Is that all you got!!!!

It was still a good press conference, but I really wanted him to put the smackdown on anyone not on board. I am going to trust him and hope he knows what he's doing.

I, too, would love to trust BHO, but this is simple. Either you follow through on transparency or it was just a bullshit campaign quip and now you're dedicated to the same imperial, secretive government as your incompetent predecessor.

Obama deserves time to work on the economy, healthcare, Iraq, etc. He doesn't need shit to open up government, end torture, end spying and so on. He just won't do it. Which means he's a fucking liar.

He's not even transparent regarding his lack of transparency.

He's clearly full of it. Obama's not concerned about affordable health care for all. His first concern is pushing through legislation, any legislation, in order to bolster his (now sagging) Man Of Action image. His second biggest concern is protecting big money - in this case, insurance companies and big pharma. Take a look at that visitor list pried out of the White House's sweaty hands. See any tired, poor, hungry, and downtrodden there? Didn't think so. And since when did it become John Q Public's job to ID the suits in "photo sprays"? What disingenuous garbage. What we need is a carefully reasoned, carefully considered bill which works to the benefit of the largest number of Americans. Obama is playing around with people's lives here. But it's all reduced to a game for him, with himself targeted as the only winner.

Everybody else in Washington - the Congresspeople, right and left, who've dodged the issue of healthcare for decades; the idiotic pundits who want to work the horse-race aspect of it instead of analyzing the plan itself; and the little people who just want to take random, unhinged pot shots at Obama - all those people have been the ones pushing and pushing for healthcare reform. And Obama's the one who's been resisting them and holding us back. Obama's our enemy!! He's the new Bush!! Hell, he's the new Lynn Cheney!!

You go girl.

You full of it. Obama hit it on the head and was honest about so much. Give me a break.

Back in 1984, Mario Cuomo said we don't have a city on a hill as alleged by Reagan. We have two cities, one rich and one poor, and the have's need to take care of others. It was a compelling moral message, but not compelling enough to win the presidency in 1984 or 1988, and so it was chucked in favor of DLC centrism and Bill Clinton.

Clinton's message was self-interest -- tax credits for higher education and such. Contrary to popular belief, Clinton's health care plan was not done in by process, or Harry and Louise, or insurance companies. It was sailing along just fine -- with no discussion of costs (all would be addressed through new efficiencies) -- until the summer/fall of 1994, when House Ways and Means chairman Dan Rostenkowski announced it could only be paid for with a payroll tax, or something. Uh oh. Support quickly slipped, elections happened, and we all know the rest of the story.

Point being: Clinton tried to sell Cuomo's vision without Cuomo's rhetoric, but in the end, voters reacted the same way they did to Walter Mondale's call to raise taxes in 1984. It didn't work.

Fast forward to 2008. Obama is reprising the role of Clinton, with lots of feel good talk of self-interest (this is a jobs bill, and a deficit reduction bill -- it's definitely not altruism). He's letting Congress figure out to pay for it, and it isn't going well. How could it?

He should stand up and say, look: there are people out there, good people, who need insurance and the affluent should pay a little higher taxes so at least most can get coverage. But there's a problem with that, too: he didn't exactly campaign on that platform (i.e., the Cuomo/Mondale approach), and wouldn't have been nominated, but less elected, if he had.

So, instead we get mush. I caught 30 seconds of the thing tonight in between my kids' shows, and heard something about tonsils being removed for minor symptoms. Greedy doctors, I guess. It made it sound rather shitty, as Jon Voight would say in Deliverance, but he then claimed in some cases that such treatment would be okay. Whatever. Good luck to Congress in passing this bill. They will need it, when they face their constituents.

A) What is the plan?

B) Name the little people reps on that WH visitors list.

I'll be waiting.

How you can watch that conference, about THE most important piece of legislation in years, and come away with, "he sorta didn't answer the question about how White House visitors are revealed", even though ANY OF THOSE VISITS ARE PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND/OR PHOTOGRAPHED, THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF DICK CHENEY'S CABAL.......

I am gobsmacked by your lack of insight and by your inability to rise to the occasion.

We got nothing but false promises, we got nothing tonight. the guys a phony.

Hillary lost. So did you. Get over it.

Now STFU already. Quit proving the point that left has their crazies too.

I suggest you get yourself to Washington ASAP and get in on the action. Then at least your constant, never-ending, shrill, mean-spirited, counter-productive, and mega-bitter criticism of everything that is not Hillary will have one foot in reality. Otherwise, not.

Didn't the torture photos destroy that ridiculous myth? I can already see it now...

Salon 2015: Obama covers up prisoner abuses in Iran, is he ignoring his transparency promises?

Another voice of reason. Do you have something other than ad hominems to contribute? Better check your insurance - I hear they can lead to tonsillitis.

If you had watched more than 30 seconds, you possibly wouldn't have written such a pig-ignorant post.

Ya know, I sometimes don't know what is worse. The comments section in Salon, or the comments section at Free Republic.

Both sites have commentors that live to hate Obama. What the fuck is wrong with you people?