Obama’s failure to win over Snowe on health care

A piece in today’s New York Times on Obama’s manner of persuading legislators contains this:

While courting Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, on the health care bill last year, Mr. Obama kept her in the Oval Office for an extraordinary 90 minutes. (She voted no.)

Obama and Olympia, one on one, in the Oval Office, for ninety minutes? How much was there to discuss? And after giving her all that face time he still failed to convince her? Well, at least this shows that Snowe, when she wants to, can really hold out against the Dems. Or to put it another way, it shows that Obamacare was so radical, that even the endlessly compromising Snowe drew a firm line against it.

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N. writes:

Senator Snowe was with President Obama for 90 minutes? An hour and a half? What was he doing, trying to sell her a time-share condominium, or some car insurance? Clearly he’s got an amazing opinion of his own ability to persuade. But why shouldn’t he? All of his academic career surely he was able to talk people into doing his bidding.

If Barry Obama had ever held a real job as a mid level manager, he might be able to perform successfully in his current position. As it is, he’s clueless. That’s why he keeps giving speeches; it’s all he really knows how to do.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 23, 2010 10:44 PM | Send