Obama praises Mitt Romney, either being bipartisan or an asshole
By Ben ReiningaMay 13th, 2011, 3:59 pmComments (6)
Earlier today, the Obama administration did something unusual — it praised the work of a Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney. The interesting question is, were they just being nice, or passive-aggressively trying to ruin his campaign? Given the timing, and the issue at stake is universal healthcare, probably the latter.
This morning, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said:
"We have said before that health-care reform that then-Governor Romney signed into law in Massachusetts is in many ways similar to the legislation that resulted in the Affordable Care Act... Massachusetts took a smart approach towards health-care reform. Its provenance was so mainstream, there are great similarities between Massachusetts' law, the Affordable Care Act and legislation proposed by then-Rhode Island Republican [Senator] John Chaffee in 1993."
The Massachusetts' law went was passed by Mitt Romney when he was governor of the state. Yesterday, Mitt Romney made a national speech calling for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (stop calling it Obamacare!), which makes the secretary's statement look like a rebuttal, but a very tactical one.
I can't help but be a little pleased when I see the Democrats taking the not-so-high road and playing the political game aggressively. Not because I think it's actually good for the country, but because they've been so pummeled by the Republicans' adoption of same that it's nice to see a little payback. It's also telling that our political culture is so polarized that, for a Republican, a compliment from the President seems like a knockout punch.
Commentarium (6 Comments)
It's Obamacare, the same way the plan in Mass is referred to as Romneycare. On all the news shows both cable and network, left and right.
May be it should be called PelosiCare, since she did the most to get it passed, thankfully since according to Nancy "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it"
No, it's Dolecare. What got passed is essentially the healthcare plan Dole ran on in 1996.
Dole ran on it but didn't create a bill and get it passed.
Still goes to Pelosi.
Well played.
It's the "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." I prefer Obamacare for now and look forward to talking about it in the past tense. It's horrendous.
Republicans are also responsible for the way the health care bill turned out. Democrats had a big majority and it was clear they were going to get something passed. But Republicans were so childishly hung up on ideology and obstruction that instead of trying to shape the bill in any way, all they did was try to stop it, which of course didn't happen. Blind adherence to ideology, with no results, is not more noble than working with the other party and actually affecting the outcome, even if in only in a small way. And now those who refused to compromise in any way are whining about the bill that was passed.