☆ dope (dōp)
noun
- any thick liquid or pasty substance, or other material, used to lubricate or absorb something
- a dressing, varnish, or filler, as for protecting the cloth covering of airplane wings, surfaces, etc.
- any additive, as a food preservative
- a drug used to stimulate or hinder a racehorse's performance
- Informal any drug or narcotic, or such drugs collectively
- Informal a slow-witted, stupid, or lethargic person
- Slang
- advance information on a racehorse's condition
- any information, esp. as used for prediction
- Slang a carbonated drink, usually cola
- Photog. a developer
Etymology: Du doop, sauce, dip, baptism < doopen, to dip <>dup-, to be deep: see dimple
dope out
The Unbearable Weakness of Democratic Being
A Rasmussen poll now has the Republican Party as more trusted on the health care issue than Democrats. That's insanity. The Republicans have killed all efforts at health care reform before, they're killing it as we speak and they almost exclusively represent the interests of the private insurance companies who want to continue to jack up our rates (private insurance premiums have gone up 119% in the last ten years).
So, how are they winning? Because the Democrats brought a scalpel to a gun fight. The Republicans have attacked and attacked and attacked. Meanwhile, what has been the Democratic response? They're reaching out in a spirit of bipartisanship. Why?
Someone says they're going to bite your head off and will almost all vote against you, what is your purpose in continuing to reach out to them? They say they will under no circumstances vote for real health care reform with a public option, which you have said many times before is essential. They are in essence saying the only way they would vote for your bill is if they were positive it sucked. So, why do the Democrats continue to help the Republicans in killing this thing?
It is the unbearable weakness of Democratic being. They cannot find it in their hearts to strongly argue for their own position. To be fair, in this case, the weakness is mainly Obama's. The White House has clearly indicated this weekend that they have already given up on the public option -- and they're still begging the Republicans to work with them. Frankly, it's pathetic.
This continual and monumental weakness has a price. When the other side makes its case and you don't -- you lose. The Republicans never hesitate to make their case, even if they have to lie, cheat and scaremonger to do it. While the Democrats are scared of their own shadow. Obama is playing patty-cakes out there in his town halls. When is the last time he threw a real punch?
Grassley says Obama wants to kill your grandmother. And what's the price for this hideous slander? Obama promises he'll continue to reach out to him. Why? Are you looking for advice on how to kill grandma? The guy just spit in your face. What are you going to do about it?
This isn't a matter of being pointlessly tough so we can feel good. We're losing the debate! It's because our leaders refuse to make the case. The other side might be vicious liars, but at least they have some lions who are willing to fight. Who do we have? Obama and his team of weaklings?
Now, I see why they didn't ask Howard Dean to be part of this administration. It's because he doesn't fit in. He's a fighter. He believes in real health care reform and is willing to fight for it. Just compare Dean's appearances on television and Sebelius's. It's a joke. When is the last time you saw her make a forceful and convincing case for the public option, or for that matter any part of the reform proposal?
It looks like they didn't ask Dean on board because they never believed they were going to do the public option in the first place. They didn't want a guy in there who was a believer. They got bucklers because they wanted bucklers.
A friend of mine just asked me why we don't hold this issue up for a vote with the public. I said we did; it was called the 2008 election. We gave the Democrats the White House, an overwhelming majority in the House and a filibuster-proof Senate. How much clearer did we have to be?
The problem is that the party we voted for isn't the party we got. At some point there has to be a price for not ever delivering on your promises, and worse yet, not really trying very hard. If Obama continues to bring the weak sauce, there has to come a point when we begin to wonder why we elected him as well.
Follow Cenk Uygur on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheYoungTurks
Health care gives GOP an opportunity with young voters
Much has been made about the possibility of "pulling the plug on grandma" in the current health care debate. But what of younger Americans, many of whom make up a large portion of America's uninsured? Young voters make up an important piece of Obama's electoral support.
Exit polls last November consistently showed voters 18 to 29 breaking for Obama and Democratic candidates for the House by wide margins. It seemed as though young voters were now the Obama generation.
But polls over the last few months have shown many voters -- including many young voters -- beginning to sour on the Obama administration. A late July Pew "Generation Next" study showed 38 percent of Americans supporting the health care proposals before Congress, with 44 percent opposing.
Obama's job handling of health care fell from a 25-point advantage in April to a one-point deficit in July. In late July as well, Zogby released polling data showing Obama's job approval numbers were slipping not just among voters overall but also among young voters.
With things heading south for the White House, the health care debate has opened a window of opportunity for the GOP with young voters. Young voters are going to bear the long-term costs of any reform program and are already convinced that the status quo is unacceptable.
Another Zogby study in late July found only 18 percent of those 18 to 29 believed Social Security would be there for them, and only 39 percent said Medicare would be around. Though it is challenging to get young voters energized and up-in-arms about entitlement reform, they do agree with what Republicans have said: Major, out-of-control entitlement spending is doomed to fail.
It's also critical to understand the ways in which the current employer-based health care system today is ill-equipped to meet the needs of young people. The aforementioned Pew study also showed that very few believed they would stay with their present employer for much of their working life.
This is a generation that is mobile, transient and more likely to change employers than the last. When every change in employer means a change in health insurance, young Americans become tangled in the outdated system.
All of this assumes they can get a job (and insurance) in the first place. Only 19.7 percent of students graduating from college this year have a job, compared with over 50 percent just two years ago.
The current health care system isn't built for the next generation. The way these voters work clashes with the employer-based model, and they also get that major entitlement programs are not a viable long-term answer.
What this moment calls for is a clear, smart health care alternative plan that moves us away from employer-based care without also putting care even further into the hands of the government. With an unacceptable status quo and a hesitance to embrace the Democratic plan, now is the perfect opportunity for the Republican Party to reach out to young voters on an issue where Democrats for far too long have held an advantage. Doing nothing cannot be an option.
(8/17/2009)- By Kristen Soltis, Washington Examiner
Republican candidates have now matched their biggest lead over Democrats of the past several years on the Generic Congressional Ballot.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 43% would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate while 38% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent.
The level of support for Democratic candidates is unchanged this week, but backing for GOP candidates rose one point from a week ago. This is now the eighth straight week Republicans have led on the Generic Ballot.
These findings come at the same time that voters, for the first time in over two years of polling, say they trust Republicans slightly more than Democrats on the handling of the issue of health care.
Over the past 12 months, Democratic support on the congressional ballot has ranged from a low of 37% to a high of 50%. In that same time period, Republicans have been preferred by anywhere from 34% to 43% of voters nationwide.
Democrats held a six- or seven-point lead on the ballot for the first few weeks of 2009. That began to slip in early February, and from mid-April through June the two parties were roughly even. Republicans have held a lead on the ballot since the last week in June, the first time they'd been on top in well over a year.
For the second time in three weeks, women favor Republicans slightly more than Democrats, 41% to 39%. Men prefer the GOP by a 45% to 36% margin this week.
Among voters not affiliated with either party continue to strongly favor the GOP, 45% to 18%.
Just six percent (6%) of voters nationwide now expect their own taxes to go down during the Obama years. This is the first time since last November’s election that the number expecting a tax cut has fallen to single digits. During Election 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to cut taxes for 95% of Americans.
Public support for the health care reform plan proposed by the president and congressional Democrats has fallen to a new low. Just 42% of voters now favor the plan.
The majority (54%) of voters now say passing no health care reform plan this year is better than passing the current bill making its way through Congress. Forty-five percent (45%) of voters nationwide think House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer are wrong when they say the passage of health care reform will mean more affordable coverage for all Americans.
But polling released earlier today shows that despite public criticism of the president’s health care reform plan and other actions, most U.S. voters continue to blame the country’s economic problems on the recession that began under his predecessor, George W. Bush.
Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters nationwide believe Washington politics is likely to become more partisan over the coming year. That figure is up sharply from 55% a month ago and from 40% when Obama first took office.
The president recently suggested that immigration reform might be on the legislative agenda for early 2010, but most voters don’t see passage of legislation as likely.
Obama on Monday declared U.S. military action in Afghanistan as a “war of necessity,” and just 33% of voters believe it is even somewhat likely that U.S. combat troops will be removed from that country by the end of the president’s first term.
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