"On the six-month anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act, President Obama leads a backyard discussion on the Patient’s Bill of Rights and hears from real Americans who are already benefitting from health reform":

     ... Here's the transcript.

My friends thought this video was the epitome of hokey, but I'm a sucker & loved it. Good luck to Gail & Matt:

Jeffrey Kluger of Time on why it will be a national disaster if Republicans win even one House of Congress & are thus in a position to make cuts in or modifications to the Affordable Care Act.

Maureen Dowd interviews President Jimmy Carter on a range of issues, including comparisons between himself and President Obama. She writes, "In 1976, the former peanut farmer from Georgia exploded out of his shell, buoyed by the same sort of antiestablishment frenzy — or 'malaise,' as he puts it, recycling the word that caused him so many problems — that we see now."

The Constant Weader replies:

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, as another President used to say, Jimmy Carter did not use the word "malaise" in his inaptly-captioned "Malaise Speech." His speech was actually quite profound & sadly prophetic. Ostensibly about the energy crisis, what is remembered about the speech is Carter's premise that the American people were experiencing "a crisis of confidence":

The erosion of our confidence in the future is threatening to destroy the social and the political fabric of America, Carter said.

But Carter ended his speech on a hopeful note (& without that treacly "God Bless America," which future Presidents seemed to feel was somehow fitting for a nation built on a Constitution that never mentions god):

Let us commit ourselves together to a rebirth of the American spirit. Working together with our common faith we cannot fail.

Of course, we did not have that rebirth. We got Ronald Reagan instead, the Great White Dope, whose vision for the nation seemed to be an oligarchy who would direct the end of communism (already dying in the Soviet Union) & rule the world by force of saber-rattling & Star Wars.

Another aspect of Carter's speech that is especially relevant today: in it, Carter emphasizes that he drew his conclusions about the national mood from listening to ordinary Americans:

I invited to Camp David people from almost every segment of our society -- business and labor, teachers and preachers, governors, mayors, and private citizens. And then I left Camp David to listen to other Americans, men and women like you.

One can't become President of the United States without being an egotist, but President Obama seems to be over-the-top. His "town halls" are shows, where -- instead of listening to the questioners -- he patiently explains to them why they're wrong. The purpose of the Obama town halls is not to learn but to teach. He does not acknowledge he has anything to learn. Frankly, an Obama town hall reminds me of the Gospels, where lawyers, scribes, Pharisees, the disciples & ordinary people challenge Jesus. Jesus always has the right answer, & his questioners are always wrong. As in the Gospels, in an Obama town hall meeting, there are no follow-up questions. I don't know Jesus, but I'd say Barack Obama is no Jesus.

As for all of us Obama supporters who aren't invited to the town halls, we seem to be of no interest whatsoever to him. As Paul Krugman noted yesterday, "the [Obama] administration seems to go out of its way to alienate its supporters."

Until President Obama learns from Presidents Carter & Clinton to "feel the pain" of the American people -- especially the pain of those of us inclined to support him & other Democratic candidates -- & to adjust his policies to accommodate us, no matter whether he is a one- or a two-term President, he will not be remembered as a good one. Maybe a tall man needs a high horse, but really, Obama should climb down off his.

In the video below, the President appeals to his base to get behind Democratic candidates. This self-justification is ideal as campaign rhetoric, but it is pretty useless as an answer to a constituent's question about her specific situation. Unfortunately, the President's appeal here is almost indistinguishable from the sort of "answers" he employs to respond to public questions from town hall participants:

The Commentariat -- September 22

Boomers, PBS Loves You. Elizabeth Jensen of the New York Times: "A group of public broadcasting executives is putting together an online and broadcast initiative that ... [is] hoping to make public television a mainstay for 45- to-65-year-olds.... The core of the project, called Next Avenue, will be a Web site with original and aggregated content from public and nonprofit partners — organized around health and wellness; money and financial security; and a category called living and learning — that is expected to start April 1."

Borzou Daragahi & Ramin Mostaghim of the Los Angeles Times: at home, "Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ... is under withering attack from all political directions."

A Plague on America. David Herszenhorn of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Thursday will issue a legislative blueprint called 'A Pledge to America' that they hope will catapult them to a majority in the November elections. Its goals include a permanent extension of all of the Bush-era tax cuts, repeal of the newly enacted health care law, a cap on discretionary federal spending, and an end to government control of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." ...

... Never, Ever Trust a Republican. Zaid Jilani of Think Progress: after calling the reconcilation process of passing financial bills "undemocratic," and "an extraordinary & unprecedented abuse," Republican Rep. Paul Ryan, who could become chair of the House Budget Committee, says Republicans may have to use reconciliation.

Ishaan Tharoor of Time interviews Markos Moulitsas on his book American Taliban.

Statements that would never be tolerated against Jews or Israel are regularly made and tolerated against Palestinians. -- Matthew Duss

Matthew Duss of the Center for American Progress in a Boston Globe op-ed points out the double standard in treatment for Marty Peretz for his many anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian comments & of Helen Thomas for her one comment against Jews.

Robert Scheer of TruthDig on the impending exit of Larry Summers: "Obama’s effusive praise on Tuesday went well beyond the requirements of professional pink-slip courtesy and suggests that he is still in denial over the role of key Democrats like Summers in getting us into this mess." ...

... BUT. Summers Is Not as Bad as You Think. Jonathan Cohn of The New Republic thinks progressives may have reason to miss Larry Summers. ...

... Glenn Thrush & Kendra Marr of Politico: "...it’s highly likely Obama’s pick will be either a woman or a business leader – and preferably both, said several people familiar with the situation." CW: because what the public demands is more evidence that Obama is not antagonistic to big business.

Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post: "One unfortunate side effect of a dramatic shift in the political winds is that the party that suddenly has momentum thinks it can claim vindication for every nutty notion spouted by its leaders. Republicans ... [are] declaring that all Americans are suddenly demanding to cut every tax, dismantle every federal agency and leave it to the free markets to regulate business behavior. Oh - I almost forgot - we now apparently also believe that global warming is a hoax."

You're on Your Own, Kids, Part 1. Los Angeles Times: "Major health insurance companies ... have decided to stop selling policies for children rather than comply with a new federal healthcare law that bars them from rejecting youngsters with preexisting medical conditions." ...

... You're on Your Own, Kids, Part 2. Washington Post: "Republican lawmakers on Tuesday stalled a Senate measure to allow children of undocumented immigrants to get on a path to citizenship, and accused the Obama administration of seeking amnesty for illegal immigrants through administrative changes within the Department of Homeland Security."

Center for Tax Justice: "Last week, 31 House Democrats signed a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in support of extending the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, and thus opposing President Obama's proposal to allow the tax cuts to expire for the very rich. New data ... show that two-thirds of the House Democrats who signed that letter represent districts that have less than the average share of taxpayers rich enough to face higher taxes.... Further, the claim made in the letter that these very rich taxpayers 'are responsible for 25 percent of national consumer spending' is simply incorrect." (pdf)

Scott Ritter, a singular voice of reason during the build-up to the Iraq War who correctly argued Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, writes in TruthDig of the current situation,

The president and the American people will all too soon come to recognize that the quagmire in Iraq is far from over.... 50,000 American troops remain in Iraq, configured into six 'advisory and assist' brigades that are structurally identical to their 'combat' counterparts.... The Obama administration’s so-called strategy for Iraq lacks any discernable benchmarks for success.

       ... Thanks to Sharon E. for the link.

Dana Goldstein of the Daily Beast cites President Clinton on the upcoming elections & on his global initiative. Clinton chastized the media for not fact-checking Republican & tea party claims. And he warns disaffected Obama supporters:

Like everything else you do when you’re mad, there’s an 80 percent chance you’re making a mistake. You’ll get the exact result you don’t want. -- Bill Clinton

Michael Scherer of Time: "White House aides are preparing for the possibility that Rahm Emanuel may step down as chief of staff as soon as early October if he decides to run for mayor of Chicago, according to a person familiar with deliberations in the West Wing."

JoeMyGod: "Sen. Saxby Chambliss [R-Ga.] has confirmed that the 'All faggots must die' comment left here on JMG earlier today did indeed come from his Atlanta office."