Obamarrogance: Fix it, Fast
I don't pretend to be an objective journalist. I'm an opinionated commentator. Not a movement or party activist like some political commentators, but an unobjective, biased analyst nonetheless.
My biases have been pro-Obama, but I'm concerned about the arrogance that he's been exhibiting in recent months, a "l'etat, c'est moi" hubris that seems to keep him from grasping why his numbers are falling.
I saw John McCain having a very warm, civilized conversation with Conan O'Brien last night about the need for finding bipartisan approaches to healthcare and other issues. McCain also praised Ted Kennedy's ability to model an ability to reach across the table.
Frankly, that sort of conversation should be led by Obama, not by a comedian. Obama may be too full of himself to grasp that a large number of Americans can be predisposed to think of him as "not one of us," either as a foreign-born Muslim or a Marxist or a just plain elitist pointy-head Ivy Leaguer.
He promised to lead all of the US, not just the blue sections, and he needs to start leading. That includes less deference to the party's most liberal elements, who will only get the party exiled yet again if they move too far too fast.
As for his public image, he should take the time to engage publicly with those who respectfully disagree, in order to eclipse the images of the gun-toting wackos who disrespectfully disagree. Is his ego too large to live up to that campaign promise? I don't think so. Though his sense of self is grand, he still seems a pragmatist above all.
But if he keeps using televised addresses to convince the American people through solely his own charisma that the deficit won't be swollen by his programs, he'll continue to stagnate in coming months.
Yes, and a little humility would help as well. It would be nice, too, if he could put some blame on himself rather than going after the nutty right wing talk show hosts.
Point taken... but I hardly see what's "nutty" about pointing out the great folly involved in almost every healthcare proposal coming out of this White House. The points the "nuts" are bringing up are eminently valid: Where is this money coming from? Are these programs we even want?
Oh, and here's a little something from the "nutty" Daily Telegraph (Great Britain), where they have a nifty system like this already:
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In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, a group of experts who care for the terminally ill claim that some patients are being wrongly judged as close to death.
Under NHS guidance introduced across England to help doctors and medical staff deal with dying patients, they can then have fluid and drugs withdrawn and many are put on continuous sedation until they pass away.
But this approach can also mask the signs that their condition is improving, the experts warn.
As a result the scheme is causing a "national crisis" in patient care, the letter states. It has been signed palliative care experts including Professor Peter Millard, Emeritus Professor of Geriatrics, University of London, Dr Peter Hargreaves, a consultant in Palliative Medicine at St Luke's cancer centre in Guildford, and four others.
"Forecasting death is an inexact science,"they say. Patients are being diagnosed as being close to death "without regard to the fact that the diagnosis could be wrong.
"As a result a national wave of discontent is building up, as family and friends witness the denial of fluids and food to patients."
The warning comes just a week after a report by the Patients Association estimated that up to one million patients had received poor or cruel care on the NHS.