All he needed was a pill.
"Obama, in Kansas, forcefully argues for equality in economy" December 07, 2011
OSAWATOMIE, Kan. - Infusing his speech with the type of populist language that has emerged in the Occupy protests around the nation, Obama warned that growing income inequality meant that the United States was undermining its middle class. He said it “gives lie to the promise that’s at the very heart of America: that this is the place where you can make it if you try.
“This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and all those who are fighting to get into the middle class,’’ Obama said as he sought to make an economic case for his reelection next year....
A case he can't really make because ARE YOU BETTER OFF than you were four years ago?
The speech, and the days of buildup that preceded it, marked the president’s most stark attack on the rich. It reflected a decision by White House and the president’s campaign aides that with the economic recovery still lagging and Republicans in Congress continuing to oppose the president’s jobs proposals, the best course for Obama is to try to present himself as the defender of working-class Americans.
The earlier speeches on the payroll tax took place in swing states. The fact that he brought the message to one of the most reliably Republican states shows that Obama and his party are increasingly confident that Democrats have found a message that resonates with voters....
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Related: Obama's Reelection Pitch
I've said it before, I'll say it again: where were these guys when they had a super-majority and they not only didn't rescind the Bush tax cuts, they extended them!! The whole slash the social services debt reduction they are doing now could have been avoided!
I mean, EVERY TWO YEARS we are subjected to the SAME DEBATE and right after the election it is back to BUSINESS AS USUAL no matter which party is sitting in the chairs of leadership.
I know, I know, calm down and take a pill.
"Age limit on birth control remains" by Deborah Kotz Globe Staff / December 8, 2011
In an unexpected turn of events, the US Food and Drug Administration announced today that it was not going to permit the emergency contraception pill, Plan B, to be sold over the counter without any age restriction. The agency’s commissioner said it had planned to lift the age restrictions but was overruled by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Women's health groups were livid, seeing political motivations in the move as the president prepares to seek reelection next year.
Now you ladies know how the the environmentalists and the rest of us feel.
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"Obama backs decision to restrict morning-after pill sales; Says politics not a factor in FDA being overruled" by Jackie Calmes and Gardiner Harris | New York Times, December 09, 2011
WASHINGTON - President Obama, who took office pledging to put science ahead of politics, averted a skirmish with conservatives in the nation’s culture wars yesterday by endorsing his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of an after-sex contraceptive pill to girls younger than 17.
What did I say about Democrats?
Related: Frank is Finished
I actually agree with the decision to a certain extent (maybe I'm just naive); however, giving the abortion drug to young girls bothers me.
The administration action inevitably raised questions about whether politics was trump in this instance - especially from disappointed supporters in the scientific and women’s rights communities. Obama, who had criticized how his predecessor made decisions on issues like contraceptives, sought to dispel that idea in remarks to White House reporters.
“I did not get involved in the process,’’ he quickly asserted.
Obama said the decision was made by his secretary of health and human services, Kathleen Sebelius. On Wednesday, in a rare move, she overruled the Food and Drug Administration, which had recommended that the morning-after pill Plan B One-Step is safe and should be sold without a prescription to people younger than 17, just as it is now to those who are 17 and older.
“I will say this, as the father of two daughters: I think it is important for us to make sure that we apply some common sense to various rules when it comes to over-the-counter medicine,’’ Obama said.
“And as I understand it, the reason Kathleen made this decision was she could not be confident that a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old going into a drugstore should be able - alongside bubble gum or batteries - be able to buy a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could end up having an adverse effect. And I think most parents would probably feel the same way.’’
Asked whether he fully supported Sebelius, Obama said, “I do.’’
The president’s remarks suggested social and cultural concerns even as he said Sebelius had acted out of scientific concerns; in particular, she cited the manufacturer’s failure to study whether girls as young as 11 could safely use the drug. And the issue has been a matter of political contention, with conservative and antiabortion groups opposed and public health and women’s rights groups in favor.
Yet the response of those disappointed by the administration’s decision was more muted than in many such controversies, reflecting a broad sense that this was not a fight to pick with Republicans and conservative groups. On Capitol Hill, Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader and a stalwart of reproductive rights groups, neither endorsed nor criticized the decision, deferring to Sebelius even as she praised the FDA commissioner, Margaret Hamburg.
Do Democrats ever fight for anything? From what I see it's Israel and that's about it.
Some Democrats suggested that the administration, by avoiding a divisive debate over teenagers’ sexuality, had preserved maneuvering room as it confronts a separate challenge from the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops, who seek a broad exemption for Catholic hospitals from the 2010 health care law’s requirements for contraceptive coverage.
And yet they are taking on the world when it comes to sexual orientation.
The episode is the latest in which the administration has ducked a confrontation on an issue that risks alienating one constituent group or another as Obama approaches an election year.
Have you HAD IT with the POLITICS like me?
And there is only one group you don't want to alienate; then you don't get an invitation and stand nearly no chance of being president.
Recently, for example, the president shelved until after 2012 decisions on authorizing the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL pipeline, which has divided environmentalists and unions, and on approving antismog regulations sought by his Environmental Protection Agency but opposed by industry and some unions.
Related: Obama Closes Canada Pipeline For Political Purposes
Obama's Hot Air
Also see: Boiling Mad at Obama's EPA
White House advisers declined to speak about the issue, echoing Obama’s comment that the decision rested with Sebelius and didn’t involve politics.
They just want it to go away, and it will. Women are used to it.
On Tuesday, the day before Sebelius announced her decision, she flew with Obama on Air Force One to Kansas, where she had been governor, for his speech against rising income inequality. But the two did not discuss the issue “at any point,’’ an administration official said.
Do you have to lie about such things, too?
Geoff Garin, a Democratic pollster, said it was not clear what the right politics would be for Obama on the issue because “there’s a sort of ‘Damned if you do, damned if you don’t’ quality to this.’’ But beyond the scientific questions, he said, were legitimate policy ones about making a contraceptive freely available to young girls, without a prescription.
“You’re not saying a parent has to be involved, but the prescription means that a doctor or medical professional has to be involved,’’ Garin said. “I would think that that question would have a special meaning for President Obama, given that he is the father of young girls, and I don’t think this is wholly out of sync with the kinds of values he has expressed over the years. So the idea that this is a sudden reaction to the political moment seems a leap to me.’’
Conservative groups had applauded the decision by Sebelius, but progressive women’s groups let the White House know of their disappointment.
“We’re less than a year out from the election, and at this point we really want to be talking to voters, in particular a core segment of women voters, about the president’s strong record on women’s health and freedom,’’ said Ted Miller, spokesman for Naral Pro-Choice America. A decision like the one on Plan B, he said, “makes it much more difficult.’’
Miller and others in women’s groups argued that science was on their side, citing the support of major medical groups. Plan B was adjudged safe and became available over the counter to those 17 and older in 2009, after initial opposition from the Bush administration and then a federal court order.
Teva, the pill’s maker, commissioned two large studies in adolescents to satisfy government concerns about selling freely to them, but in her rejection Sebelius said neither study included 11-year-olds.
The thought of an 11-year-old girl needing one of those things makes me sick.
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Also see: Obama presses GOP on consumer watchdog delay
And he also went to the Army-Navy football game, yay!
Related: GOP blocks Obama nominee to head financial agency
