Word: reformer
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...that focus and the wider conservative reaction to the UNESCO document seem to reflect a similar strategy to the one employed to fight President Barack Obama's proposed health-care reform. First, critics have launched the debate before UNESCO has even finished its recommendations, which are based on analysis of 80 different studies of sex-education programs. Second, they have broadcast sensational accusations of the offending proposal's intent to better grab the attention of - and alarm - the public. (See pictures of the health-care debate turning angry...
...talking about their poll numbers - and the cliché is somewhat misleading. They are actually investing their political capital, hoping for a greater return if their gamble succeeds. George W. Bush invested his capital in privatizing Social Security, and the stock tanked. Barack Obama is investing in health-care reform. We are at the point of the legislative process where all seems hopeless, but Obama should be heartened by the fact that most of his Republican adversaries oppose the bill for crass political rather than ideological reasons. They assume that if it passes, his investment of political capital will result...
...overt and opaque - the death threats, the imprecations (calling someone a Nazi is evidence of the evil of banality), the idiots bearing assault rifles at presidential events. As the lunatics took over the asylum, the President's poll ratings dropped, and the chances for a truly bipartisan health-care-reform effort vanished, if they existed in the first place. Consequently, we have had a back-to-school fusillade of advice for the President from my columnizing peers - and an effusion of premature crowing from conservatives about the collapse of the Obama presidency...
...will be voted on in the House. The President could have laid out a set of principles and said, "I will veto any bill that doesn't contain the following ..." (Indeed, he still could do so.) They should be clear, simple, popular and achievable. My list would include insurance reform, health-care exchanges, near universal coverage and tort reform. (Obama's position on tort reform is another abdication of responsibility: he says he's open to it, knowing the congressional Democrats are closed to it.) (See "Understanding the Health-Care Debate: Your Indispensable Guide...
...much can be written about this defining moment in American politics, and so much has been, from the increasingly complacent mainstream media to the insurance industry’s frenzied advertising and lobbying against reform. But from the perspective of a young progressive and Obama campaigner, my advice to Obama is this: Don’t bend over backward compromising with people who want as little change as possible. Doing so will not only water down meaningful health-care reform, but it will also prove that there is no “meaningful” change in politics. The power...