Looks Like Obama’s Speech Did Not Move the Ball

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The guy is stalled.

Good.

Now the GOP needs to start getting serious about alternative plans.

There is a lot not to like about the status quo.

Fill the void with your own stuff.

It is fun and easy to just kick the other guy when he is down.

And if you make no proposals you cannot be attacked.

It looks like strength, but it is weakness.

Merely being negative, and taking no risks, expends the precious asset of the other guy’s weakness.

It is at best defensive play.

Defense cannot lead to victory.

Victory would be a set of reforms that would actually make the American people better off.

Obama’s plan, to the extent it exists at all, fails on that count for too many people, at too great an additional cost.

GOP: Your move

Let’s see it.

6 thoughts on “Looks Like Obama’s Speech Did Not Move the Ball”

  1. HOLD THAT LINE! HOLD THAT LINE!

    Just run out the clock until the half time (ie 2010 elections.)

    We’ll take the kick and go on offense.

  2. For 2010, expect the Democrats to engage in electoral fraud on an unprecedented scale. Running out the clock may not be enough to get Republicans elected. Republicans need also to express a coherent small-government program. I think they also need courage, something they are short on at the moment. Attacking the Democrats for electoral fraud would be a start, yet even this the Republicans have so far been unwilling to do. Most of them won’t even attack Obama for being a hard-left demagogue. When the likes of Sen. Grassley are more interested in blocking the looting of the country than they are in civil compromise with their corrupt Democratic colleagues, then I will start to consider the Republicans a viable alternative. Until then, they are part of the problem.

  3. Whitehall’s view is common, and not obviously wrong. But it is wrong nonetheless. Political advantages are fleeting. The opponents weakness cannot be hoarded, it must be exploited, and that means going on the offensive — which means positive proposals and political exposure. 2010 is a long way off. The world will be a very different place. If the GOP does not seize the initiative, it will simply be saying “no” for two years. That won’t work. It may pick up a few seats. But a very major change requires some substance. If the GOP simply has nothing to say beyond “no” then it should just march of the pages of history into the dustbin.

  4. Jonathan’s view is common, and not obviously wrong. But it is wrong nonetheless. The GOP is not going to get anywhere by attacking Democrat methods merely. That cannot be the main thrust. Nor will labelling them “Left” do any good, whether or not it is an accurate label. No one cares. The GOP needs to attack ideas and policies and tell middle class American voters why what they want to do will be better. I frequently talk to friends and colleagues who are having a tough time because of health insurance — either they can’t get it, or they cannot start a business because they cannot leave their current employer ant its plan, etc. There is a problem, or a complex of related problems. The GOP needs to come up with something coherent to address those problems, or they will not make any progress.

  5. I think everyone is a little bit correct (and, I feel a bit shy about my own jokey post, it’s sort of what everyone thinks about the speech, isn’t it? No detail. I wish I had done something more substantive, but there wasn’t really much substance to deal with). Still need to push, can’t assume anything, but the next phase of discussing alternatives should start.

    Reason, Cato, NR, all have blogs or pages devoted to more free-market health care proposals. I have not read the current GOP plan, but hope to do so, soon.

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