First thoughts: Ramping up the rhetoric
Posted: Monday, June 22, 2009 9:18 AM by Mark Murray
Filed Under:
First Thoughts
From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, and Domenico Montanaro
*** Ramping up the rhetoric: As the violence and protests escalated in Iran on Saturday, President Obama stepped up his criticism about what’s happening there. “The Iranian government must understand that the world is watching,” he said in a statement. “We mourn each and every innocent life that is lost. We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people. The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.” But the toughest domestic political rhetoric on Iran is coming from Republicans. This is one of those cases where Democrats and the White House are wondering what the reaction would be if the roles were reversed -- i.e., Democrats criticizing a GOP administration’s response on foreign policy. Indeed, Republicans regularly beat up Democrats for supposedly politicizing international issues (do remember that the establishment Democratic Party didn’t start truly criticizing the situation in Iraq until two-plus years after the war began). But who’s politicizing now? Also, it's worth noting that the criticism from Republicans is NOT universal. In fact, the GOP establishment on this issue is more divided than the coverage is suggesting.
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Video: Former foreign policy adviser to President George W. Bush, Dan Senor, discusses whether President Obama's statements to the Iranian government have been delivered with enough strength to convince the Iranian people that America supports them.
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With friends like these…: So let's get this straight: Barack Obama won last year’s presidential election by seven percentage points (53%-46%) campaigning, in part, for some form of universal health care; his party is about to have 60 votes in the Senate; polls show the country is receptive to overhauling health care; and the president's approval rating is between 56-60%. But Senate Democrats, like Dianne Feinstein, now say that Obama might not have the votes to pass health care? "I think there's a lot of concern in the Democratic caucus," she said on Sunday, per the
AP. The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait may very well have been right a couple of months ago,
when he wrote that Dem-controlled Congresses (during Carter and Clinton) have tended to handcuff Democratic presidents, and that may be happening now. Does anyone think that if a Republican president wanted health-care reform and had a GOP-controlled Congress and 60 Republicans in the Senate, that the reform wouldn’t pass?
*** Good news for Dems on health care? After a week of mostly bad news, advocates for a public/government option got some good news on Sunday, when the aforementioned CBS/NYT poll showed 72% backing a government-administered health insurance plan, mirroring what our recent NBC/WSJ poll found. The CBS/NYT survey also “found that most Americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and that they said the government could do a better job of holding down health-care costs than the private sector.” Yet a GOP Resurgent Republic poll is out pushing back a bit. According to the poll, more than eight in 10 respondents are very or somewhat satisfied with their care, and 52% say they prefer that their taxes not be increased, even if it means that NOT all Americans get health insurance. One thing to keep in mind on health care polling is that you can always get a result to back up your position on the overall issue. Of course no one wants their taxes increased; of course no one wants to see the best parts of their health insurance changed. So what's the right answer? As one Republican aide put it in an email over the weekend: Everyone likes ice cream, but not everyone likes rum-raisin ice cream. So it’s figuring out the flavor that's difficult. One thing adding to the pressure for Democrats is history and the need to show the country a change. A public/government option may be the only way voters touch and feel "change" in health care.
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Video: The very latest on the crisis in Iran with NBC's Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel. Then, an analysis of President Obama's on-going domestic challenges with the economy and health care reform.
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Prescription drugs and tobacco: Sticking with health care, the Obama administration and key Senate Dems seemed pretty fired up over
PhRMA's decision to lower the cost of prescription drugs. "After weeks of secret talks, the pharmaceutical industry trade group voted Friday to dedicate $80 billion to lowering the price of medicines sold to seniors and the government. The unusual offer by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) is part of its effort to convince skeptical lawmakers that it backs major health-care legislation.” The president will tout this announcement today at noon ET at the White House. Also today, at 2:00 pm ET, Obama signs into the law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
*** Stimulus politics: By the way, today’s piece in the Washington Post about the economy and the stimulus will be a boon to Republican press secretaries today. “The likelihood of severe unemployment extending into the 2010 midterm elections and beyond poses a significant political hurdle to President Obama and congressional Democrats, who are already under fire for what critics label profligate spending,” the paper writes. “Continuing high unemployment rates would undercut the fundamental argument behind much of that spending: the promise that it will create new jobs and improve the prospects of working Americans, which Obama has called the ultimate measure of a healthy economy.”
*** You gotta know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em: Back in April, we wrote that Norm Coleman -- by taking his appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court and delaying what seems to be the inevitable -- lost his chance to bow out gracefully. Now with the state Supreme Court’s ruling perhaps days away, Matt Bai made an interesting observation in the New York Times magazine. “It used to be that when a candidate lost by a few suspect votes, the first question that arose was whether he would seek a rematch… Now, it seems, the first question anyone asks — at least since the 2000 presidential quagmire — is for how long you intend to fight the results in court.” Bai then makes this conclusion about American society in general: Fewer and fewer people are good losers. “Being fired from a job becomes the beginning of a negotiation, while a routine school suspension instantly goes to appeal. In part, this is probably the inevitable reckoning for a culture that gives trophies to every Little Leaguer because, as the saying goes, we’re all winners.”
*** Kennedy goes to bat for Dodd: In Connecticut, Ted Kennedy has cut a TV ad for vulnerable Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, who’s up for re-election next year. “Quality health care as a fundamental right for all Americans has been the cause of my life, and Chris Dodd has been my closest ally in this fight,” Kennedy says to the camera in the ad. “Today more than ever, we have a real opportunity to bring healthcare reform to Connecticut and all across America, and I believe that with Chris Dodd’s leadership, our families will finally have accessible, affordable health care.” It's rare to see any glimpse of Kennedy on camera, so no doubt this was the ultimate favor for Dodd to ask. Follow this 2009 push carefully by Dodd. One gets the sense he's pulling out all the stops this year to see if he can improve his changes significantly this year. If he can't, he's got plenty of time to change his mind about re-election, right?
Countdown to Election Day 2009: 134 days
Countdown to Election Day 2010: 498 days
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