Max Eternity - In this MSNBC video (found here [1]) Arianna Huffington converses with Keith Oberman; where in a rare move, she places most of the blame for the healthcare fiasco squarely on President Obama's shoulders. Thus far, however polite, this is some the stongest language that Huffington has used to date when critiquing Obama's policies. Too, Huffington's choice of words might come as a bit of a surprise, because she was, through the channels of her media empire, The Huffingon Post, a central figure in rallying the progressive vote; helping then senator Obama get elected to the Presidency. And while Huffington will surely remain a strong supper of the President, something has definitely changed. Still, in her criticisms, she is not the only towering figure on the left who has a thing or to to say about the presidents mixed-signals and slipping support. Today, in a piece published on the Common Dreams website, Robert Kutner offers this statement within his overall scathing commentary, on Obama's questionable maneuvers:
"This president recoils from confrontation, even with those who are out to destroy him. He has had ample opportunities to put himself on the side of popular economic grievances and to connect America's economic troubles to the forces that Roosevelt called economic royalists. But Obama, whose propensity for consensus is hard-wired, keeps passing up those opportunities.
Even now, he won't make clear that the private insurance industry is the problem. Recent administration statements [2] on the "public" insurance option have been classics of mixed messaging. Obama's economic team is far too cozy with Wall Street, fanning populist suspicions." Read more [3].
Links:
[1] http://maxeternity.blogspot.com/2009/08/arianna-white-house-must-draw-line-in.html
[2] http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-By-The-President-In-Town-Hall-On-Health-Care-Grand-Junction-Colorado/
[3] http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/19-6