Blizzard of ’14 Open Thread [2.13.14]
15 inches as of this moment in North Wilmington. How about where you live?
“During the 1973 Watergate hearings, Howard Baker, the Republican Senate leader and a close ally of the Nixon White House, asked repeatedly, ‘What did the president know and when did he know it?’ This was and continues to be widely seen as the definitive way to establish a political leader’s innocence or guilt of misdeeds within his administration. And so the question is now being echoed in the case of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, in particular on television–it has even led a national network news broadcast. This is a big break for Christie.”
“Christie himself has helped set up this question–leading reporters on a merry chase to pin down precisely what he knew when about the infamous closing of two of the three traffic lanes leading into the George Washington Bridge from Fort Lee, New Jersey for four days last September… But this isn’t really the issue. The issue is whether the governor can be held accountable for what happened at very high levels in his administration.”
“Has there ever been a political reversal of fortune as rapid and as absolute as the one just experienced by Chris Christie? At warp speed, the governor of New Jersey has gone from the most popular politician in the country to the most embattled; from the Republicans’ brightest hope for 2016 to a man with an FBI target on his back. One minute, he was releasing jokey vanity videos starring Alec Baldwin and assorted celebrity pals; the next, he was being ridiculed by his lifelong idol, Bruce Springsteen. Mere weeks ago, Christie was a straight-talking, corruption-busting everyman. Now, he is a liar, a bully, a buffoon.”
“What is remarkable about this meltdown is that it isn’t the result of some deep secret that has been exposed to the world, revealing a previously unimagined side to the candidate. Many of the scandals and mini-scandals and scandals-within-scandals that the national media is salivating over have been in full view for years.”
One of our conservative commenters warned us that the GOP would win heavily this fall because they were going to focus on Obamacare. And our liberal commenters welcomed the challenge. Why? Because if the election is about Obamacare, like it was in 2012, we win. Evidence? Polling in the upcoming special election in the Florida 13:
FLORDIA–13 CD–SPECIAL ELECTION–Tampa Bay Times: Alex Sink (D) 42, David Jolly (R) 35.
Interesting: “The poll also reveals how the Affordable Care Act has become a virtual litmus test for voters. Of those who support Sink, 81 percent also support Obamacare. Of those who support Jolly, 84 percent also oppose Obamacare.”
My knock against Obama had been that he wasn’t setting up wedge issues to use against Republicans.
I just got in from shoveling my front walk, my neighbor’s front walk, my deck, the space around my car and a part of my alleyway. 10″ here, maybe? What I DO know is that stuff is heavy and it *is* melting fast. The roads and sidewalks will be a real carnival after this stuff freezes tonite.
What blizzard? All I’ve seen is rain.
Lots of snow in Smyrna, followed by lots of rain and standing water here and there. As for Christie he’s wounded but a long way from dead, he will survive but a presidential run seems remote at this point. Obamacare will gain acceptance with time as the election is a ways away at this point, and many of the epic lies of Fox News will become apparent, even in the south.
It’s probably just me, but I find the mention of Howard Baker in the same breath as a GOP fraudster like Christie pretty distasteful.
And how about this for fun? (Warning, Politico link.) You remember The Can Kicks Back BS, right? It was this Simpson-Bowles associated group (also associated with the Fix the Debt crowd) that thought it was targeting millennials with the horrors of government debt. So apparently the Can Kicks Back is no longer solvent, which strikes me as serious karma for a group of people hyping solutions that weren’t good for anyone besides their funders:
From The Hill:
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was in frequent contact with President Obama and senior White House aides before the disastrous launch of the federal ObamaCare exchange last year.
While Sebelius has said the president was not aware of HealthCare.gov’s problems, more than 750 pages of documents obtained by The Hill through a Freedom of Information Act request show she made scores of visits to the White House.
The documents reveal that Sebelius met with or attended calls and events with Obama at least 18 times between Oct. 27, 2012, and Oct. 6, 2013, including at least seven instances in which the two were scheduled to discuss the new healthcare law, according to the secretary’s draft schedules.
She had breakfast or lunch with Pete Rouse, considered one of Obama’s closest advisers, at least three times. Moreover, Sebelius had scheduled calls or meetings with Valerie Jarrett, an Obama confidante, and White House chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Sebelius also met with or had calls with Chris Jennings, then a White House senior healthcare adviser, at least seven times in the roughly yearlong period.
The schedules suggest Sebelius was an active White House presence in the months leading up to the botched rollout, and raise new questions about why Obama wouldn’t have known about the problems that were exposed on Oct. 1.
HHS said in a statement to The Hill that Sebelius is often on the White House grounds.
Since last fall, when lawmakers began calling for her ouster, Sebelius has maintained that Obama was in the dark about the glitches that plagued HealthCare.gov.
“No, sir,” Sebelius told CNN’s Sanjay Gupta on Oct. 22 when asked if the president knew of problems before the site’s launch.
Obama has similarly said that he wasn’t aware of any issues.
“On the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to. Had I been informed, I wouldn’t be going out saying, boy, this is going to be great,” Obama said in a Nov. 14 press conference…
What did the president know, and when did he know it?
@DD “Because if the election is about Obamacare, like it was in 2012, we win. Evidence? Polling in the upcoming special election…”
More evidence… Look at this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxi-CIzU4nA
It never mentions Obamacare, but hits the GOP candidate for being on record to deny all of the popular parts of the law. This sort of thing will be very effective if done better.
Bottom line: For the Dems to win with Obamacare, they have to clearly articulate what the GOP wants to take away from the voters.
Here’s another less effective ad, but it’s good to see that the Dems aren’t running away.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYJB632ohu8
Oh.. And enrollment number are looking great.
@CL “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
That’s great. Tell your friends in the GOP to run with that. That’s going to be real important in the next election as more and more people start enjoying Obamacare.
…Oh… and I’m sure the contractors told everyone exactly how they were screwing up.
The ACA rollout troubles contradict two conservative talking points.
Nobody wants it…….thats why the site had so many hits
Private sector always does it better…….it was a contractor that could not get the site right.