Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Morning Sybil

The Morning Joe Rebuttal for November 17th, 2009

Observations:

1) A show that got so much right today gave an equal amount back at every turn. You got your hopes up every time Mika would try and make the other news of the day: China, Iran, PPI, Health Care & Mammograms, pre-eminent. It just could not sustain any momentum. The day was deeded to Sarah Palin from the outset. Smart people would have to concede today, and credit today's show for its engagement on the other topics in order to remain optimistic. There was ample coverage of the Mammogram story, and some fair attempts at other issues considering the day’s white noise level.

2) The dichotomy of the earlier discussion involving Jim Vandehei and Joe Scarborough versus the Senator Sharrod Brown interview can’t be stressed enough. Mr. Scarborough isn’t trying to predict the future as a public service. Time spent on this show talking about March and health care is an agenda serving projection. This reminds one of the Lawrence and Joe discussion on the death of the public option in the same 24 hours that Harry Reid came out with the statement that the senate bill will include one. Sen. Brown reiterated Christmas bill passage and hopefully between 55 and 60 senators will rotate on the show daily to correct the record lest they allow a host’s Hannity-esque wishful thinking be construed as an accurate or responsible prognostication.

Smart people are ready to say there’s almost a contrarian indicator forming here. That is, JS says it will be so, there’s your indicator to make your announcement to the contrary. I’m not by default admonishing the JS version of events as unrealistic given the headwinds faced, but just identifying it as part of an agenda to move the kill health care reform message forward.

3) The selection of guests today, Gail Brown included, was probably the most credible assembly the show could have hoped for to avoid being seen as part of the Going Rogue launch event. Mother Jones doesn’t have a regular seat at this table, so it must be construed that either you put a left reaction in place or just have a signing party yourself.

4) I feel like the MJ consensus is evolving on the KSM trial and moving towards support. The important point here is you can’t close Guantanamo Bay until you start these trials, and you should start at the top. The #1 issue in terms of persons outside of the US concerning this president is Gitmo’s closing. The effect of three solid steps towards it: selecting a site in Illinois that wants it and defeats not in my backyard extremism, the firing of the US General Counsel as a continued statement of a higher level of accountability, and the KSM trial selection all seemed orchestrated to say this is not another agenda item back burner-ed or paralyzed by jobs, the economy or the health care debate.

5) 17% of GDP goes to health care in the United States. France, 11% , Canada, 10%, and the UK 8.2%. This is not an indictment of the health insurance business. This is an indictment of our government, and especially those on the right who are lying to you with the "we can’t afford" it nonsense. If we tax at 18% and spend at 20% wouldn’t it make sense to use health care as a correcting path and reject any notion claiming it’s a furtherance of our deficit spending long-term. Remember that most economies aren’t as big as ours and that only inflates these figures further the wrong way for the claims of the right. I’m open to any debate therein and wish Mr. Scarborough was more interested in getting it right instead of being on the right.

Thats all for today, see you tomorrow

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