Joe the Nerd is Heard

The snafu heard 'round the world.

(HuffPo)

"I'm getting a little ticked off that it feels like the knees are buckling a little bit," Ferraro said. "We have overwhelming majorities in both the House and the Senate. And we own the whole shooting match. And I'm just getting...

"It's very frustrating to watch you try and compromise with these people who aren't willing to compromise with you."

— Joe the Nerd, Audubon, PA

More about Joe...

..but first, Charlie Rose talks to Arianna and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, along with Ross Douthat (a right-wing extremist from inside the belt-way). Okay, no, he's not an extremist, but he probably voted for Palin.

Anyway... they cogently discuss Obama's legacy, only 8 months in to his presidency, and Douthat aptly states that a tepid healthcare bill without a public option will be judged largely on how people feel about the economy come Nov. 2010.

Arianna is more pessimistic, fairly believing that the public option is all there is, that the larger part of Obama's support will collapse in its absence, while Doris Kearns Goodwin just hopes that everybody will get along... and that Obama will put Lincoln away for a while and do his FDR imitation.

...and she has a point. Lincoln did a lot of conciliatory maneuvers to preserve the union, but the Southern racist extremists were never willing to compromise in the first place.

Meanwhile, the president takes this very question from a caller with a common touch, one self-described Joe the Nerd, on a right wing conservative call-in radio show.

Like a true nerd earning his network administrator cred, Joe Ferraro, a 48-year-old father of three, one running his own business, fixing computers, left himself on speakerphone while talking to Obama, all but crashing his chance of a lifetime by wearing that 21st century version a pocket protector in public... the speakerphone.



...but the message was heard from a moderate wondering why Obama's "knees are buckling," and the term became the meme for the rest of the week. So did Obama's wordy answer, which didn't answer the question directly as much as it put the question in relevant context.

"I guarantee you, Joe, we are going to get health care reform done," Obama said. "And I know that there are a lot of people out there who have been hand-wringing, and folks in the press are following every little twist and turn of the legislative process.

"You know, passing a big bill like this is always messy. FDR was called a socialist when he passed Social Security. JFK and Lyndon Johnson, they were both accused of a government takeover of health care when they passed Medicare. This is the process that we go through."

Joe's moderate voice is right, and so are Arianna and Doris... (even Rodd Douthat in his observations, if not his apparent hopes and dreams for a lame duck presidency come November 2010).

Obama just needs to do what needs to be done and let the inevitable chips fall where they may. It's time to put the teachable moment aside, now that we've seen what anybody has to put on the table, and act on the best ideas... which happens to be John Edwards idea, the public option in a regulated exchange with qualified public policies.

However, I would emphasize that No One, not even the private insurance plans need participate in the exchange at all if they don't want to.

If all there is in the health insurance exchange are the public option, Medicare, the VA, Medicaid, and the federal employee plans... so be it. Let the private industry compete out in the Wild West where they've done so well... and call it a compromise. In fact, say, "they win." They're unregulated, and let the buyer decide.

See the Charlie Rose interview.