by Mark Silva
Oh, when the Saints come marching in to the White House, where the fan-in-chief had placed his heart with New Orleans, but still his head with the Colts, in the Super Bowl that ended with a come-from-behind victory for the team from Louisiana.
(They receive college champs on the South Lawn; maybe they'll make room for the NFL this year.)
But while they're at it in the West Wing, they may want to consult with The Who's Roger Daltrey on his opinion about Medicare (which, of course, he doesn't need, because he lives in a country with nationalized health care.) The front man from one of the big bands of the 1960s is 65, and his voice showed every year of it in the Super Bowl half-time show.
Even Daltrey admitted that it could have gone better, as ESPN reports from the locker room - or actually the tunnel to the sky boxes.
"I thought it went OK,'' the singer told an interviewer. "I was so blinded that I couldn't see. "And I really wished the crowd would have gotten into singing the songs with us more. That's how it is in Europe for our soccer matches. I wanted more banter."
At his age, even spending the night in Miami had its certain disappointments -- "Miami is so different these days. It's not just a retirement community," Daltrey said nostalgically, in his post-show talk with ESPN. "Now Miami is fun and hip, and I'm too old to enjoy it."
"We won't be fooled again,'' Daltrey, showman Peter Townshend and company sang at the close of their 12-minute Super Bowl show - which could, in fact, serve as a theme song for events unfolding at the White House this week.
President Barack Obama has invited the leaders of what his own associates have dubbed "the party of No'' in for a talk about health-care. The Republicans are signaling that, yes, they are ready to be heard.
This week's summit is being billed at a high gesture of bipartisanship. With Democrats lacking the votes needed to muscle anything through the Senate now, it could take some measure of bipartisan cooperation to pass any health-care legislation - unless the House simply caves to a Senate-passed bill or some additional deal is done by budget reconciliation, ala House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan.
But the president also has signaled that he wants to see some "details'' about questions such as: How to insure some 30 million people without health insurance. Neither the tort reform nor sale of insurance across state lines which Republicans have advanced offers much headway on that front. The GOP is talking about starting from scratch.
So there is a good chance that the most that the White House is able to find in the bipartisan health summit are some sweeteners which may offer the GOP an opening to sprinkle some votes on health care.
It's unlikely that the GOP will find a White House willing to concede the concept of what it considers real "change,'' having gotten this close to passage of a plan. The House has passed a bill, with the help of just one Republican member. The Senate has passed a bill, without support from any Republicans. The trick is passing one plan which both can accept, and which the president can sign and represent as reform.
No one wants to get fooled again.
Comments
Let the " do-nothing " Senators' show begin. I give President Obama a whole lot more credit, in dealing with these " do-nothing " Senators. He is showing determination and dedication, in trying to resolve one of our serious economic problems, today: the unacceptable skyrocketing of our Healthcare costs.
The big, and serious, question is : Will these same " Do-nothing " Senators help President Obama solve this growing burden, or simply do what they have been doing: Obstructing? My wild guess is, they will offer their obviously unacceptable agenda and point to President Obama's inability to accept Republican-Libertarian non-solution. Take that to our Banks, our Boardrooms, where they are already grooming the next bushwhacker, still another dufus, along the lines of another Bush&Cheney !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | February 8, 2010 9:46 AM
Negotiations my foot. More Nebraska pay offs and the bribing of Louisiana. 2000 pages of pocket stuffing pork that no one has read. The voting for this white elephant shows how corrupt and incompetent the clowns in Washington really are.
Posted by: senator dirksen | February 8, 2010 9:56 AM
Hi Don,
Fixed your first paragraph for you...
Let the "do the wrong thing" Senators' show begin. I give President Obama a whole lot more credit, in dealing with these "doing the wrong thing" Senators. He is showing his lcomplete incompetence and tone-deafness in trying to hijack the current health insurance industry, which is currently favored by over 85% of American citizens..
Posted by: Chris | February 8, 2010 10:08 AM
Yep, no better way to get a vote then start calling them names. You can win more with honey then with bees
Posted by: Bill me in 3030 | February 8, 2010 10:34 AM
I love how the media just keeps trying to put the moniker "party of no" on the republicans. I'm sure most of these same people looked at their parents and thought of them as "adults of no". Most times it's much harder to say no, but I would never expect democrats to understand that.
As for this other poster talking about do nothing senators, maybe he should look at his boy considering he's the poster boy for doing nothing.
State senator for 8 years, nothing, 3 years as a senator from Illinois - nothing. He voted straight party tickets - which I guess you'd call being a representative of the party of no.
Posted by: worsethanbefore | February 8, 2010 10:39 AM
WAY TO GO DONNIE SKITZOGERALD . . . BANG THAT DRUM, THOUGH THE NATIVES ARE GETTING RESTLESS.
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RUT ROW. ELEVATOR . . . GOING DOWN?
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Daily Presidential Tracking Poll APPROVAL 44%
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AND BEFORE THE LEFTIE GO A SKITZO (YET AGAIN) READ THIS:
It is important to remember that the Rasmussen Reports job approval ratings are based upon a sample of likely voters. Some other firms base their approval ratings on samples of all adults. President Obama's numbers are always several points higher in a poll of adults rather than likely voters. That's because some of the President's most enthusiastic supporters, such as young adults, are less likely to turn out to vote.
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http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | February 8, 2010 10:49 AM
President Obama should have called this bi-partisan meeting last June. Instead he wasted a year trying to cram Socialized Health down the throats of a majority of the American Public who do not want this bill. I hope both the President and the Democratic and Republican Leadership makes this meeting a constructive one instead of a photo opt. But if Obama and Pelosi go back to its my way only or NO way, any type of Health Reform will not pass. It is really amazing that with a democratic President and the Democrats controlling both Houses of Congress with so-called Super Majorities, they have trouble getting anything passed except for a Pork Filled Stimulus Bill. Talk about weak leadership with President Obama, Speaker of the House Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid. Huge majorities and they can't get anything passed. No excuses!
Posted by: Depot- Jim | February 8, 2010 10:51 AM
DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE HEALTH CARE SNOW JOB BUT THERE'S THIS:
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Jobs bill gets snowed under
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Senate Democrats will miss their self-imposed deadline for bringing a jobs bill to the floor Monday, and they’re hoping that the weekend’s epic snowstorm will give them some cover.
Senate votes scheduled for Monday evening have been pushed back to Tuesday on account of the storm, but it seems unlikely that Democrats would have been ready to proceed Monday, anyway.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/32658.html
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | February 8, 2010 10:52 AM
Republicans aren't going to do anything to help Obama pass any legislation this year. They are content to sit on the sidelines and ride voter discontentment into the 2010 elections, hoping for a change in the House and Senate majorities. This seems like a safe plan now, but if the economy starts to turn around it may backfire. Voters more than anything vote with their pocketbooks and if they see real improvement before November they may opt to stick with the current lineup.
Posted by: Mike_from_Chicago | February 8, 2010 11:34 AM
Hey, " Chris ", get your own material. Or are you like the rest of your gang, The Republican-Libertarian Party, idealess, clueless !! Work on that, would you and maybe next time, you can post your own message !! Nice try, though !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | February 8, 2010 11:35 AM
You can win more with honey then with bees
Posted by: Bill me in 3030 | February 8, 2010 10:34 AM
That would be vinegar!
Posted by: bill r. | February 8, 2010 12:58 PM
Hey Don, the dems have been in complete control and able to pass whatever they wanted with no input or votes from repubs. So if Obama now wants to reach out to "do nothing" lawmakers, he's fishing on the wrong side of the aisle.
Posted by: Kathy | February 8, 2010 1:23 PM
Nice job Chris - Don he was must making a point/ geeze
Posted by: LostinSeattle | February 8, 2010 2:01 PM
All you liberals have been fooled and are willingly playing the fool. Obama's hope and change is just a slogan like everything else that the lecturer in chief tells his children, I mean his fanatical supporters, to do. Nobody else is listening to the Marxist radical lawyer.
Posted by: Free to Watch Whatever I Want | February 8, 2010 2:59 PM
That is some mighty, twisted logic, " Kathy " and it was that kind of thinking that gave America, it's biggest nightmare, since Ronnie Raygun; The Incompetents: Bush&Cheney !! Please, see if you can straighten out, your reasoning, before we go through another Republican-Libertarian nightmare !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.
Posted by: Don Fitzgerald, IL | February 8, 2010 3:47 PM
WHy does anyone think a gov't run health care plan will create a surplus, like BO and Flatliners in Congress think? Has the gov't ever run a social program that has come in under budget and met the customers' needs?
Social Security - Not even close.
Medicare - Again not close.
Medicaid - Ask the legislatures of 50 states about the effects of Medicaid on their budgets.
Want to see what gov't run health care looks like - look at the health care on Indian Reservations and see what rationing will become.
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/health/2009/june/The-Dark-Side-of-Health-Care-on-Native-American-Reservations.html
This is criminal for the Americans that live on the reservation, do we want this for the remaining Americans?
Posted by: Terry | February 8, 2010 6:24 PM
WOW DONNY SKITZGERALD, YOU REALLY DON'T HAVE A CLUE, DO YOU?
Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | February 8, 2010 6:51 PM
Ringo's kid or not, maybe they should consider renaming themselves The Who Dat.
Posted by: Kenny Bunkport | February 8, 2010 7:59 PM
Bobby,
I'm waiting for one FITZ's rants to end with a Howard Dean screech.
Posted by: Terry | February 8, 2010 10:06 PM