The Obama administration seems to have turned into a Clintonite third term with some Bushite moves and policies thrown in for appalling measure.

Clinton's administration, especially after the GOP took control of Congress and that logic challenged hypocrite, Newt Gingrich, became speaker of the House, caved to the Republicans and morphed into a destructive GOP lite....for example, repealing the Glass Steagall and pushing through the disastrous NAFTA, courtesy of integrity lacking, phony Dems like Rahm Emanuel and Robert Rubin, the former now Obama's chief of staff and the latter hovering behind the scenes while his acolytes Larry Summers and Tim Geithner continue to promote and implement his flawed, failed pro-Wall Street Rubinite economic policies.

None of these people are true, staunch Democrats and sadly, it appears, not even President Obama.

And with so called Democrats like these......

From Scarecrow at Firedoglake: "MSNBC’s Hardball invited two political strategists to explain what they would advise their respective parties on what to do next in the health care reform debate.

"In the Republican corner we had Todd Harris, a savvy warrior, who has memorized the Luntz talking points and proceeded to repeat them. All of them. “Government takeover, Canada, delays, rationing, scare, lie, confuse.”

"In the Democratic corner we had Steve McMahon, . . . uh, whose advice we can summarize/paraphase as follows:

'There’s 80 percent agreement on what reforms we should undertake, and that’s good enough. Obama once said he’d rather get 80 percent and strong bipartisan support than get 100 percent and no bipartisan support. Therefore, he should take the bipartisan deal in front of him.

“This means he should give up on the remaining contentious issues, such as a public health insurance option, because the Republicans don’t want that, and any tax on health benefits or wealthy peoples’ charitable contributions, because Democrats don’t want that. See how even handed that is?'

"So, the consistent political advice to Republicans is to lie, confuse and scare people, hoping to kill any real reform. The political advice from Democratic “experts” is the give up on the key feature that, as the President has said, will “keep the private insurers honest,” and instead accept the “80 percent that’s left.” 

Now we have President Obama, who is ignoring facts in his rush towards a damaging bipartisanhip on health care reform, apparently trying to mollify the AMA which has had a cooperative, cozy relationship with the gazillionaire for profit health care industry; while its "opposition to health reform during the New Deal, its efforts to block the passage of Medicare, and the AMA’s critical role in defeating health reform in 1993, questions arise over why the AMA has historically opposed any initiative to take health care out of the hands of the for-profit health industry."

The NYTimes reports: "The American Medical Association has long battled Democrats who oppose protecting doctors from malpractice lawsuits. But during a private meeting at the White House last month, association officials said, they found one Democrat willing to entertain the idea: President Obama.

"In closed-door talks, Mr. Obama has been making the case that reducing malpractice lawsuits — a goal of many doctors and Republicans — can help drive down health care costs, and should be considered as part of any health care overhaul, according to lawmakers of both parties, as well as A.M.A. officials."

Again, Obama and crew either haven't done their homework or choose to disregard the facts and are buying into the malpractice myth debunked by Public Citizen in 2007 in its report, The Great Medical Malpractice Hoax that used data from National Practitioner Data Bank Public Use File (NPD.  Some excerpts:

"....A serious problem is the small percentage of doctors who paid multiple claims and who are responsible for much of the malpractice in America.....

• The vast majority of doctors – 82 percent – have never had a medical malpractice payment since the NPDB was created in 1990.
• Just 5.9 percent of doctors have been responsible for 57.8 percent of all malpractice payments since 1991, according to data from September 1990 through 2005. Each of these doctors made at least two payments.
• Just 2.3 percent of doctors, having three or more malpractice payments, were responsible for 32.8 percent of all payments.
• Only 1.1 percent of doctors, having four or more malpractice payments, were responsible for 20.2 percent of all payments.

"Unfortunately, state medical boards and health care institutions do not do enough to rein in those doctors who repeatedly make medical errors and commit medical negligence.....disciplinary actions such as license suspension or revocation are infrequent for physicians whose negligence caused multiple malpractice payments.

• Payments Correspond to Severity of Injury.
  

• Patient Safety Is the Real Crisis. 
  

• Improving Patient Safety Will Save Lives. 
  

"American Medical Association President Donald Palmisano told the 2004 Annual Meeting of the AMA House of Delegates that “what is driving this crisis are the out-of-sight awards some runaway juries are handing out in certain liability cases.”[13]  This assertion is incorrect on the facts – when adjusted for inflation, the median judgment grew only from $125,000 in 1991 to $139,100 in 2005, a mere $14,000 over 14 years. Such a modest increase hardly suggests that juries are irrational.

"The Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform claims that, “[s]ince 1994, the average medical malpractice verdict has increased to $3.5 million from $1.1 million.”[14]  This misleading statistic is meant to leave readers with the impression that plaintiffs regularly receive millions of dollars from lawsuits.  The Chamber’s statistic is particularly misleading because most verdicts are reduced by judges, often pursuant to state law.  What a jury awards is often not the actual amount paid to compensate the victim.

"The truth is, the number of payments for judgments of $1 million or more is tiny — never exceeding one-half of one percent of the annual total number of malpractice payments over the last 14 years.  In 2005, they were only one-quarter of one percent of all payments.

"Fundamentally, an agenda that blames injured patients and seeks to close access to the courts – contravening a Constitutional right – is about protecting business profits over patient health.  It is far past time for real health care reform, and for a health care system that puts patient safety first."

As Bill Maher recently said: "Sorry folks, but this President is not fighting for real health care reform. It's nibbling that leaves insurance companies still running the show. And the banks, the banks that brought us to financial ruin and then got bailout money, are laughing at us about how easy it was to get back to 'business as usual.' And scientists keep saying that if we want to keep living, you know, on Earth, it's kind of essential we reduce carbon dioxide by 40% in the next ten years. Obama's bill calls for 4%.

"This is not getting the job done, and this is not what I voted for.

"I'm glad Obama is President, but the 'Audicity of Hope' part is over. Right now, I'm hoping for a little more audacity..."