Posted on 09/10/2009 12:15:43 AM PDT by KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle
President Obama's speech to Congress last night can be summed up rather easily. It was 40 minutes of boilerplate followed by a socko, emotional finish exploiting the death of Senator Teddy Kennedy. Which leads to this question: was Obama's finishing kick sufficient to achieve his goal of "reframing" the national debate on health care that hasn't been going his way? I don't think so.
Obama didn't come close to offering a persuasive explanation of how he'd pay for ObamaCare. And that remains his biggest problem. He promises much, much more in guaranteed health benefits and says it will cost less. Even Obama himself couldn't really believe that. No one else who can add and subtract does. Cut "waste, fraud, and abuse?" Not a chance.
There was one mild surprise. Instead of scaling back his plan to comply with public sentiment, Obama stuck to every promise and provision on which he's dwelled in more than two dozen speeches. There was nothing new, except the size of his audience.
From this, it's clear he's decided to push a partisan bill through Congress with Democratic votes alone. We could tell this from the pleased expression House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had on her face throughout the speech. She's belongs to the no-compromise school.
But unless Obama has suddenly transformed public opinion, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid won't be able to find enough Democrats, even among the usually malleable Blue Dogs, willing to vote for ObamaCare. Defy the public to bail out a president in trouble? Only Democrats in safe seats are likely to do that.
I had five questions that I looked for Obama to answer in his address. I wanted to see if he was serious about achieving moderate, bipartisan health care. It turns out he's not. Here are the questions.
1) Did he advocate real tort reform to curb health care costs? Nope. He simply talked up a pilot project that he said was President Bush's idea. This was a trifle.
2) Did he offer anything of significance to Republicans? No.
3) Did he bring up his favorite straw man about those whose alternative to ObamaCare is to do nothing at all to reform the health care system? Yes, more than once.
4) Did he demonize the health care providers he's actually made deals with? Well, not all of them, but the health insurers took their usual beating.
5) Did he repeat the false claims he's made repeatedly in earlier speeches? Yes indeed. He brought up nearly all of them, including the ones on no abortion coverage, no loss of one's current health insurance, and the "savings" that would come from more preventive care.
As a matter of stagecraft, Obama made a big mistake. He spent precious minutes delivering his same old arguments that have left a majority of Americans cold. He should have started with the Kennedy riff.
Great delivery - I didn’t buy a word of it.
Ping.
The bully pulpit power of the presidency
vs
One woman, a laptop and a facebook account
The bully pulpit power of the presidency
vs
One woman, a laptop and a facebook account
A pi$$ing contest, I might add, that he is in fact, losing, and losing badly in...
the infowarrior
Love that pic! How about Sarah Palin and Joe Wilson in 2012?
‘No one who can add and subtract believes Obama’s claims.’
Unfortunately, a minority of Americans.
FIrst of all, this campaign speech was beyond boring.
What happened to the 50 million uninsured? Was he lying before or did 20 million people suddenly get insurance? Or is he lying now.
Wilson IS right - this man is a LIAR !
And the Kennedy eulogy was nauseating. Truly disgusting.
Read the Union Health-Care Label Get ready for Detroit-style labor relations in our hospitals.
The whole act of Dems for decades has been to convince us that two plus two equals five. But with Obama it seems they’re trying to convince us that two plus two equals ten. That’s because Obama is the biggest liar in the history of the Dem Party. Worse than Clinton.
This was Ohaha's 30th speech on healthcare....and he still doesn't have it down pat yet.
He bashed insurance companies, and sucked-up to union leaders (who are rubbing their hands in glee at the prospect of being part of "the most efficiently run insurance company in the world".....ObamaCare, Inc.)
All in all, Ohaha sounded like he was resurrecting Van Jones from oblivion. The blood-sucking vampire lives on and on.
Even though he'll never see daylight again (/snic).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.