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Obama Speaks Loudly But Carries a Small Stick
By John Nichols
President Obama spoke loudly but carried a small stick Wednesday night, when he outlined what's left of his healthcare reform agenda in a rare address to a joint session of the Congress.
Noting that "it has now been nearly a century since Theodore Roosevelt first called for healthcare reform," the president told skeptical legislators from both sides of the political aisle. "I am not the first president to take up this cause, but I am determined to be the last."
That was one of several takeaway lines of the night.
(196) CommentsSeptember 9, 2009
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Obama Goes Before Congress to "Dispel Myths, Silliness"
By John Nichols
When a president schedules an address to a joint session of the Congress, he essentially says: "OK, folks, this time it's for real."
The speech to the assembled members of the House and Senate, with all its pomp and circumstance, is a much bigger deal than a televised press conference or even one of those, seated-behind-the-desk, eyes-on-the-camera statements that presidents usually deliver after having ordered bombs dropped on some distant land or when they must apologize for an impeachable offense that might yet be talked around.
So Barack Obama has set himself a tall task this Wednesday night.
(45) CommentsSeptember 9, 2009
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Three Words Mr. President: "Medicare for All"
By John Nichols
As President Obama prepares to deliver a Wednesday address to Congress that must reframe the debate about healthcare reform, he is getting plenty of advice and counsel with regard to messaging.
Plenty of folks will tell the president that he cannot change course, that he simply needs to offer a better explanation of what's on offer.
Wrong.
(190) CommentsSeptember 8, 2009
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Van Jones Exit Isn't Right-Wing Win, It's an Obama Surrender
By John Nichols
The decision of Van Jones to resign as President Obama's "green jobs" czar is not a victory for Republicans who griped about the White House environmental aide's willingness to call them out on their extreme partisanship.
Nor was it a victory for right-wingnuts like Glenn Beck -- who waged a bitter campaign against Jones, highlighting his history of activism on behalf of environmental justice, racial reconciliation, global solidarity and an inquiry into events leading up to the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
It was an unnecessary and unwise surrender by an Obama administration there is neither ready nor willing to fight "those who spin lies for profit" -- as National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Ben Jealous described those who smeared Jones.
(304) CommentsSeptember 6, 2009
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Give States an Option to Lead on Single-Payer
By John Nichols
The goal of real reformers is clear: a "Medicare for all" single-payer national healthcare system.
Getting there could be a little tough this fall.
But America will get there.
(208) CommentsSeptember 4, 2009
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The Kennedy Seat: Vicki's a "No," But Maybe Joe
By John Nichols
Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has scheduled the special election to fill the US Senate seat vacated by the death of Senator Edward Kennedy's seat.
The date is January 19, 2010, with primaries on December 8 of this year.
While Patrick has started the ridiculously slow election timetable, he is still angling to appoint a "temporary senator" to occupy the seat until late January.
(62) CommentsAugust 31, 2009
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Senator Vicki Kennedy?
By John Nichols
Ted Kennedy has been well remembered and buried.
Now, the question becomes, who will replace "the lion of the Senate" in the seat representing the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Some of Kennedy's closest friends in the Senate have made a choice.
(50) CommentsAugust 30, 2009
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How to Replace Ted Kennedy With an Elected Senator
By John Nichols
There is a lot of movement to rework the laws of the state of Massachusetts so that Governor Deval Patrick can appoint a successor to the late Senator Edward Kennedy.
The state's current rules for filling Senate vacancies -- enacted five years ago to prevent then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, from appointing a conservative Republican replacement to Democratic Senator (and 2004 party presidential nominee) John Kerry -- require Patrick to call a special election that would be held in January or February of 2010.
Kennedy's last formal request to Massachusetts officials was that they alter the law so that Patrick could make a temporary appointment to fill the seat during the five to six months (the state statute says 145 to 160 days) that would pass between the time of his death and the time of that special election.
(49) CommentsAugust 27, 2009
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Obama Can Honor Kennedy Best By Making Eulogy a Call to Action
By John Nichols
Saturday has the potential to be a transformational moment for Barack Obama's presidency.
Called to deliver the eulogy for his friend and mentor, Edward Kennedy, Obama can -- and should -- use this moment to reconnect with the values and the ideals that propelled him to the White House.
It will come as a surprise to no one that the president has been asked to deliver this eulogy, as it was Kennedy who inspired, encouraged and ultimately endorsed Obama's audacious quest for the nation's highest office.
(94) CommentsAugust 26, 2009
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"The Senator Edward M. Kennedy Health Care Reform Act of 2009"
By John Nichols
Ted Kennedy led an epic life that defined American politics and policy-making across much of the latter half of the 20th century. Indeed, Kennedy was so much a part of our public life that his death, shortly before midnight Tuesday, made one last and remarkable historic connection -- a connection that reminds us of the importance of extending his legacy into the 21st century.
Kennedy's passing came on the one year anniversary of his surprise speech to the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where the liberal icon of the Democratic Party completed his mission of securing the presidential nomination for a young man named Barack Obama.
Fearful of the centrism of the Clintons, Kennedy had resisted the rush to embrace the front-runner candidacy of New York Senator Hillary Clinton and instead backed the insurgent candidacy of the freshman senator from Illinois.
(133) CommentsAugust 26, 2009
John Nichols
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