Is it Change or is it the same same?

(see this article from yahoo.ca)

Canadian healthcare in Obama aide's tirade
By Lee-Anne Goodman, The Canadian Press

WASHINGTON - White House press secretary Robert Gibbs has taken vitriolic aim at an unexpected target: the "professional left" for being unnecessarily harsh on U.S. President Barack Obama and pushing for something as outrageous as a Canadian-style health-care system.

"They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon," the normally affable Gibbs says in an explosive interview published Tuesday in the congressional newspaper The Hill. "That’s not reality."

Those on the left who claim Obama as president isn't much different than George W. Bush, he added, "ought to be drug-tested."

The remarks sent immediate shockwaves through D.C., particularly among the very liberals who have expressed disappointment with the president since his historic election in November 2008 on a message of hope and change.

Calling Gibbs's rant "one of the most petulant, self-pitying outbursts seen from a top political official in recent memory," commentator Glenn Greenwald took the press secretary to task point by point Tuesday for his tirade against the Democratic party's base.

In a lengthy rebuttal for the left-leaning online magazine Salon, Greenwald wrote: "If memory serves, didn't the White House repeatedly insist Obama was committed to the public option, the central goal of those who Gibbs is now claiming want 'Canadian health care?'"

"Also, didn't anti-war sentiment play a pretty big role in electing Obama as president, given that Obama's opposition to the Iraq War was almost singlehandly responsible for allowing him to rise from relative obscurity to defeat Hillary in the 2008 Dem primary?"

Matthew Rothschild, editor of The Progressive magazine, pointed out that Americans voted for Obama to make good on his promise of change.

"He has not come close to delivering on that promise," he wrote in an article on the magazine's website Tuesday entitled Back At You, Robert Gibbs.

"He has not met the challenges boldly. He has not given most Americans tangible improvements in their lives. And he’s failed to do so because he’s been afraid to act _ and to be perceived as _ a real progressive ... Robert Gibbs should be grateful that progressives aren’t even more critical of Obama."

By mid-day Tuesday, Gibbs was expressing remorse about his comments in a statement aimed at attempting to explain his frustration at the criticism confronting his boss.

"I watch too much cable, I admit. Day after day it gets frustrating," he said.

"So what I may have said inartfully, let me say this way _ since coming to office in January 2009, this White House and Congress have worked tirelessly to put our country back on the right path. Most importantly, to dig our way out of a huge recession and build an economy that makes America more competitive and our middle class more secure."

"Some are frustrated that the change we want hasn't come fast enough for many Americans. That we all understand."

Gibbs didn't helm the daily White House press briefing on Tuesday. Instead, deputy press secretary Bill Burton defended his colleague.

"I think what Gibbs was doing was having one conversation with one reporter and in response to questions about frustrations, he answered honestly, and it shouldn't be read anything more than that," he said.

The White House has been under attack in recent months not just from its usual enemy camp of conservatives and Republicans, but from those on the left who complain Obama was weak on health-care reform, is dragging his feet on closing the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba and has moved too slowly to end the ban on gays serving in the military.

MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, a popular liberal commentator, recently called Obama's key strategist, David Axelrod, a "human pretzel" for declaring Obama was against same-sex marriage but favoured equal benefits for gays and lesbians in committed relationships.

A recent attack from the liberal group Progressive Change Campaign Committee apparently angered Gibbs. Earlier this week, one of the group's founders, Adam Green, accused Obama of "caving without a fight" by dropping the public option during the bare-knuckled battle for health-care legislation earlier this year.

The White House, on the other hand, believes it's taken on several liberal causes without getting any credit. White House officials point to health-care reform, financial regulatory legislation, a fair-pay bill for women and Obama's move to end the war in Iraq, with combat operations concluding this month.

He's also nominated two female Supreme Court justices, including the first Hispanic.

"There’s 101 things we’ve done," said Gibbs.

But in his later statement, Gibbs extended an olive branch to the left.

"We should all, me included, stop fighting each other and arguing about our differences on certain policies, and instead work together to make sure everyone knows what is at stake because we've come too far to turn back now."

It's the second time Gibbs has found himself in hot water this summer.

On NBC's "Meet The Press" in July, Gibbs speculated Democrats might lose the House of Representatives in the crucial mid-term elections in November. Those remarks reportedly infuriated Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, and before long Gibbs said he thought Democrats would do "very well" in the mid-terms.

(end of article)

First things first: this man is the White House Press Secretary? Are you for real? Who makes such unintelligent, bold and aggressive statements when their very job description is to delicately tiptoe on egg shells when it comes to the world's most vital and controversial issues? Isn't it this man's job to shy away from and even eliminate controversy where he can, to contextualize and soften messages the way that you massage Kobe beef? Way to represent the White House, Mr. Gibbs. You've just become the Kanye West of politics.

Not only does Mr. Gibbs insult Canadian health care by insinuating that it's an undesirable system to adopt, he also adds in a jibe about eliminating the Pentagon. Of course, because pro-health care pundits don't care about the safety of the nation. That should be a given. A group of people who wants to ensure that their fellow citizens can be treated for health concerns without bearing incredible costs is obviously anti-safety for those same fellow citizens.

Mr. Gibbs then defends himself in a sheepish apologetic statement of "I watch too much cable." Are you blaming television for your frank remarks? Unless you suddenly burst into song because you thought that you were a contestant on American Idol, I don't think you can blame television for your scathing statements.

To further his point, Mr. Gibbs follows up this statement by claiming that the White House has been on the right path and that they've done a lot to help the economy recover, even within the context of a recession. Well, that's excellent news, however, the economy was not the platform that the President ran on, nor is it the change that people were hoping to see. Health care reforms and an end to the war in Iraq were major motivators for electing Obama. And the criticism surrounding his success rate to date are fair, even if the administration is on the rigth path.

Then there's this self-pitying statement here:

The White House, on the other hand, believes it's taken on several liberal causes without getting any credit. White House officials point to health-care reform, financial regulatory legislation, a fair-pay bill for women and Obama's move to end the war in Iraq, with combat operations concluding this month.

He's also nominated two female Supreme Court justices, including the first Hispanic.

"There’s 101 things we’ve done," said Gibbs.

Uh, no Mr. Gibbs. That's 6 things, if you're counting with real numbers rather than fake ones. It may feel like it was 101 things, but if you actually add them up, they only come up to 6. That doesn't mean that they're insignificant, though.

It's a given that Obama was elected on an agenda of hope and change that garnered the kind of high expectations that mere mortals can't be expected to uphold. But that doesn't deny the country's citizens the rights to criticize the administration even while applauding the positive things. Constant vigilance is the price you pay for democracy, and some of these criticisms may be reminder to stay on track, rather than telling the administration that they're on the wrong path.