Politico is grieved by her refusal to roll over like a proper Repub-fearing Democrat, but I {heart} Nancy Pelosi, and her stalwart fellows:
In a news conference Thursday after a meeting with White House officials, the top four Democrats said they won’t apologize for that promise, instead defending the language of the Affordable Care Act — their prized legislative achievement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who shepherded Obamacare through the House as speaker, said Obama was “very gracious” in making that apology but that the president’s words – in the context of the law – were “absolutely” precise.
“There’s nothing in the Affordable Care Act that says that your insurance company should cancel you,” she told reporters. “That’s not what the Affordable Care Act is about. It simply didn’t happen.”…
Because she is a responsible adult Representative and not a lowly blogger, she did not add “All of you Media Village Idiots are free to kiss as much of my arse as you can reach from under your rock”, but I do believe the MVIs got the message.
dmbeaster
The Obama apology was a bad move, although some form of apology would still be OK. It continues a bad habit from the first term of getting past controversy by just side-stepping the issue with some form of milquetoast position (firing Shirley Sherrod for getting slimed, for example). It is the same sort of brain dead leadership that threw cold water on the Dems running up to 2010. It has the potential for repeating the same problem in 2014.
Sometimes having ice in your veins, or being no-drama Obama, backfires.
Ruckus
Nancy Pelosi. President Obama.
Damn. There are rays of sunshine in an otherwise pretty much shitty political atmosphere.
How many others brighten up the landscape?
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
This is what Democrats get for not destroying health insurance companies when they had the chance.
Hill Dweller
In order for PO to have ‘lied’, his saying you could keep your policy would apply to people who bought insurance after Obamacare became law. In other words, he was purportedly saying people didn’t have to abide by the law.
I think the confusion is caused by insurance companies continuing to sell junk insurance during the gap between the law passing and January 1st, 2014, when all insurance(other than grandfathered policies) has to meet minimum ACA standards.
boatboy_srq
Can we haz Speaker Pelosi back in 2015?
Rock
I have to say…I wish Nancy were president.
Also, do we have numbers on how many people have lost their plans?
Linda Featheringill
@boatboy_srq:
Yes. Please, please, please.
Ruckus
@dmbeaster:
How was apologizing a bad move?
It was the adult thing to do. You’ve never apologized for something not really your fault?
Sometimes you have to take one for the team.
At my work the bashing of the ACA has started to turn around. The discussions are how it is working, not how shitty it is. That is an improvement. Did the apology help? It didn’t hurt.
It doesn’t matter if you are the only adult in the room, you still have to act like one if you want to be a leader. Otherwise you are just an idiot with a title.
Marc
@dmbeaster: I can see the logic behind it. Obama doesn’t give a damn about media narratives or appearances (this is one of his best features and occasionally one of his greatest weaknesses). This apology could be a classic Obama move: a symbolic step back that gets the controversy out of the way without compromising on the substance of the ACA.
Where that logic breaks down is that the GOP will never, ever accept anything less than his political destruction and the end of Obamacare. And the media, having just spent two weeks (grudgingly) covering Republican ineptitude, are eager for some Democratic controversies to show how “balanced” they are. Hell, they’re still trying even out the calls on Katrina.
Suffern ACE
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader: You know, if we had let the financial system collapse, the banks would have taken down the insurers with them. Well, all companies that use money and banks, actually. But as long as you don’t work for one of those companies that uses money, you’d be o.k.
Hill Dweller
Obama showing some contrition, especially after the website problems, is a good thing. That said, once the website issues are fixed, Dems need to go on the offensive.
aimai
@Ruckus: Abslutely. Obama was getting hammered for not apologizing, now he’s getting hammered for apologizing. Blame the media for not having anything else to cover, not the President for simply acting like a grownup. BTW, for the people who are oohing and aahing over imaginary Pelosi president–Pelosi is NOTHING if not extremely pragmatic. Her job in this clusterfuck is to back what the President has done and said, and she is doing that–not undercutting him. If she were president she would have apologized too. It was the politic thing to do.
Epicurus
Once again, the President’s reasonable, rational response to an issue evokes screams from the RWNJs and the MVIs (I do like that one.) What does this man have to do to prove his bona fides? Nothing is ever going to be good enough for the crazies who oppose him on everything. While they are loud, they are still a minority of voters in this country, and I do expect that when the dust settles, the GOP will look just as foolish for this as for shutting down the government. BTW, has anyone noticed that the exchanges and the web site have been up for a whole TWO MONTHS. Let’s not start panicking, here, people.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
Good news for media conglomerates: SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is back. This time it’s being written into the TPP trade agreement. The TPP is being negotiated in secret to be later put in front of Congress for a Fast Track upperdown vote. Parts of the intellectual property provisions of the treaty have been leaked and they’re an IP wet dream.
More at The Guardian.
schrodinger's cat
I trust Obama’s political judgment over mine or any other emo bloggers or commenters. Hey he got himself elected to the Presidency twice he knows what he is doing.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@aimai: pretty much this, and this @Hill Dweller: if anything this pushback should have started before Obama started getting hammered for his “indefensible lie”, in the words of I forget which knob-polishing liberal pundit
My understanding is that there are about seven million people at risk, not sure of that, but this blow up is more about people who are rightly or wrongly afraid of losing their plans. Again, this insecurity is a sign of how bad the old régime was, and pretty much still is. Somebody with a megaphone ought to start pointing that out.
OzarkHillbilly
Nancy Pelosi is the one Dem we can count on to always stand up and fight for what she believes in.
daveNYC
@Rock: I have to say…I wish Nancy were president.
Not unless you can clone her. She’s infinitely more valuable keeping the House Democrats in line. If she hadn’t been running the House, I don’t think the ACA would have gotten to the President’s desk.
Higgs Boson's Mate (Crystal Set)
@Suffern ACE:
There’s a considerable difference between allowing the financial system to collapse and bailing it out while eliminating some of the preconditions for another bailout. The TBTF banks and insurers are still TBTF and there was no modern version of Glass-Stiegal put in place. On the bright side, the banks, insurers and investment houses did pay out some handsome bonuses.
Elizabelle
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yup. Me too.
Suspect he might be a bit too cautious, and that others should have his back more.
But anyone who thinks we are in for a repeat of 2010?
Naa-uhh.
LAC
@Ruckus: Good point. Well, what is a week without second guessing the President and letting everyone else know that you have never been in a relationship long enough to compromise? He can’t win with people who think banging a shoe at the table is negotiating.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@daveNYC: @Rock: I have to say…I wish Nancy were president.
First she would have to get elected. She’s really bad on TV, I don’t think she has a lot of charisma. She’s easily caricatured, somebody (a Democrat) with that much money would almost certainly be put on the defensive about something perfectly legal that looks fishy to non-tax-lawyer-people…
I don’t read right wing blogs. Do they do this? Were they constantly wishing Cheney, Delay, McCain were president under Dumbya? Seems to me this always pining for the one who got away, or never ran, is a Dem thing– Bobby Kennedy, Gene McCarthy, Mario Cuomo, Blll Bradley, Howard Dean, now Elizabeth Warren. Wouldn’t President Pelosi have to worry about constantly being undermined by Blue Dogs (like, say, Steny Hoyer?) and the same Lefties who declared her Satan incarnate for saying impeachment of Bush was “off the table”, which I agree she shouldn’t have said, but it was a simple fact.
Yatsuno
@dmbeaster:
You do realise Obama did not fire her correct?
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly:
Because her constituents have her back. That gives Nancy Pelosi a lot of leeway.
I think the woman is very courageous and a master of strategy. And she’s brave in public.
She’d be having to watch her flank forever were she in the midAtlantic or flyover states.
TaMara (BHF)
I have not hated the media this much since the run up to the Iraq war. They are
almostgiddy in their coverage. Never mind the real story is the junk insurance, the insurance company treachery, rethug obstruction, the fact that state websites are working fine,…the list goes on but they’re too fucking lazy.I’d compare them to sharks with chum in the water, but that would insult sharks. asshats.
Tommy
@dmbeaster: Before I started to work for myself I was the VP of Marketing for a software company. I would often say I was sorry. I made a mistake. The owner hated this about me and would call me on it all the time. Said it made me look weak.I felt the exact opposite. That Obama admitted mistakes were made, well I like that. But cause of my experiences I also understand those that don’t like he did it.
Cassidy
The real tragedy of this week is that Team Metal hasn’t shown up in COD: Ghosts. /sigh
ericblair
@daveNYC:
Congress is important. There’s this belief on both the left and right that the Presidency is the only position that matters, and it’s not true. If Pelosi is doing a great job in the House, keep here there. If Elizabeth Warren is doing a great job in the Senate, keep her there. The fact that we have a gooper controlled House is not just an inconvenience, it’s a huge fucking problem.
I do remember Nancy SMASH! being pilloried and hanged in effigy when she declared “impeachment was off the table”, so I’d definitely consider her a pragmatist, not an idealist.
Trollhattan
Am newly informed the San Diego Museum Council is composed of segregationists. Frealz.
Let me add that I had no idea California was thus infested and further note that, this being San Diego, they only lost by two votes.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/14/creation-museum-compares-san-diego-to-selma-in-the-1950s-after-museum-council-rejection/
.
Baud
Obama should have come out swinging… his dick.
Tommy
@Elizabelle: I don’t live that far from the Ozarks. Southern IL. I love Nancy. Far left liberal here. But there is NO chance she could win an election where I live. Heck the people I vote for in my district would be considered a moderate Republican in many other places. This used to piss me off, but alas it is what it is.
beabea
I don’t comment much here but the media’s fixation on the people whose insurance is being cancelled and now they have to buy more expensive coverage, in my opinion is remarkably shallow and absurd even by MSM standards.
I’m one of those people, the roughly 5% of the US population this is happening to. But according to the media, let’s forget the poors who live in states with wingnut governors who won’t let them have Medicaid, because look at what Obamacare has done to people like ME ME ME:
I have crappy insurance in the non-group market, which is only possible for me to have because I am healthy and relatively young. If I were not, I wouldn’t have been insurable in the individual market. My new ACA-compliant policy will cost me more because I don’t qualify for subsidies; i.e. I’m affluent.
So this mass freakout over cancelled policies is not only about something that affects very few people, but the few who are affected are likely to be among the more fortunate members of our society.
The MVI’s think this is about mean, lying POTUS breaking his promise. And that’s certainly a lot easier a story for shallow, lazy hacks to sell than the real story, which is “fortunate Americans freaking out about paying more.”
Tommy
@Trollhattan: My father’s PhD is in history. Now retired. He runs the local museum. Not a liberal. Proud Republican. If you tried to tell him the earth was only a few thousand years old and that your view needed to be heard he’d laugh at you. Heck I was raised in a household where I could become a far left, hippie liberal. I just wasn’t allowed to say stupid shit. If I did my father might hand me a book.
Buffalo Rude
@Tommy: Heh. I spent some time working in Clay County in southern Illinois and, yeah, even some of the Democrats down there sound like bona fide wingnuts. Thank FSM Nancy SMASH! doesn’t have to run there.
Belafon
If Obama had been a Republican, the apology would have been “I’m sorry you didn’t understand me. Maybe you should do a better job of listening next time.”
If Obama had been a blogger, his apology would have read “I’m sorry I didn’t come down and kick Chuck Todd in the crotch properly the first time he made shit up.”
piratedan
@Belafon: i firmly believe that a fair amount of our problems with the media could be solved if someone kicked Chuck Todd in the crotch, in public, the first time he started to frame a question to mimic GOP talking points.
Ruckus
@Tommy:
Sometimes being the adult means swallowing stupid pride that gets you nothing and taking the hard road. No one is right 100% of the time, although some can be wrong 100% of it. The 100% wrong usually get jobs at some level of journalism because no one else will accept total failure as positive job performance. Mistakes sure, incompetence sometimes, but not total failure.
negative 1
@TaMara (BHF): I agree. I’m glad, actually, that I’m not the only one that feels that way. I wish every democrat on television simply said “was there a better plan that someone else came up with?” every time NBC was in front of them. How exactly did everyone miss that there was a grandfather clause in the ACA? Has the news helped people get coverage in any way? Is anyone taking them to task for ignoring the fact that people need information and instead focusing on f&*king midterm elections a year away? If kick Chuck Todd in the crotch, will his hospital stay be covered by the ACA? These are things that people want to know.
OzarkHillbilly
@Elizabelle: If she were from this neck of the woods, she couldn’t get elected dog catcher. While I agree that her constituents support her, that holds absolutely no sway with an Iowa Dem, and yet she can get that Iowa Dem to lay on hot coals when it counts and this is part of what drives Repubs crazy.
Oh, one more thing: She revels in driving them batsh!t crazy. I like that in a woman.
ericblair
@piratedan:
Is it OK to kick him in the crotch even if it won’t solve our media problems? Or do we just keep kicking him until it does? Either way, I’m on board.
Elizabelle
@OzarkHillbilly:
She is a force of nature.
dmbeaster
@Ruckus: The apology as given accepts the nonsense narrative about Obamacare. I am not against an apology per se, but against using it as a device to engage the political narrative. For example, I am sorry for these problems…. and I wish the opposition was doing anything to help solve the problems instead of being vested in making everything worse. This is Obama at his weakest, and also is exactly what is not needed in order to carry forward momentum into the 2014 elections.
piratedan
@ericblair: we can do it everytime that the GOP attempts to repeal the ACA
bemused senior
@Rock: This is the best estimate I’ve seen, and makes the media whiners look even more like idiots.
dmbeaster
@Tommy:
I aqree about the power of apology, and I am not against one per se. As a trial lawyer, I use admissions against interest by my own client (a kind of “apology”) all the time because: a) I know I am going to lose the point anyway, and b) the admission and/or apology has a freakish effect of gaining credibility. Obama uses the same dynamic.
The point I am trying to make is that Obama’s habit is to cede the narrative with this type of apology, which is exactly what he should not do. Obviously, you also want to avoid obviously insincere apologies, but the apology should not be the equivalent of just rolling over on the points. Obama’s greatest weakness is an unwillingness to play the politics of these types of fights, which from my experience was a big part of the 2010 debacle.
There is a reason the right benefits from its intransigence, because even when you end up being wrong, you still clearly stand for something. There is a way to blend the apology with an affirmation of principles, as opposed to using an apology in the hope it buries the issue, but also cedes the narrative.
Ruckus
@dmbeaster:
You don’t expect a consummate politician to be a politician?
President Obama will not get anywhere with a big stick. Nowhere.
It won’t work, and in fact will be counter productive. As @aimai: pointed out he can’t actually win here. So the only move is to play it smarter. That you want him to be stronger and tell everyone to fuck off is just not reality and does not reflect any kind of long term thinking. Have you noticed that President Obama rarely does/says anything without taking the long term view? It is his strength.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Ruckus:
Unless he uses such an approach, as in the recent shutdown, in which case it will be effective and the appropriate response.
Do you ever laugh at yourself? You should.
GRANDPA john
@Trollhattan: Ihave just one question for Tom, tell us the book , chapter, and verse in the Bible that mentions Dinosaurs
FlipYrWhig
While we’re finding people to kick in the junk, can we add whoever it was who first started using the word “narrative” to talk about politics? And when it’s his turn, can we find a bigger, pointier shoe for him to be kicked with?
catclub
@schrodinger’s cat: “Hey he got himself elected to the Presidency twice he knows what he is doing. ”
So did shrub. Well, one election was 5-4.
Another Holocene Human
@Ruckus: Since I already called my rep, I decided to call Pelosi’s office and thank her, too, for defending the PPACA. At first I wasn’t sure if I should call but the staffer said “Democratic Leader’s Office” so I figured it was the right decision.
Chyron HR
@dmbeaster:
Bart Stupak cannot fail, he can only be failed (by Obama).
Another Holocene Human
@Higgs Boson’s Mate (Crystal Set): There’s a ton more wrong with the TPP, but only radical lefties cared until now. Funny how when something affects dudebro’s it’s suddenly Code Red.
Oh well, the more sunshine on this turd the better.
agrippa
Washington does have a few grown ups in the room: PBO, Pelosi, Reid, Biden, Sanders ( usually).And a few others.
The Press Corps has very few, if any adults. Most of them are blind kittens.
agrippa
If The Democratic party loses in Nov 2014, and it very well might ( history says that they will), it will be the doing of the Congressional Democratic candidates, Democratic organizations.
It will have little or nothing to do with Obama and what does or does not do.
It will come down to: get out the vote.
I pay very little attention to the media; it is a blind kitten.
Ruckus
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
All the time. Some one has to.
Ruckus
@Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader:
And once again he didn’t use the big stick, he did the adult thing and said no.
He didn’t yell and scream and hold his breath, he said no and waited for the children to fold. And when their tantrum didn’t work, they did.
schrodinger's cat
@catclub: Not the same, Obama was not an heir to a political dynasty, nor was his father the President. He did not have the same institutional advantages that Bush did. He took on Hillary Clinton, and won.
schrodinger's cat
In the Media Village everything is either Katrina or Watergate
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
Did she mention anything about having plenty to eat at home?
Captain C
@Epicurus:
Be a White Republican.
SATSQ
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@Ruckus: You don’t have to sell everything he does after he does it. That’s no kind of existence.
Just Some Fuckhead, Thought Leader
@catclub:
But Obama’s was different because Obama! /jumps, lands, does candle sticks with pompoms out front
Original Lee
W00t! Just got done cancelling my Washington Post subscription. The wait time to speak to the Customer Service Dude was about 20 minutes, due to “unexpectedly high” call volume. Hmmmm.
Anyway, I was firm, forceful, and polite, and had to help Customer Service Dude figure out which of his menu options fit the “reason for cancellation” part of his form. We decided that “content of newspaper” was the best we could do. Then he asked what to put in the free-form space for how I thought the publisher could rectify the problem, and I told him “Fire Richard Cohen”. I am following up to the Ombudsman with an e-mail shortly.
Tone in DC
It is cool that we have adults in the room. We need them with this Congress and media.
And enough about the damn apology. The M$M can latch onto something for longer than anyone should (old Lindsey Buckingham quote: if something works, run it into the ground). They’ve made ratings money on this “issue”. Like they made money on Monica under Bill’s desk 20 years ago. They don’t just don’t run shit into the ground, they raze all nearby structures and salt the ground after.
And those who want to in any way revisit Shrub’s two terms, at this point on a Friday afternoon… grab some three inch nails and forcefully place them into your eyeballs. It will be more productive.
Last, Nancy SMASH is the best speaker in a LONG time. I want that gavel back in her hand, too.
MomSense
@TaMara (BHF):
Let’s face it our media are horrible. Why don’t they go out and interview the half a million people who are rejoicing that they now will have access to health care via Medicaid? Let people see who the recipients are, how they are working for low wages, trying to raise families, and dealing with incredible stress all the time.
negative 1
@MomSense: How would we be able to tie that to the chance of Republicans taking the Senate in 2014?
Gretchen
I love Nancy.
LanceThruster
Since this was an open thread, I thought I’d toss this in here.
I remember in an earlier thread when making fun of Chicago style pizza (good naturedly, of course), some people’s feeling were hurt. That being said, I roared when I saw Jon Stewart go on a riff about NY vs. Chicago pizza (“Tomato soup in a bread bowl.”).
xD
Enjoy!
http://greatideas.people.com/2013/11/14/jon-stewart-daily-show-chicago-pizza-rant-video/
LanceThruster
@LanceThruster:
“I don’t know whether to eat it or throw a coin in it and make a wish,” he continued. “And if I made a wish, it would be that I’d wish for some real f—-n’ pizza.”
John
@TaMara (BHF): And chum!
Jebediah, RBG
Who was the best Batman? Here is a new contender (Salon link; video annoyingly autoplayed for me on FF but story was worth it.)
Cervantes
@TaMara (BHF): Except for the fact that I detest the elite media this much every day, I agree with everything you wrote.
GHayduke (formerly lojasmo)
@MomSense:
That would set the dangerous precedent of doing their fucking job.