

Share This: Digg!

Jackson Diehl, Fred Hiatt's Lieutenant on the WaPo Editorial Board, pens perhaps the dumbest thing we have yet seen from perhaps the dumbest group of people on the planet, the Media. Diehl writes:

Washington has spent the past couple of weeks debating whether Barack Obama's ambitious agenda and political strategy are more comparable to those of Franklin Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. Oddly, hardly anyone is talking about the ways in which Obama is beginning to resemble the man who just vacated the White House. . . Obama hasn't strayed far from Karl Rove's playbook for routing the opposition. But surely, you say, he's planning nothing as divisive or as risky as the Iraq war? Well, that's where the health-care plan comes in: a $634 billion (to begin) "historic commitment," as Obama calls it, that (like the removal of Saddam Hussein) has lurked in the background of the national agenda for years. . . .

[More...]

You see? Health care coverage is like the Iraq Debacle. Incredible. I bet Diehl would not say that if Obama had made "entitlement reform" a centerpiece of his program. But I can think of another difference between Bush and Obama -- Bush had the sycophantic Fred Hiatt, Jackson Diehl and the Washington Post demanding applause for the Iraq Debacle every step of the way and calling people who disagreed "traitors" (link to Balloon Juice, where I found the Diehl piece; surely Mr. Diehl remembers WaPo's part in the New McCarthyism?) So there's a difference between Obama and Bush.

Speaking for me only

< Late Night Open Thread | Obama's "Culture Of Caution" On The Financial Crisis >

Legal

Nothing on this site should be construed as legal advice. TalkLeft does not give legal advice.

TalkLeft is not responsible for and often disagrees with material posted in the comments section. Read at your own risk.

WaPo: Obama Like Bush | 17 comments (17 topical)

Readers Must Login or Create an Account to Comment

Hm (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Steve M on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:01:27 AM EST

Sounds like we need a few more middle-class editorial writers.

Interesting, isn't it, that (5.00 / 5) (#7)
by Anne on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:45:45 AM EST

health care reform is less valuable to these guys, and scares them a whole lot more, than war?

Think about this: there are a lot of men and women who joined the military because they had no other employment opportunities, or because they were looking for job training, a salary and health benefits for themselves and their families. The Hiatts and the Diehls are just fine with sending people who might otherwise be among the millions of uninsured off to risk their lives in war, and barely bat an eye at our having to loot the Treasury to do it, but when it comes to making health care available and affordable to the citizenry? Forget it - that can't possibly be a good use of government funds in their minds - it's just too horrifying.

There is a growing chorus of voices among elected representatives and the pundits and pontificators, that are saying some people just don't deserve access to affordable health care, a point of view that is more than troubling when I consider that it is being received in some quarters as having a certain validity.

A privilege, not a right. (none / 0) (#9)
by oculus on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 11:12:20 AM EST

Which is what the courts have said about a state driver license. But almost everyone of age has a driver license.


Hm (none / 0) (#11)
by Steve M on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 12:31:33 PM EST

My wife and my best friend do not!


Many NYCers (5.00 / 0) (#12)
by squeaky on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 12:39:33 PM EST

Do not have a DL. No need to.


: Maybe I could afford to move (none / 0) (#14)
by oculus on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 12:41:44 PM EST

to Manhattan. Think of all the money I'd save!

Manhattan is the exception (none / 0) (#13)
by oculus on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 12:40:05 PM EST

to the rule, luckily!


Well hey (none / 0) (#15)
by Steve M on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 01:29:08 PM EST

We live in Jersey now, actually. Still no car! My friend lives in the DC suburbs, it just so happened that he never learned.


W or w/o picket fence? (none / 0) (#16)
by oculus on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 03:35:30 PM EST

: Not even close (none / 0) (#17)
by Steve M on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 03:41:08 PM EST

Still an apartment dweller.

Whoa there. (5.00 / 2) (#10)
by hitchhiker on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 11:57:36 AM EST

Obama hasn't strayed far from Karl Rove's playbook for routing the opposition

He just tossed that one in for the fun of it, I suppose.

Here's the logic:

Republicans are in a deep hole
Obama is popular
Ergo, Obama must have brutally shoved them into that hole by lying about them, sending people out to call them traitors, refusing to acknowledge anything they do, think or say that has merit, etc. -- you know, the Rove playbook.

You wonder if the writer is stupid, or just convinced that we are.

They are disgusting. (none / 0) (#2)
by Salo on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:01:38 AM EST

Broadening social provisions is the main difference between the two. Obama will begin to resemble bush on foreign policy in the long run but certainly not on this issue.

A rational healthcare system. (none / 0) (#3)
by Salo on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:03:40 AM EST

Risky scheme? The gall of this writer.

A Big Difference (none / 0) (#4)
by bob h on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:12:27 AM EST

is that Obama's plan is paid for; Bush's was borrowed.

Possibly the stupidest thing I've ever read (none / 0) (#5)
by ruffian on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:30:18 AM EST

Diehl I mean. How much to they pay him to come up with that strained analogy?

I think that's just it (none / 0) (#6)
by Claw on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 09:44:15 AM EST

Diehl has to write something and more intelligent writers are already discussing Obama comparisons that, y'know, might make sense. So Diehl has a choice: offer a sensible opinion on Obama and be outshone, or write something ludicrous and controversial. He chose the latter. But there's a beauty in taking a completely insane position; you might be the only dog in the fight. If NO ONE's talking about something (save you) it becomes your issue. You win by default.
I notice no one's been talking about how similar Obama is to Batman...stay tuned for the editorial.


: You give Diehl too much credit (none / 0) (#8)
by Spamlet on Sat Mar 07, 2009 at 10:18:41 AM EST

He's just stupid. No choice about that.