Today, the White House released a video of Joe Biden making the case for Obamacare:
The vice president said that Americans should trust those doctors and nurses' take on the need for reform above other groups' opinions. "These are the people I trust, and I know you do, too," Biden said. "These are the folks who see it all." "The status quo is simply unsustainable, but we're going to pass healthcare insurance reform," he added. "When it comes to something as important as your health, listen to the people you trust."
Joe Biden's favorable rating has dropped to 42 percent. Who do the American people trust on health care? Not Joe Biden. In February, Obama tapped Biden to be the watchdog for the implementation of the stimulus package. Biden would ensure that the implementation of the stimulus was "not just swift, but also efficient and effective," Obama said in remarks. Eight months later, with little of the stimulus money actually spent, double-digit unemployment, and the administration embarrassed for claiming credit for jobs "saved or created" in congressional districts that don't even exist, even Obama felt free to crack a joke last week about what a farce the stimulus has become. As Goldfarb wrote back in October, the very fact that Joe Biden's name was attached to the alternative counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan pretty much assured that Obama would choose the counterinsurgency strategy -- or something close to it -- advocated by General McChrystal: "The counterterrorism approach has been derided as the 'Biden Plan' -- because Biden's support of the counterterrorism approach is itself such a damning indictment of the plan." So why put Biden out front on health care? Every
left-wing ideologue
cool-headed political thinker out there says that Obama needs to pass health-care to save his presidency (because you know what would have saved Bush and the Republicans in 2006? Passing Social Security reform). Maybe Obama realizes, as Peggy Noonan wrote on Friday, that "The common wisdom that he can't afford to lose [on health care] is exactly wrong-he can't afford to win with such a poor piece of legislation. He needs to get the issue behind him, vow to fight another day, and move on." And who better for that job than Joe Biden?