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July 23, 2009

More Obama brilliance (updated)

Thomas Lifson
President Obama has a very nice smile. But his presser last night was a lesson in how not to win or keep allies. A friend who is a very busy surgeon (and prefers to remain anonymous) emails his comments on the Obama presser:

Wow--after the AMA endorses his plan, he slanders doctors when he suggested that they make decisions based on fee schedules, eg, tonsillectomy for a sore throat.  Every doctor in America should send him an email

He screwed up when he was talking about "hidden costs" and "uncompensated" care--he explained it as someone showing up to an ER who does not have a primary care physician.  

 He frequently used "health care" and "health insurance" interchangeably

He talked about patients being more "discriminating consumers".  A government controlled plan won't do that--Health Savings Accounts will.

Update: Dan Riehl points out that Obama has destroyed his post-racial appeal.

Update: Ed Lasky adds:

All these unscripted moments tell us a lot about Obama’s true self. He makes fun of handicapped people (his bowling skills on par with participants at Special Olympics); his disdain toward small town people (clinging to guns and religion); his disdain toward patriotic people (the flag lapel flap during the campaign); his disdain towards America (where does one begin?); in his books he decried the type of gray flannel men and women who live in the suburbs and commute to work (he considered himself above all that); his revulsion towards the military (articulated in the campaign); the non college-educated since he seems to think you must go to college to be worthy; add cops and docs to the list of people he looks down upon.

The gaffes reveal a great deal about the guy. He calls Israelis non-reflective, but has speech after speech distorting history in a way that brings smiles to Muslim supremacists.

Update -- Clarice Feldman adds:

The president's remarks on the Gates' case did not help him I think. Some have suggested they thought it was a deliberate distraction to hide his ineffective performance and inadequate preparation on healthcare. In any event, the question remains--heightened by the transcript in which he says he shortened the prior answer to save time for the Chicago Sun-Times Lynn Sweet to lob the Gates question to him.

She has her own blog in which I've asked her to respond to the charge that this was a set up and she has not yet done so. 

Update - Clarice Feldman writes:

Sweet has responded to a similar question denying that Obama knew what she would ask.

LYNN SWEET REPLY: the question was not a plant. [The] president obama had no idea what i would ask

Of course that leaves unanswered the suggestion that she knew he would call on her--perhaps even last. And one has to wonder why she chose to lob a softball unrelated to the purpose of the presser--an explanation of the healthcare bill and chance to advocate for it.

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