I Guess This Thing's On

I cross-posted my opinion on Americablog, and Ben Smith picked it up:

Former HCAN official voices discontent

Jacki Schechner was communications director for Health Care for America Now!, the big, pro-White House coalition organized to push for the passage of a health care bill.

So her disappointment at the outcome, and at President Barack Obama, voiced on Americablog today, is pretty striking:

My personal discontent stems from my experience in the battle for health care reform. I'm glad we got something done. I'm not convinced what passed was good enough. As of last month, my insurance premiums went up once again.

Had Obama run the first two years of his presidency the same way he ran his campaign — with guts and gusto — he would have solidified the full support of his base and the middle. They would have been ecstatic to get what they voted for. But when the president almost instantaneously cloaked himself in compromise and became the guy who just wanted to be liked, he showed a weakness that disenfranchised those of us who truly believed.

We don't want Canadian health care. We don't want the feds to run it all. After 8 years of feeling cast aside, we simply want things to get better. We voted for our elected officials to put our interests first, for civil rights to apply to all citizens, for government to work for us again, and for hope and change to have meant something.

I don't understand why the White House finds that so difficult to comprehend.

I'm glad.