Interesting that you use the word “liking”- Obama’s favorability rating is consistently higher than his approval rating, and is usually higher than 50%. So Obama actually is pretty well liked (and only about 25% have a “very unfavorable” view of him), even if his job approval rating fluctuates around 50%.
And also needs to be considered against the current Congressional job approval rating, which is hovering around 10% these days. People may be grumpy about Obama but he’s Man of the Year compared to anyone in Congress.
I think Obama is kind of a technocrat. One of Jimmy Carter’s complaints about Clinton is that he tried to fight diseases that have a lot of publicity rather than diseases that caused the most problems and setbacks. Malaria, HIV, TB, etc. Those are important diseases, but Carter went after the diseases that were easier to treat and/or didn’t have as much public accolades into fighting them. Guinea worm, river blindness, trachoma, mental illness, etc.
I believe one of the reasons Obama pursued health reform so strongly was because he was looking at the long game. Over the next 75 years, something like 80% of our national debt will derive from health costs. So Obamacare may be a crappy short term political maneuver which a lot of people thought was unneeded in the midst of a recession and that was controversial, but over the course of decades as it is strengthened and reformed it could shave trillions off of the debt in the 21st century. Add in Rx reimportations and negotiations, a public option tied to medicare, comparative effectiveness, etc. and the program will end up saving trillions over the century.
So Obama showed me with that he was willing to lose a short term battle to win a long term war, and he is willing to work on programs where people may not see the true benefits for decades, ie he is a big picture guy IMO. So I assume his after presidency efforts will be the same, which would be something of the opposite of Clinton (who seemed like he is more concerned with what makes him look good in the short term, things like fighting the most unpopular diseases, etc).
Problem is I have no idea what he is passionate about or what he thinks the biggest factors for the US and the world are over the long term. Alternative energy, global poverty, sustainable economics, health care, foreign relations, etc.
I’ve heard unlike Clinton he isn’t very good at one on one communications. When he is giving speeches he does well, but I don’t know if he would be a very good diplomat. So I’m guessing he wouldn’t do what Carter or Clinton do, intervene in foreign affairs if someone gets kidnapped or detained by North Korea for example.
What has Obama done that is so bad? He hasn’t fixed the recession, but most of his policies have been fairly moderate.
Al Gore, who won the popular vote in 2000, also supports single payer.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1115-07.htm
42% of physicians support single payer.
You act like single payer is some radical unpopular idea. Medicare (which is just single payer for the elderly) is one of the most popular government programs we have, even the tea party supports it. The GOP used cuts to medicare to help them win in 2010.
There is a giant communication and political divide between liberals and conservatives in america, but among liberals the belief is a lot of that divide comes down to conservatives living in an echo chamber that pushes them further and further to the right. Like someone earlier said, the current GOP wouldn’t cooperate with Ronald Reagan.
Single payer is popular for people who can’t get health insurance, which would include the poor and elderly. It’s significantly less popular among workers who get better coverage through their employers. It’s extremely unpopular among federal, state, and local employees and union workers who get gold plated plans that are vastly better than what they could expect with an NHS-style system. Unions bought into ACA only because their current insurance would be protected.
I disagree that lots of Americans have better health care than they would get under single payer. Many people have several thousand a year in deductible and copays, and that number grows all the time. Aside from union members and the upper middle class most people have to deal with being uninsured or with expensive copays and deductibles. It isn’t just the poor and elderly anymore.
During Clinton’s health reform I think you could make the argument you are making, but as of 2013 it really isn’t applicable to say huge numbers of Americans are too satisfied with how affordable and accessible health care system to want meaningful reform. And the number will continue go down with time.
And the reason government employees and labor unions get better health care is because they have the ability to organize and demand better benefits. That is an argument for liberalism if anything, however their health insurance may not be as good under ACA. Only 3 unions came out to oppose ACA recently, and part of it was the fact that employers will cut hours to avoid insurance.
I think he’ll be a money-grubbing asshole who thinks the Constitution is toilet paper, just like he is now. He’ll probably try to assume the mantle of a civil rights leader so he’ll be able to do a lot of speaking engagements to assure people that whatever the hell Wall Street wants will make them freer.
There are many things I don’t like about Obama, but I don’t think money motivates him. That’s one of his good qualities.
Him going back to the Senate would be a positive thing, just as long as he takes Durbin’s seat and not Mark Kirk’s.
Or maybe he could get revenge on the one guy who beat him, Bobby Rush, and take his House seat just for fun.
No, you must be confusing him with Reagan, who cashed in big time on his presidency.
The guy who can pass single payer should be put on Mt. Rushmore. The private insurers all have huge expensive office buildings and executives with big salaries and perks. Your premium pays for all that, plus they have employees who have as their performance measure the number of claims they can deny. Chuck all that shit and let us work with civil servants who don’t make the big bucks and don’t have incentive to screw the patient.
Single payer will never happen. It’s like the horse and buggy. Multi payer is where it’s at, and ACA is multi-payer.
In addition, there’s the inertia factor. Countries that have a basic UHC model don’t change it, they just tinker around the edges. That’s why we don’t have single payer here, people like their health insurance and aren’t willing to rely on the tender mercies of a federal health care bureaucracy to decide what they get and when they get it.
You honestly think it’s better to let insurers decide what you get? When they have people whose primary job it is to find ways to deny your claim?
I prefer to have the government and the court system to keep insurers in line than for the government to be the insurer. When the government denies you care, that’s the end of the story, and the media isn’t going to cry for you like they do when there’s a greedy private insurer story.
ACA creates a well regulated system of private insurance. I don’t know what more you can ask for.
Every health care worker from doctors and nurses to lab techs all civil servants whose job it is to give you the care you need and not worry about the cost, no insurance forms, everybody who walks in the door is fully covered.
Your optimism about the Affodable Care Act is refreshing, and almost certainly, totally unfounded.
I think Clinton really loves attention and public speaking and making money. Him and his wife are home like less than ten days out of the month and often go weeks without seeing one another. We can speculate about the realities of the Clinton marriage forever, but I think it is quite obvious Obama is vastly closer with his wife and his children than Clinton is with his nuclear family.
I think in retirement, Obama will want to spend time with Michelle, and even though his daughters will be young adults I think he’ll want to see them as much as he can so he’ll create a very stable home base.
I think he’ll be like Bush, in that he’ll do a lot of low key humanitarian work, and he’ll be somewhat like Clinton in that he’ll do some amount of public speaking for money. However I think he’ll do a lot less than Clinton does. I think Obama will probably make more off his first few post-Presidency books than any recent President and also will simply be content earning a very comfortable wage and won’t feel the need to set records on the speaking tour (which might require 200+ days a year speaking.)
Carter has taken on the role of both critic and activist in addition to his laudable humanitarian activities. He’s injected himself into political affairs of his successors and that is something no other former President in the modern era has done. Say what you will about Clinton, the Bushes, or Reagan but they didn’t do that stuff. In fact W. Bush was openly very grateful for the relationship Clinton had with him during his Presidency. Clinton campaigned for Democrats in some elections and obviously was big involved in his wife’s primary, but during the Bush Presidency Clinton didn’t bash Bush, he didn’t bash Bush’s policies. Bush has not done that to Obama, and I don’t think Obama will do that to his successor.
It’s not that I think Bush agrees with Obama’s policies, or that Clinton agreed with those of Bush. I think that the “college of ex-Presidents” aside from Carter recognize that there are so many people ready to call a President on everything they do bad (and most of the things they do good) that it’s not necessary or in the public interest for an ex-President should do that. Instead, they view the Presidency as transitioning into a job as “Elder Statesman.”
I think Obama has even shown this to some degree as President. As a current President he’s still an ‘active’ politician, but I’d argue that even when he has found it politically necessary to blame things on the previous administration you actually haven’t seen Obama do much Bush bashing by name since his 2008 election. In fact almost all of his direct statements as President that reference Bush by name have been neutral or positive toward Bush. Obama will not be a Carter because he has too much class and he won’t be a Clinton because he likes his family and being at home too much.
I doubt it. He turned down high paying jobs when he was younger to be a community organizer. when he was senator his aides used to joke that their apartments in DC were better than his. now his wife, I can see her being extremely vapid and materialistic. Maybe she would push him in that direction but I don’t think Obama would cash in on his own accord.
The reason a public option was not included is that rates are 20-30% lower. in between the lower reimbursement rates of medicare and the lower administration costs you can get a policy much cheaper. One prediction said by 2020 almost half of people would be on the public option due to the lower cost. So the insurance industry had it killed.
other wealthy nations have a host of plans. some are all public, some are hybrid some are well regulated private. but because the US is a plutocracy we will not have a well regulated private industry for health insurance and providers the way the Netherlands or Israel.
He’s a really young guy still. With nothing to lose (he’s been The POTUS, is he likely to run for another elected office?) He will pursue whatever agenda floats his boat with tremendous energy. I’d like to see him pick up the national healthcare battle and fight that mofo to the death. As POTUS a lot of people have got you by the balls, greatly limiting what you can do. But as an ex-pres he has many more expert connections with good information than he had in 2007, and he’s got more experience and realistic expectations of Congress. If he applied himself to the quest, he could ghost-craft an excellent bit of legislation while raising public support for it to such levels that the congresscritters would be afraid to castrate it.
Or at least he could do something similar for our crumbling infrastructure. I don’t see him retiring quietly and remaining silent like W has done. I think he opens up the whupass in 2017.
You guys do realize he’s not actually young at all, right? I’m older but I can tell you factually, 50 years old is not young, in fact 40 years isn’t either. Forty is middle age, fifty is well into middle age. You’re not a senior citizen but you’re not a young man. He’ll be older when he leaves office than Clinton was, and roughly the same age Carter was when he left office (he was a bit under a year younger than Carter on his second inaugural than Carter was at his only inaugural.)
I lifted weights and kept in shape until I left the Army (I got badly out of shape, then got back in shape after realizing I was on a bad trajectory) I was probably in the top 10 percentile of fitness at 40 and 45, and I can tell you straight up it was quite noticeable I was not 25 or 35 anymore.