"Parents won't have to worry their children will be denied coverage just because they have a preexisting condition. "

Dropping the preexisting conditions for those over 19 is not change I can believe in.

Obama doesn't need Plouffe advising the Dems on the upcoming elections- he needs Plouffe as his new Chief of Staff.

The Dims seem seem conflicted by the disparate advice of two dead guys:

Edmund Spenser's. "Be bold, be bold- but not too bold,"

And Admiral Farragut's, "Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead!"

If Plouffe is wrong the Dems will be done for at least a generation. Justifiably or not, the voters are not buying the program. They didn't buy it in Massachusetts and I think it is somewhat naive to think it simply was a case of "bad communication." Plouffe may be a good campaign manager, but the campaign is over whether he or Obama want to admit it.

One more suggestion: Attack!

The Republicans are able to make up lies about the Democratic agenda with impunity, and it's affecting public perceptions. Democrats need to find a few more people like Alan Grayson who are willing to shout out "You lie!" and endure the excrement storm that will come from the corporate-controlled media when they do.

Here's the theme to be repeated for the next ten months:

Republican policies during the past eight years dug the hole we're in. Democrats are trying to get us out of the hole, but the hole is deep so we haven't made as much progress as we would like. Everyone knows that if you're in a whole, you stop digging. If you vote for Republicans you'll be voting for the party that wants to start digging again, but they want to dig even faster than before.

That's your choice: Democrats who are trying, or Republicans who think the hole isn't deep enough.

I don't know how to put this so it doesn't just rile people... but David Plouffe has never particularly impressed me. I think he's good, but not great, at what he does for campaigns... and I'm far less convinced that he's a go-to guy for policy ideas.

The WaPo essay is one of those examples, to me, of how Dems get this always so wrong - these kind of strategic discussions belong, really, in the meeting rooms and offices of candidates and party officials. We seem to continuously think that everyone, down to the ordinary voter, is fascinated by this insider talk... and I think it's a massive turnoff. It's also politics by committee and popularity contests of the worst sort. When people say "we need more message discipline" this would be my example - don't show the crafting of the message... show the message. As Bart Simpson once wrote on the board - nobody cares about our underpants. Get dressed, get the message going... and get to work.

In terms of "specifics", I think Plouffe offers very lttle that isn't boilerplate and/or obvious. There should be something to show on healthcare. They have to do something about the economy, and explain the stimulus package better (though, frankly, refusing to admit that mistakes were made in crafting the stimulus seems to me a recipe for more pain). That all seems rather basic. What Plouffe does not offer is what really would show strength in the party - the sense that we have ideas, that we have leaders who want to make government work and have the right policy ideas for it, and who have learned a thing or two about using a better, more sensible process to pass important legislation. Plouffe's plan, such as it is, strikes me as defensive, and somewhat tetchy. And if that's all we got... well, I'm not sure we're making the case that needs to be made for continued legislative dominance.

"It seems the preferred alternative -- crawl into a fetal position and hope the storm blows over -- isn't a recipe for success."

It is, however, what the feckless elected Democrats know best, so, of course, that's what they'll do.

I haven't read the Plouffe piece yet, but meanwhile: it is very, very important to fix the broken Senate. A situation where 41 Senators (with what, 30% of the population?) can veto whatever Bills they want, is a recipe for disaster.

I don't know how to put this so it doesn't just rile people... but David Plouffe has never particularly impressed me. I think he's good, but not great, at what he does for campaigns... and I'm far less convinced that he's a go-to guy for policy ideas.

Dems already have good policy ideas. What they lack is the technical ability or will to implement them. Dems don't need another wonk- they've got lots of those, and they're doing OK. They need a Cheerleader/General to get the ideas passed.

In terms of "specifics", I think Plouffe offers very lttle that isn't boilerplate and/or obvious.

I agree. But those specifics don't seem to be very obvious to the Dems in Washington right now. I don't know that much about Plouffe, but if there's anyone close to Obama that might be able to get some fire back in the president's belly I'd give that person a shot. Nothing else seems to be working.

This is gonna sound very negative, but I have a feeling that events are gonna be in control and the dems are going to be bent out of shape trying to beat them back in so many fits and starts. I have just lost faith that anything wholesome (in the visionary kind of way) is going to come out of D.C.
And I have absolutely no faith that Obama, the dems, or the republicans can do much to restore that faith. So, just keep on keeping the wheels on, badly.

Since everyone seems to agree that the defining word for the Dems right now is "feckless", I propose thet we start a nationwide fundraising drive to buy them a feck. Maybe we can buy a feck for each and every senator and rep. Then they could be feckfull.

Further: I got teased earlier for inartfully wording a query that we should talk more about changing the rules at the beginning of a Senate session (with simple majority), but that is perhaps the only way to change things. It has to be "in play" in discussion about things, to exert some pressure on Dem leaders to try such things.

Lincoln to McClellan in 1862:

". . .I have never written you, or spoken to you, in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain you . . . But you must act."

The Democratic party is full of McClellans, and we need to make them realize how useless they are when they fail to act at all.

Reform that doesn't deal with pre-existing conditions for everyone isn't reform.

Glad Plouffe's back aboard -- he's a total loser. The 2008 campaign wasn't won because of his alleged (but non-existent) genius, but because of the liberal news media's infatuation with the Obama myth. Out on his own, Plouffe failed. He ran a campaign to have his book beat Sarah Palin's sales for just one day, and couldn't even do that.

Read today's NY Times. The perception in Massachusetts and most of the country is that the health care bill is a huge giveaway to the health care industry financed with our tax dollars, just like the bank bailouts. All the explaining in the world won't change that perception, which means the Blue Dog votes won't be there to pass the Senate bill in the House which means it's dead. The best pivot here for Obama is to insist on a Medicare buy-in for all citizens (Medicare is the ONLY government health care Republicans and conservadems support) to be financed by a tax on the most egregious offenders: the derivative-happy banks, their over-bonused executives (tax those suckers at 90% please and dare Republicans to defend them), everyone at AIG and the top 1% who made out like bandits while screwing the rest of us. If Obama admits to the American people that special interests were allowed to write the Congressional bill and he'll never let that happen again, he might be able to salvage his presidency. Otherwise, not so much.

Dalloway, good points. If I may repeat some of remarks at the Axelrod thread that belong here too:
It's IMHO the PO that actually makes HCR more Constitutionally viable and directed to accommodating some conservative concerns [as well as general popular suspicion as outlined above]. That's because it provides more "choice" and alleviates the necessity to purchase a product from a private provider. I think many here don't realize how many people are bothered by that, all over the so-called "spectrum." Appreciating that is the sort of irony and careful appeal to cross-over than Media simpletons avoid, but we can hope ...

Exactly, neil b. The PO was emblematic of the whole fiasco because it was so obviously jettisoned at the behest of the health insurance industry to fatten their profits at the expense of ordinary taxpayers. You're right about the mandate, too. The electorate sees it not only as a tax, which is bad enough, but a tax that will go directly to a predatory insurance industry. Great, cut out the middle man (government) and make us pay the corporations directly! Who in the world ever thought that would fly?

Obama, Reid, Pelosi parody song

Washington Hillbillies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR75PodzQgo

The stimulus created "millions of jobs"? These kind of statements are what is going to continue to assist in the demise of the Democrats in 2010. We have LOST over 4 million jobs since we passed the stimulus and this guy wants to tout that as a success??? It has been an total failure. It did not do what it was promised to do and that was to keep the unemployment rate below 8%; that was it's goal, and it failed.

This "brilliant" guy wants to keep pressing for Healthcare reform which 61% of the people do not want, and he thinks this is going to help?? As the old saying goes, with friends like these, who needs enemies??? This is a simple case of the Obama administration hiring somebody that will tell them what they want to hear. Over the cliff they go....

ha ha! advising the Dems against bedwetting!

next: ducks are advised not to swim. kobe is advised not to shoot hoops. obama is advised not to be like bush.

I try to avoid ad hominem attacks, but I hope bkmn gets cancer and loses his insurance.

I try to avoid ad hominem attacks, but I hope bkmn gets cancer and loses his insurance.

But politically speaking, if we do not pass it, the GOP will continue attacking the plan as if we did anyway, and voters will have no ability to measure its upside.

"No ability to measure it's upside." I wish I could coin phrases like that. This Plouffe fellow is smart guy.