Conspicuously missing in the heat of many legislative battles waged in Washington, D.C. since he was inaugurated in January 2009 has been President Barack Obama. On health care, the 2009 stimulus, and now the current debate over how to resolve the federal government’s fiscal situation, the president is nowhere to be found.
On Monday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, host Joe Scarborough likened Obama to the Miami Heat’s LeBron James.
“Things seem to be of an ad hoc nature,” Scarborough said, “whether you talk about a stimulus program you throw on Nancy Pelosi while he stands on the side of the court or a health care bill that they fight for a year and a half that they throw to the House and the Senate while the president stands on the side of the court. And again, a year and a half into the most heated ideological debate of his presidency, Democrats were coming on this show having no idea whether he was for or against the public option because he revealed his hand to nobody. He’s always on the side of the court.”
Scarborough then cast Obama in the role of LeBron James, whose team lost in the NBA Finals last season to the Dallas Mavericks in part because he underperformed.
“And when this president said in 2004, Mark Haleprin, ‘I’m LeBron, baby,’ he meant it,” Scarborough continued. “He’s disappeared in critical times. And just like LeBron in the finals.”
Watch:
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