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The Dreidl Spins, and Having Been Spun, Moves On: Marc Ambinder now says Obama is in good shape on health care because he "survived August" in better shape than Ambinder had expected:
At the beginning of the month, I predicted that August might turn out be a bloodbath for Democrats. At the time, the Democratic self-containment on health care had dissolved, cranks were taking over constituent meetings, and that real anxiety about Obama had found a channel and political opponents of health care had an edge.
Hmm. That's not what I remember Ambinder saying. I remember him saying that health care opponent-cranks were overplaying their hand in a way that would help Democrats. Let's go to the Internets! Here's Ambinder on August 6:
Bottom line: turning h/c town hall meetings into anti-Obama venting sessions won't convince Blue Dog Dems. to vote against h/c. I think
and on the same day
I think GOPers are of 2 minds about these protests. Or, they shld be. Even though this trend favors the left, I don't know if they will... [E.A.]
and finally in an August 11 magnum opus entitled "Conservatives Are Blowing It on Health Care":
... Democrats are beginning to notice that opponents of health care reform have discredited themselves. They ramped up much too quickly. When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself. ...[T]he loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock. ... [E.A.]
Is Ambinder being spun so fast he doesn't remember what he himself "predicted" a month ago? Or is he ... spinning his own previous spin (to make his more recent spin seem more plausible). ....
P.S.--Nobody Sucks Up Both Ways Like Andrew Sullivan: Meanwhile, elsewhere in Mr. Bradley's well-padded neighborhood, Andrew Sullivan says, "I agree with most everything David Brooks has written on this subject [of health care]." Then Sullivan declares that the likely Obama compromise plan
will be a huge step forward on the accessibility front, if not on costs. (But we can come back on costs, and must, in a broader context of fundamental fiscal reform)
which is pretty much the exact opposite of what Brooks has written on the subject. Brooks argues that measures to increase accessibility aren't a huge step forward at all, because "they don't reduce costs." He wants Obama to double-down on Orszagist curve-bending now and "fundamentally challenge the fee-for-service system." Easy advice to give if you are Republican pundit who gets to pose as a far-seeing responsible type today and then later dismiss Obama as an incompetent liberal when he takes Brooks' advice and fails. Sullivan was right the second time. ... 2:29 A..M.
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