It was generally nifty to see Barack Obama back at the White House today. The occasion was a celebration of the Affordable Care Act, and as the saying goes, a good time was had. And there were lots of jokes — particularly when Barack called Joe "Mr. Vice President," juicy bait that right-wing social media immediately swallowed hook, line and sinker. (Gee, they're dumb.)
And it was wonderful to see Madam Vice President, too. We couldn't help thinking that we were looking at three Presidents on that podium. (And if Al Gore and Hillary Clinton had been there, five!)
But if we may be party poopers for a moment...
While we agree with Obama that passing the ACA is absolutely the kind of thing you get into public life to do, when we hear him say "Nothing made me prouder than providing better healthcare and more protections to millions of people across this country," we just want to scream at him: Then why didn't you sell it?
Obama signed the "BFD" legislation in March of 2010, and then proceeded to treat it as not a very BFD. And then the Democrats got wiped out in the midterms. (They also got wiped out in 2014, but that's a different angry blog post.) Democrats also lost a staggering number of state legislative seats from sea to shining sea — repercussions that reverberate today.
Although they get it now, American voters in 2010 did not understand what the Obama-Biden Administration had just done for them because its provisions didn't kick in right away — but also because, crucially, one of the greatest speechmakers ever to inhabit the Oval Office did not explain it. He and Biden should have hit the road in a nationwide dog-and-pony show to tell them the great things they were going to get from this law. Why they didn't is a mystery to us.
(Even worse, he let Republicans control the narrative. "Obamacare" was an epithet for a long time, you know.)
We love Barack, but we'll bitch at him forever for this. We cats HISS and PURR at the same time.
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