The Naked Emperor video of Obama’s repeated promise to “put it all on C-SPAN” is the perfect gotcha, capturing the candidate in flagrante not once but over and over. But its damning effects go deeper than proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that all his promises have an expiration date.
The video is a stark reminder to Obama devotees of what they voted for and what they got in its place. It has the power to arouse bitterness like an old love letter, written in the early stages of a romance before the manipulation and two-timing began. It is bound to make his supporters feel used.
Most damning are the pledges of transparency made in front of live crowds. When he says, in all apparent earnestness:
. . . not negotiating behind closed doors but bringing all parties together and broadcasting those negotiations on C-SPAN so the American people can see what the choices are because part of what we have to do is enlist the American people in this process. . . .
the crowd loves it. It’s an applause line. Open government is an ideal people yearn for. Obama promises it because he knows it’s what they want to hear.
Some of them must be wondering now, what were they cheering for?
For Obama idealists, the reality is demoralizing. The crafting of healthcare reform legislation has been, and continues to be, as opaque a process as can be imagined. It’s been conducted behind closed doors. Votes are held in haste, in the middle of the night. With every iteration the bills grow by 1000 pages. Our elected representatives don’t bother to pretend they have read them. The drug and insurance industries, labor unions, AARP, the AMA, and more jockey for position and work the corrupt system for the best deal. Legislators bribe one another for their votes with taxpayer money. And all of this is done in the face of clear, strong opposition by the American people, who Obama pledged would be “enlisted in this process.”
Jim Geraghty puts if bluntly:
The campaign rhetoric that stirred the hearts of so many Democrats and independents (and a few Republicans), that offered something fantastic for every constituency and group, that tantalized so many skeptics with a smorgasbord of long-desired reforms — all of it was just a tool to get elected. Say what you have to say, promise what you have to promise, and we’ll worry about the details later.
Yes, hearts, more than minds, were stirred during the campaign. As the revelations continue to metastasize, those who placed their hopes in Obama will feel a betrayal that goes deeper politics.