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If Health Care Was Porn For The Media, Where Will They Get Their Kicks Next?

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by Glynnis MacNicol | 3:25 pm, March 22nd, 2010

» 14 comments

Does it seem weirdly quiet in the news world today? It’s not just your imagination. The media may be having a collective panic attack over how they will manage to occupy their time now that the health care debate has been settled. And make no mistake, as a national “nuclear” storyline this one is likely done. As former Bush speechwriter David Frum noted in his much passed-around piece today: this “Waterloo” is the result of the GOP not managing to cooperate on any level with the Dems. Meaning, if that’s the storyline that sinks in, the GOP may not spend a great deal of time focusing on their failure to present a workable alternative.

So what’s next? Because there will be a next. Over the weekend analyst Amy Holmes told Howie Kurtz (video below) that she sees the health care story “as political porn.”

And people love all of these details, lifting up the skirt of Congress and seeing what’s really going on. Honestly. And it reminds me actually of the recount in 2000. It reminds me of the Democratic primary race, where we basically were getting a civics lesson.

Just the other day, while making a last ditch speech at George Mason, President Obama compared political journalism, particularly the sort found on cable news, to SportsCenter (novel idea).

What they like to talk about is the politics of the vote. What does this mean in November? What does it mean to the poll numbers? Is this more of an advantage for Democrats or Republicans? What’s it going to mean for Obama? Will his presidency be crippled, or will he be the comeback kid? (Applause.) That’s what they like to talk about. That’s what they like to talk about. I understand. One of the things you realize is basically that a lot of reporting in Washington, it’s just like SportsCenter. It’s considered a sport, and who’s up and who’s down, and everybody’s keeping score. And you got the teams going at it. It’s Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.

That’s called the President hitting the nail on the head. Without question Obama is currently the comeback kid. But what’s next, because this is not going to last very long? The Times today did a story about how Obama’s big failure thus far has been his inability to unite Washington, something possible 2012 candidate Mitt Romney immediately picked up on (also, John McCain, in his own weird way). But I’m not convinced this extra strident partisanship isn’t in part the result of a media cycle that demands a scorecard. The cable/blogosphere beast must be fed.

I suspect, in light of yesterday’s mostly overlooked marches in DC, immigration may be next up. Or maybe it will merely be partisanship. That said, Obama has now marked himself the president who can accomplish anything, so maybe all this recent Israel back-and-forth will mean he’ll make a foreign policy switch and solve the Mid-East. Whatever it is it better be big, because if it’s not the media world will make it so. Or, hey, maybe it’s just more health care. Reliable Sources clip below.

barack obama, David Frum, Health Care Reform, Politico, The State of Journalism

Azarkhan

Pres Obama: ” it’s just like SportsCenter. It’s considered a sport,”

Yeah, you can look at it that way. But this isn’t that silly ass office pool at the White House gambling on the NCAA’s. This is you and your party literally gambling with the future of America. You just tossed another trillion into the pot.

Now me and a lot of other stupid American’s can’t comprehend the enormous benefits which will derive from having nationalized medicine. But we do know one thing. That trillion wasn’t your fucking money, it was ours.
Jim R

Immigration is definitely going to interesting and loud, but I think financial reform will smoke out who really has the middle class in mind since we already have 200 amendments proposed by two Alabama Senators already, and hint, hint; it’s not us average Joes they’re worried about.

Get out the popcorn!
PureFreedom

Immigration, this is next, because this is the only way to get there Democrat votes for the next elections. You must get people that depend on the welfare of the government and then you will have there votes. The very rich and the very poor that is the democrat vote pool.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I don’t know that anyone has the energy for another marquee matter, but if they do, then I agree with Jim that financial reform makes political sense. Not to mention that Chris Dodd would like it to be his swan song, Ron Howard has tried to build momentum with a couple of videos, it’d be easier to sell than some of the alternatives and the President just released a statement on the matter, last week.
dhg

JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS JOBS
Azarkhan

Magister: “Chris Dodd would like it to be his swan song’

You mean Chris Dodd, the Senator from Connecticut who is Chair of the Banking Committee? The same Chris Dodd who got sweetheart deals from Countrywide Financial because he was a “Friend of Angelo’s”?
Really, the same Chris Dodd who did not disclose “the below-market mortgages in any of six financial disclosure statements he filed with the Senate or Office of Government Ethics since obtaining the mortgages in 2003″?

That Chris Dodd?

That’s who I thought you meant.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@Azarkhan: Also, Chris Dodd, second-generation Senator from Connecticut, who is well liked and respected by members on both sides of the aisle. Who has worked on this issue, has pertinent knowledge and who’d like to leave it as one of his and his family’s legacies.
Azarkhan

Yeah, he’s a real winner, just like that other fool who made a major contribution to the sub-prime mortgage crisis, Barney Frank.
valkyrie101

Since Obama ran on a promise to bring health care reform, and he was elected by a solid majority of the population, why is his accomplishment of that promise now an evil thing? Didn’t we essentially vote on this matter, as a people, last November?
Azarkhan

“Didn’t we essentially vote on this matter, as a people, last November?”

I thought that big bag Obama carried around during the campaign contained laundry. I didn’t know he had the 2,500 page Senate health care bill in there.
SWWT

You can’t assume that everyone who voted for Obama wanted the bill to pass. Stop using such dumb logic.

Unless of course you’ve asked everyone who voted for Obama whether they wanted the bill to pass and they all said yeah. Then if so, I take back what I said.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@Azarkhan: Other than possibly doing a double-check for a sweetheart deal, something that I doubt is in Dodd’s package and something I hope people would look for any way, I don’t see how attempting to diminish Sen. Dodd is an argument against financial reform or why it wouldn’t be the politically prudent thing to do.
Azarkhan

Magister, if he’s so great, why isn’t he running for reelection? Too many people in his state are on to him.
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

@Azarkhan: Should we dismiss David Vitter or John Ensign’s legislative agenda out of hand?
Is everything that Tom DeLay or anyone touched by the Abramoff scandal, no longer law?