Kidglove Returns

We need Marshal Foch and we're getting Dr. Kidglove.

It was Foch, in the pitch of battle in World War I, who declared: "My centre is giving way, my right is in retreat; situation excellent. I shall attack."

Barack Obama bartered away his soul to the right and received nothing in return; has seen the center rebuff him in three recent elections; and doesn't seem to realize that the left, the base of his party, is his only hope.  Rally them and attack.

The word from Washington today isn't promising.

The word is that Mr. Obama's inner Foch is nowhere to be heard; his inner Kidglove is urging him to sift out those elements of health care reform "which are popular"  and seek to enact them piecemeal.

Oh, fine.  We'll get criminal penalties if we fail to buy health policies from profiteering insurers who won't take you if you're already sick, put caps on what they'll pay if you're seriously sick  and laugh all the way to the bank when you lose your house because you can't pay the medical bills.  We'll get "health care" that doesn't provide reproductive health care for women.  We'll get something much worse than what we've got now, and what we've got now is the worst kind of health care among the developed nations of the world.

Thank you, Dr. Kidglove.

Meanwhile, having heard "the message," our leader says he's going to get really, really tough on the big banks and Wall Street.  Cup your ear, folks.  That noise from the east is TARP-gorged bankers,  giggling and  calculating next year's bonuses.  Forget about buying an expensive new lock for the open door, Barry; the barn is empty and the horses  are running wild with our tax money.

The political arm of the White House word factory pledged today to renew efforts to create green jobs and clean energy and teach Mom to bake better applie pie.  Something like that.

(Sigh.)

The Republican attack machine had one true and prescient thing to say amid its pack of lies, half-truths and distortions during the last presidential campaign.  It was, essentially, that Dr. Kidglove  could talk the  talk oh, so well, but couldn't -- or wouldn't -- walk the walk.

Attack?  He's going out under a white flag to poll the enemy.