Camille Paglia

[BridgeTroll]

With the Republican party leaderless and in backbiting disarray following its destruction by the ideologically incoherent George W. Bush, Democrats are apparently eager to join the hara-kiri brigade. What looked like smooth coasting to the 2010 election has now become a nail-biter. Both major parties have become a rats' nest of hypocrisy and incompetence.

One of my favorite!  For the Dems to blame the Republicans for the lack of support for their many healthcare plans is a bit silly.... IMHO Washington DC is "a rats nest of hypocrisy and incompetence".

[Joe]

I agree that Paglia's opinion piece on healthcare (really, on the administration's handling of healthcare) is extremely relevant. It's so important because Paglia is a great representation of the conservative Democrats and Independents who are increasingly opposed to Obama's healthcare reform push.

As Paglia states, the Democrats arguably control all 3 branches of government and have a filibuster-proof majority in congress. Despite their screaming, Republicans have virtually nothing to do with the failure to get healthcare reform passed. The roadblocks are because of dissent within the party.

See Rasmussen for evidence of why Paglia's opinions are accurately reflecting the minds of conservative Dems and Independents:
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/healthcare/august_2009/support_for_congressional_health_care_reform_falls_to_new_low

Support for Congressional Health Care Reform Falls to New Low
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low as just 42% of U.S. voters now favor the plan. That’s down five points from two weeks ago and down eight points from six weeks ago.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that opposition to the plan has increased to 53%, up nine points since late June.

More significantly, 44% of voters strongly oppose the health care reform effort versus 26% who strongly favor it.

Predictably, 69% of Democrats favor the plan, while 79% of Republicans oppose it. Yet while 44% of Democratic voters strongly favor the reform effort, 70% of GOP voters are strongly opposed to it.
Most notable, however, is the opposition among voters not affiliated with either party. Sixty-two percent (62%) of unaffiliated voters oppose the health care plan, and 51% are strongly opposed. This marks an uptick in strong opposition among both Republicans and unaffiliateds, while the number of strongly supportive Democrats is unchanged.

The latest polls shows that 26% of voters believe that passage of the Congressional health care plan will lead to a better quality of health care. But most voters (51%) disagree and say the quality will get worse. Seventeen percent (17%) expect it to stay the same.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of all voters say the cost of health care will go up if the reform proposal passes. Nineteen percent (19%) say costs will go down, and 21% say they will stay the same.Voters in all age and income groups, again by large margins, believe passage of the reform measure will drive up health care costs.

Yet only 25% agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that health insurance companies are "villains."

While Congress has debated reforms to the U.S. health care system, Americans have begun to show greater confidence in it. Forty-eight percent (48%) of adults now say the health care system is good or excellent, and only 19% say it’s poor

[BridgeTroll]

Exactly Joe.  As long as the administration keeps blaming "birthers", Nazi's, conservatives and other such nonsense for their very own failures this will keep circling the drain...