Hey Guess What?

The public option is dead. I'm incredibly disappointed, but I can't say I'm surprised. Time and time again, this administration has shown a cowardice that simply defies logic. Obama was elected with 365 electoral votes. He has a 20-vote majority in the Senate. He has a 78-vote majority in the House. Over the past two election cycles, Republicans have lost fifteen Senate seats and dozens and dozens of House seats. The American electorate decisively repudiated them. And Obama and the Democrats are caving in to Sarah Palin's "death panels" nonsense, and to a band of political ignorants who assert to any news anchor willing to listen (and there are plenty) that providing health care to everyone reeks of fascism and is the first step to internment camps.

I honestly don't know what the deal is here. Democrats are so terrified to exercise power, they actually deserve to lose it. Anyone remember the war funding catastrophes in 2007? Again there, the Democrats were elected to put an end to the war in Iraq. But they passed every supplemental bill George W. Bush sent to them. Why? Because they were afraid of what the Republicans would say. They were afraid of the political debate. Well, debate! You're congresspeople! Many of you came from law and business--not for the faint of heart--and regardless, now you're politicians. Debate is part of the daily life. I don't know what a political party has come to when every move it makes is based on fear of the opposition, rather than on assertively and unapologetically doing the job it was elected to do.

This cowardice isn't good for Obama and the Democrats. They have to know that. Hillary Clinton would not have backed down on her health care plan like this. She knows to go for the jugular. (Yes, she lost the Democratic nomination, thus potentially disproving my point, but Democrats are too nice. She would have destroyed John McCain, she would have whipped Congress into shape, and she would probably have a health care bill on her desk by now). So what gives?

I really thought the stimulus debate would have taught Obama that negotiating with Republicans on matters of national importance is a fool's errand. The Republicans have no incentive whatsoever to be bipartisan. If they assist Obama in passing major legislation, Obama gets all the credit. If they stop major legislation, the Republicans appear strong and Obama weak. It's a zero-sum game, as Matthew Yglesias describes:

But partisan politics is zero-sum. A “win” for the Democrats is a “loss” for Republicans. And I the predominant thinking in the Republican Party at the moment is that inflicting legislative defeats on Democrats will lead to electoral defeats for Democrats. That makes the GOP hard to bargain with.

Exactly. This is not a hard concept to grasp. The fact that the Democrats have not yet grasped it is really disappointing. The Republicans have no business governing this country, but the Democrats are practically inviting them to win back a ton of lost seats next November.