POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

All wee-wee’d up and no place to go.

It’s the day after President Obama’s Heroic!, Historic!, Game Changing! health care address to Congress; you know, the one where he basically repeated the same lies things he’s been saying for some time, while calling all who dispute him liars.  I guess that list is getting longer too, because the AP and Reason seem to think that a significant amount of what Mr. Obama put forth last night just doesn’t add up.

Some pundits think that all the charges and counter-charges of lying make the once great man of hope-n-change come off as bitter; like a spoiled child who’s not used to being told “no”.  Still others found the rehashing of his usual talking points, misdirection ploys, and straw man assassinations much like an end of summer soap opera re-run.

Congressman Wilson of South Carolina, who in a now famous moment of anger reacted stridently to one of the Presidents assertions, apologized almost immediately; but honest people understand that his was not the first boorish outburst to mar a Presidential address to Congress. Furthermore, notwithstanding his conduct, his frustration and confusion is understandable.  And he isn’t the only one insisting that Obamacare will cover illegal aliens, since the non-partisan Congressional Research Service reached a similar conclusion some time ago.  It seems that this time Obama’s sonorous baritone and soaring rhetoric is not going to silence some of those he wished to paint in a bad light.  A prime target of the President’s scorn, private citizen Sarah Palin, now free from the scourges of gratuitous lawsuits, weighed in this morning with a less-than-cowed rebuttal of many of Obama’s assertions:

Our objections to the Democrats’ health care proposals are not mere “bickering” or “games.” They are not an attempt to “score short term political points.” And it’s hard to listen to the President lecture us not to use “scare tactics” when in the next breath he says that “more will die” if his proposals do not pass.

In his speech the President directly responded to concerns I’ve raised about unelected bureaucrats being given power to make decisions affecting life or death health care matters. He called these concerns “bogus,” “irresponsible,” and “a lie” -- so much for civility. After all the name-calling, though, what he did not do is respond to the arguments we’ve made, arguments even some of his own supporters have agreed have merit.

In fact, after promising to “make sure that no government bureaucrat .... gets between you and the health care you need,” the President repeated his call for an Independent Medicare Advisory Council -- an unelected, largely unaccountable group of bureaucrats charged with containing Medicare costs. He did not disavow his own statement that such a group, working outside of “normal political channels,” should guide decisions regarding that “huge driver of cost ... the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives....” He did not disavow the statements of his health care advisor, Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, and continuing to pay his salary with taxpayer dollars proves a commitment to his beliefs. The President can keep making unsupported assertions, but until he directly responds to the arguments I’ve made, I’m going to call him out too.

[emphasis-ed.]

So while MSNBC and others in the media can try to spin the night as a success for the President and his agenda, time may tell otherwise.  In fact, the lauded CNN poll delivered afterwards, that showed a Dramatic! increase in Obamacare’s favorability turns out to have been wildly over sampled in favor of the Democrats; a fact which should make all the President’s men a bit more concerned.  But in the end, what should perhaps worry them more than any bloom being off the Obama rose, is that Americans may have stopped listening.  If that’s the case, and both the President’s position and the opinions of Americans remain unchanged, then it may indeed be, to use a now popular cliché, Obama and Obamacare’s Waterloo.

I guess the only remaining questions are; 1) Does the won ! have his Elba picked out yet?  I’d hazard a guess at Martinique, but Michelle might not enjoy Ms. Baker’s proximity…

And, 2) Where do we go from here..?

Rocketman