Do you agree with the Huffington Post that the White House's handling of health care reform has been a "Complete Failure"?

I think the White House is in accurately charted territory. The last White House that tried to do health care via the overbearing, hands-heavily-on approach, saw health care reform fail. So the Obama White House very shrewdly decided to approach it in a very different way: let the congress do its job.

Apparently with matters that really matter, congress has a very hard time doing its job in this day in age. However, they didn't necessarily jump at the prospect of giving equal rights to African Americans and other minorities either. We perceive LBJ era successes in civil rights as being what needed to be done and by golly our congress did it, forgetting that there were calls for reforms since Lincoln and even before that.

I don't think the White House could do much more to communicate to the American people. NPR aired a piece today where social scientist Don Braman said, "People tend to conform their factual beliefs to ones that are consistent with their cultural outlook, their world view. " While he was talking about climate change, I think the same goes for every big issue, including health care.

You can fool half the people half the time, but not all the people all the time. People are open to persuasion, if they're persuaded in that direction in the first place, or conversely they are not going to be persuaded if you start messing with their belief systems. It takes a lot of time and energy to figure the facts out for yourself.

One of the republicans' claims is that they are just doing what their constituents want them to do. I would love for, at this health reform summit on Thursday, a republican congressman actually convince some of their constiuents to show up and let them actually air their (unscripted) concerns to the President and let him respond. That would be cool.

Or is that happening? I haven't seen the itenerary.

I’m not sure that I agree that it has been a “complete failure. ” Simply by being the top agenda item of the administration, they have created dialogue, sparked debate and progressed the topic. But when it comes to actual reform, it’s been pretty much a failure (not to mention that it makes for a much better headline!).

Before we bash Obama (or the administration) though, let’s be clear that this really isn’t that much different than previous administrations. The Bush administration set out in the second term to reform Social Security (failed). The Clinton Administration set out to reform Healthcare (failed).

It seems to me that the political climate has just gotten so polarized that any significant changes are going to be met with stark opposition from one party or another. Unfortunately, the recent administrations don’t seem to be helping the climate and people seem to be just digging in their heels deeper. Sure would be nice if we could get a little something accomplished.

I think Health care reform has been a failure, but mainly due to Congress. The White House (Obama) was the one who drove for Health Care reform as a major initiative. I'd say partisan bickering is the cause of Health Care reform failure.

Obama still stood by health care reform. I don't know much about the changes to the health care bills, but I haven't tried to research the details. I think no details were released becasue no one reasonably expected them to be approved.

One in five working-age Americans lacked health coverage during the first half of 2009, the highest in six years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Dec. 16 report. Health-care spending last year reached an estimated $2.5 trillion, rising 6 percent from 2008, analysts with the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in another paper, released Feb.4 in the journal “Health Affairs.

Corey, could you please give us a link to their article/post/editorial/etc? Nothing similar to your question seems to be on the front page right now. The Huffington Post is - even more than traditional newspapers - a combination of opinion and news.(It started out as purely a group opinion blog. ) So, I'm curious to see if it was an Ariana opinion, one of their reporters, one of their bloggers, etc, who wrote whatever prompted that headline.

I think that the White House has tried varied strategies for trying to get something passed (hand it off to Congress, the "summit", the town halls, etc), and that the GOP has been effectively countering each one.So, in that sense, yeah, it could be considered a "failure" so far. However, I wouldn't write that as the final word.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.