Obama’s perhaps worst week in the Oval Office yet has just gotten even worse. An editorial in the Orange County Register suggests that the man who was going to bring transparency and openness to the White House has done pretty much everything but. The editorial focuses squarely on the promises Obama made regarding the issue that was to be the plum in his administration’s pie: health care reform.
The editorial quotes candidate Obama’s very words while still plugging away on the campaign trail: “We’ll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN so the people can see who is making argument [sic] on behalf of their constituents and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies.”
So how does the OC Register rate President Saran Wrap’s performance so far as a “see-through” president?
The administration [has] quietly cut a deal with Big Pharma not to allow Medicare to grind drug companies for lower drug prices, in exchange for a promise to voluntarily reduce prescription prices by some $80 billion over 10 years. The news has trickled out and there’s some question whether the deal will be honored, but it wasn’t exactly shown on C-SPAN, nor was the White House the first to tell us.
The editorial also takes Obama to task for his now-broken promise to post legislation on the Internet for at least five days before bills were signed so the general public could see for themselves what their tax dollars were buying.
In its unkindest cut of all, the editorial compares Obama’s actions with those of worst-president-in-the-history-of-the-universe George W. Bush. Man, the folks in Orange County must really be P.O.ed with Obama to go to such depths.
NOTE: Unbenknownst to the author of this post at the time of the writing, Orange County, California, has been historically a conservative bastion. Therefore, the inclusion of an anti-Obama editorial in a newspaper of that county is less of a political barometer of current sentiments nationwide than an earlier version of this post may have suggested. For the record, Obama received 48% of the vote in the OC in the 2008 Presidential Election. My apologies to all readers of this post and also to the stupid bastions in the OC who voted for TGL. –HP
Comments 22
Everybody who believed Obama was going to live up to his transparency claims should contact me. I have a bunch of emails from Nigerians offering millions that I don’t have time to follow up on.
In a perfect world we would demand transparency of our government; but in that world our government would be small enough to actually be reasonably transparent. In this real world there is not one in a hundred electable politicians who can be trusted to stay true to what they say they will do in Washington for more than a couple of years.
And, even if we few, we righteous few, on the right and those many, those perverse many, on the left could somehow elect faithful politicians in our respective strongholds those disparate representatives would simply be unable to get anything done under the glare of publicity. Which is why I favor it, even though I know I’ll never get it.
The best we can get is self interested hounding and yapping by the media, which will, as in Orange County, eventually yearn for the taste of political blood sufficiently to overcome their psychological stake in the “success” of The One.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
I think your argument, which is on point, Sully, also applies to some degree to bipartisanship. Neither is necessarily as desirable as it initially sounds. Government would stall if either were implemented totally.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:18 pm
Howard, this Orange County Register is, I’m fairly sure, in Orange County, California, not Orange County, New York. The California county has always been very conservative. For example, one of Mark Steyn’s syndicated columns originates with the paper. Have things changed politically that much?
August 15th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Joe NS, Orange County, CA, used to be VERY conservative. But the land of Bob “B1″ Dornan is now the land of Loretta Sanchez.
It may have voted majority for Obama-wan Kenobi, I don’t remember. Nowadays it’s relatively conservative… for coastal California. I think you know what that means.
Still, I think that Howard’s phrase – “in the heart of Obama country” – is questionable, not least because OC may have been the original “Reagan country” – back in the day when CA could produce a Reagan, or elect an SI Hayakawa to the Senate…
(Who knows? Maybe those days will return more quickly than anyone expects…)
August 15th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Whoops! Editor needed.
On a serious note, maybe that phrase should be pulled? Please do so, if needed, or advise and I will do so?
August 15th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
@Joe NS – Haven’t changed a bit. Orange County, California is still affiliated with remnants of Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts as well as descendants of Algeria’s OAS. The centrists of the John Birch Society have been encouraged to leave.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
That’s up to you, Sr. Portnoy. Bloggers who are committed to “the full record,” one might even say to “transparency,” sometimes resort to the strikethrough in situations like this.
However, I do think you deserve a round of not merely compensatory applause for your terrif graphic. I bet a lot of zombies thought you just stole it from somewhere.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Is “President Saran Wrap” related to Sirhan Saran Wrap, who was mentioned in Putney Swope (a film made not long after the Robert Kennedy assassination)?
August 15th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Probably, Peter, but I should caution you. ZC is now monitored by the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who takes a dim view on insulting Muslim heroes like Sirhan Sirhan.
Having said this, I think I will get busy writing a song from MPAC to SS titled “To Sirhan, With Love.”
August 15th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
@Peter Shalen – Mostly, I would guess Howard would try to relate the President to The A-rab in that movie.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Colin, I missed your comment before. Thank you again for the kind words about the graphic. I think the strikethrough is effective in most cases, but in this case it just reveals sloppy research by a ZC columnist. The fact of our discussing it here in broad daylight (in front of f-u-s-t …, say, you don’t think he can spell, do you?) shows that we believe in transparency. I feel a total excision works better, even though if I were editing this piece, I might send it back to the writer for further work.
August 15th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Howard, when I asked if things have changed politically, it was quite sincere. I’ve been in the Caribbean on and off for 27 years – continuously for the past 10 years, and don’t have much of a feel for stateside local politics anymore. I lived in So. California (LA) from 1986-90, when OC, CA, was definitely thought of as John Birch country. Even then there was a rapidly growing Hispanic population in Santa Ana and Anaheim, so it occurred to me that, Golly!, things might have changed dramatically in 20 years. Colin seems to think they have but perhaps not as much as you wrote, so that’s a relief.
As to OC, NY (or is it NJ?), in the many years I lived in “The City,” the place had a rep for being a conservative-to-moderate GOP county, a bedroom community for NYC firefighters and cops. You live in or near Gotham. Is that still, or was it ever, true?
August 15th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
@Howard Portnoy – @Howard Portnoy – Best play it safe and don’t let him get any of your hair or fingernail parings.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
I believe it was the A-rab who mentioned Sirhan Saran Wrap. I think they were supposed to be cousins.
It’s been a while since I saw the movie. The Ethereal Cereal ad is immortal.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
@Peter Shalen – No Sit! to that.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Joe, I thank you for pointing out the problems in the post. I’d like to think we’re here to cover each others’ backs. Besides, I’d rather have egg on my face than the world disparaging the ZC for its inflated coverage. (Again, silence, fuster!) I’m hedging my bets on this, as noted in the NOTE that I have appended to the end of the post. I also promise to do a little more investigating of the facts before committing pen to paper (keyboard to monitor?) in the future.
As to OC, NJ, I know precious little about it other than it was nearby to Atlantic City, where I worked one summer while in college.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
The OC I’m thinking of was up by Rockland, County. Just curious, but no never mind, I guess.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Howard, be careful. If you’re going to call people stupid bastions, they may retaliate by calling you an oxymoron.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:35 pm
August 15th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
But all thy editing
And all thy wit
Can lure it back
To cancel the whole damn bit!
Who should know better the truth of that than certain time-traipsing vagabonds at this site.
August 15th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
@Joe NS –
August 15th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Nothing to apologize about, Howard, if you’re big enough to correct your mistake.
I’ve got your back along with everyone else.
(Just got to get something from the kitchen first.)
August 15th, 2009 at 3:11 pm