Legal Commentary

Ezra Klein: President Still Irrelevant to Heath Care Debate

By Big Tent Democrat

Ezra's title - "Has Obama Played Health Care Exactly Right? Does It Even Matter?. His answer? No.

Boy did Ezra waste a lot of time the past two years analyzing the health care proposals of the Presidential candidates. And then I wasted a lot of time reading his analysis.

Those are hours of my life I'll never get back. Who could have imagined that the new pro-Obama line on health care would be that he is irrelevant? One merit this argument does have is that it does describe transformative change. From the time of FDR, the President of the United states has been the leader on issues in our country. He did not always get his way. but he was able to set the agenda.

President Obama, his supporters say, has changed all that. Now the President does not matter in the debates on what policies to enact. Perhaps this can be a good thing. Except when Republicans are President, it will not be so. Obama is going the way of Jimmy Carter if Ezra is to be believed.

Speaking for me only

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 01, 2009 (boomark / email).