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Obama’s Dog and Pony Shows Wearing Thin

It must be frustrating to go to one of these things knowing full well that you aren’t going to make a hill of beans worth of difference. 

For the second time in as many weeks, President Obama pulled together dozens of lawmakers, community leaders and business representatives to solve a pressing issue—this time, health care reform.

But the president’s focus-group brand of governing is starting to wear thin for some who say the sessions are more style than substance.

Obama held a similar summit last week to promote fiscal responsibility. Over the course of three hours, the 130 or so in attendance broke into five groups and then reconvened, and the president said all their suggestions would be boiled down into a final report in 30 days. Soon after, the White House went ahead and released a $3.6 trillion budget anyway.

Now that the White House is using the same approach for health care reform, some wonder what Obama expected to learn from the folks he met with Thursday that he didn’t hear during two years of campaigning.

“For the most part, these kinds of things are dog-and-pony shows that are hard to associate with any concrete, substantive results,” said Michael Franc, a health care expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation.

“With 99.6 percent certainty, they’re going to walk out of this summit wanting to do the same thing.”

Posted by Owen at 2113 hrs
Politics + Politics - General

1. This caught my attention yesterday:

   http://www.jsonline.com/news/usandworld/40753967.html

   2 Wisconsinites to participate in Obama’s health care summit

   The White House is bringing together more than 100 lawmakers, experts, doctors, business people, advocates and “ordinary Americans” for the forum,
   ..............................................................................
   The two Wisconsinites are James Stouffer, a 54-year-old teacher and malt-shop owner in Delafield, and Siavash Sarlati, a 24-year-old medical student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

   Both Stouffer and Sarlati volunteered to host local health care discussions in December for the Obama transition team.

     My bolds

   Whats the matter here?  I thought a self-proclaimed expert on health care & Obama booster like Keith Schmitz would have been selected to represent Wisconsin. 

   Talk about “the snub”!

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 05, 2009 at 2131 hrs
   
   
   

2. Gives ‘transparency’ a whole new meaning, doesn’t it? 

   Posted by hsgbdmama on March 05, 2009 at 2139 hrs
   
   
   

3. Why is this news? His whole campaign was based on smoke & mirrors.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1004 hrs
   
   
   

4. This reminds me of my many years ago job in Human Resources, Management Development where we did brain storming sessions (if memory serves me I believe these are called force field analysis), got everyone together, gave instructions, broke into small discussion groups, set them up with pens and an easel (it was always cool to see how many pages you could fill and tear off the sheets!!!) and told them to write down ideas, as many as possible (throw it all out there and see what sticks), don’t worry whether they were good or bad just “brain storm” the issue.  Then you get everyone back together in a big group and do the same thing.  As far as I remember, these wonderful feel good sessions didn’t produce any major changes for my company.  Remember, the person at the top still has the final say and that’s why they are paid the big bucks to make the hard choices.  Seems to me the big “O” is not ready for prime time yet if he’s still using this process to help him decide what to do.  I thought he promised us “change” but this is more of the same that’s been tried over and over for years.  The only “change” I see coming from this guy is what I have left from a $1.00 bill!!!

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1011 hrs
   
   
   

5. Just another photo op and “breaking news” on the telly. As usual he never actually says anything.  If ‘O’ isn’t on the tube at least twice a day with reruns he will probably have a hissy fit.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1119 hrs
   
   
   

6. Only wearing thin if you are not part of the 70% who approve of his performance.

   Dog and pony show. We were treated to Bush getting up in front of groups of military every other day. Like Bill Maher said, “he has shown is ass to more soldiers than a Bangkok pole stripper.”

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1203 hrs
   
   
   

7. It’s like going to a school board meeting - with the same level of competence running the meeting.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1218 hrs
   
   
   

8. Only wearing thin if you are not part of the 70% who approve of his performance.

   Where was that poll taken?  Teenagers hanging out at Bayshore Mall?

   Here’s a different perspective on approval ratings:

   http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OGJmYmJlNjc0NzI1ZDkzMjgzZjQ2Y2Y1M2NiODU2ZTI=

   Here’s an interesting data point comparison: Barack Obama’s approval rating in the Gallup Poll today is 61 percent, with 28 percent disapproving (the Real Clear Politics aggregate of polls has his overall job approval rating at 59.8 percent). A March 5-7, 2001 Gallup poll found President Bush’s job approval at 63 percent as well, with only 22 percent disapproving. So George W. Bush, at a comparable time in his presidency, was in marginally better shape than Barack Obama is right now, at least based on the Gallup Poll survey.

   This runs counter to conventional wisdom that Obama is tremendously popular, and that Bush (based on the divisive nature of the 2000 election) was not. In fact, according to the Gallup Poll data, what President Bush did was rise in the esteem of the public during the first five weeks of his presidency, while Obama has lost a bit of altitude.

   So, Obama is almost as popular as Bush was after 6 weeks in office?  And that despite the left wing with their “Not My President” bumper stickers.

   If you are going to make up numbers, here’s one I made up.  70% of pundits are doing the “Obama Waffle” - writing that they while they did not have a clue during the campaign what he was going to do but were hopeful about his potential, they never expected what we are seeing now.  Scan RealClearPolitics.com and you will see what I mean.

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1236 hrs
   
   
   

9. I would assume Keith approves of Doyle the Taxer as well?

   Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1414 hrs
   
   
   

10. I’m with kneenor - these remind me an awful lot like the “Action Workout” that uses lots of flip chart paper and post-it notes and accomplish nothing but wasting the participants time in a stupid meeting.

    But hey - it makes Keith feel good.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 06, 2009 at 1654 hrs
    
    
    

11. What makes we happy is see you residents of make-believe land taking solace in your delusions. The NY Times poll has Obama at 70% (read the damn thing). Oh, I forgot to mention the Wall Street Journal also conducted the poll.

    The Congressional Republicans are at the 30’s. Gallups has Jabba the Hut at 26% approval. Newsweek has Obama at 68%.

    A little gem from an op-ed in this morning’s Times:

    The Democrats know the Republicans are afraid to confront and disavow Limbaugh, so they keep poking him, and he keeps snapping like a rabid dog. This is a brilliant bit of Machiavellian strategy on the part of the Democrats. (I didn’t know that they had it in them.)

    Nothing gives me so much pleasure as seeing the sheep on the other side bleating clueless remarks.

    People are patient. They new Bush dumped a lot of crap on the doorstep of the White House and they know Obama at least has not only plans on how to attack it, but will adjust the plans if they don’t work. They know he cares about the American public (yeah, this will fire you guys up).

    Now go any eat up all the BS at the “American Dream” summit at the MWE Center. You’re good and hungry.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 07, 2009 at 1046 hrs
    
    
    

12. The NY Times poll has Obama at 70% (read the damn thing). Oh, I forgot to mention the Wall Street Journal also conducted the poll.

    How about pulling the links out of your butt and posting them?  Remove your face from Obama’s lap and come up for fresh air, girlie boy!

    This Wall Street Journal Poll shows 60% Approval as of 3/1/09

    http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/WSJ_NewsPoll_030309.pdf

    Or better yet, Real Clear Politics which is based on a rolling average of all the polls shows: 60.9% approval/27.8% disapprove.

    Sounds like someone is taking the undecideds/no opinions and moving them into the Obama side, to come up 70% approval.  Typical of the Democrats - make the assumption that those people are “brain-dead” or “sheep” and thus in their camp.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 07, 2009 at 1322 hrs
    
    
    

13. Here’s the link for Real Clear Politics:

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/other/president_obama_job_approval-1044.html

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 07, 2009 at 1324 hrs
    
    
    

14. The Congressional Republicans are at the 30’s.

    The generic Congressional ballot is tightening up:

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/congressional_ballot/generic_congressional_ballot

    41% Dem/39% Repub

    The race between Republicans and Democrats has once again tightened up in the latest edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot. For the third time in the last four weeks, Republicans have pulled to within two points of the Democrats.

    Over the past year, Democratic support has ranged from a low of 40% to a high of 50%. In that same time period, Republicans have been preferred by 34% to 41% of voters nationwide.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on March 07, 2009 at 1538 hrs
    
    
    

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