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Comment by bdangubic | Hacker News Reader

Obamacare being what it was is 1,000,000% Obama’s failure - he’ll tell you this same thing over coffee too. Just outmost disaster through and through how it was implemented.

Zohran can easily fund which is why every single GOP Senator and Congresman went publicly against him. Can’t have people get any crazy ideas that they could actually have nice things. WTF does Congresman from a some shithole county in Alabama give a fuck about who Mayor of NYC is? but GOP is a well-oiled machine so it was all-hands-on-deck to prevent these ideas from infecting the nation…

even though this seems like a victory, starting in about 10 minutes the entire GOP message for 2026 is going to be “Zohran is Democratic Party now” and it just might work

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Zohran is the Democratic party now? Thank god, it's about time! :P

works in NYC but in swing states “zohran is a commie” will hum along nicely enough…

Red and swing states all voted overwhelmingly towards democrats tn though

in 2000? :)

Why does Ohio care about who's mayor in New York City? Do people realize that a city mayor is one or two levels under a state govenor?

exactly this - the GOP is sooooooooooo good at this that there isn’t single GOP politician who didn’t publicly go off against Zohran… can’t have these crazy ideas that people can have nice things :)

I don't think so. Americans want populism, doesn't really matter who provides. If you can focus the people's hate away from minorities and unto billionaires before it is too late, you might just save your democracy.

And the retort should be "Who cares? New York City Mayors never get another job anyway."

got any tips on what to look for on how obama bumbled obamacare? not too familiar on the subject myself

Despite his public persona, I read recently Obama is actually quite aloof and didnt have the patience to charm the politicians in person.

Oh, yeah, Obama being aloof was why the white men who questioned his citizenship openly - who are now entirely complicit in or supportive of an unaccountable gestapo randomly kidnapping people from the streets wth no ID or due process based on their skin tone - weren't "charmed" by him.

Dog whistles are supposed to be subtle.

Obama took a mea culpa on parts of implementation, namely the federal marketplace website (they weren’t expected as many states to opt out of the marketplace) and the “keep your plan” narrative.

It was a compromise law that was in alignment with Bush era mainstream conservatives. The fatal flaw of Obama and Biden is they underestimated the power of the nutcase wing of the Republican Party. (Along with the institutional GOP folks)

that isn’t the fatal flaw. the fatal flaw is campaigning and staking your entire political career on something and the delivering something sooooo subpar.

the sad thing is, history will remember him as first black President and that’s really about it. and most of us cried watching that speech from lincoln park.

our current president is causing most of us to cry daily but will be remembered as one of the most influential presidents in the history of this country… sad, very sad, but all true

presidents don't pass legislation, and the original Obamacare was too radical even for all the Dem senators, not to mention needing some GOPs to get 60 votes

Maybe, if Obama had been as ruthless as Trump and used blatant lies and targeted attacks on senators to make them so fearful of re-election that they would play along, he might have gotten it passed, though probably not even then. Plus, as much as I wish we'd had the original Obamacare, I'd rather have a watered down version with balance of powers, than a tyrannical president who cowers the legislative branch into submission.

> original Obamacare was too radical even for all the Dem senators

This statement alone is the craziest thing about our country (I don't disagree...). However, if you make something a centerpiece of your entire political life and then you do not deliver you have effectively failed. I am sure if Obama had a do-over he would either get this done right or punt and focus his tenure on something he could have actually delivered...

I understand your point. I’m pretty sure Obama thought he could at least get it through the Dem Congress; it is a sad statement on our country’s political elite that even the Dems couldn’t agree to it. But I disagree that he made it the centerpiece of his entire political career. I also think it was a monumental positive step forward even if not the change I wanted. He has no control over what future Congresses might do to it.

if not Obamacare what else is his legacy?

Edward Kennedy died. Everyone forgets that.

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