–Two times in the same week, Americans got a rare glimpse of an “unscripted” Barack Obama, who apparently believes “knowing the facts” is not a prerequisite for selling government-run healthcare or commenting on a local police matter in Massachusetts. The president admitted he was “unaware” of the provision in the House version of the healthcare bill that would put private insurers out of business, and he said Cambridge police “acted stupidly” for arresting Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, even as he admitted he was unaware of “all the facts.”
Conclusion: an ad-libbing Obama gives Joe “the Gaffe That Keeps on Giving” Biden some stiff competition.
–For those wondering why conservatives and many other Americans don’t have much use for government-run institutions, a recent story emanating from New York might be illuminating. In that state, OTB–the state’s legal horse race betting business, is on the verge of bankruptcy. You heard right: a state-run bookie operation is LOSING money to the point where it may be forced into Chapter 11.
Conclusion: if state-level bureaucratic hacks can kill a golden goose like that, imagine what Congressional hacks can do to our healthcare system.
–On Thursday, President Barack Obama told ABC News that with regard to Afghanistan, “victory” might not be part of the agenda: “I’m always worried about using the word ‘victory,’ because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur. We’re not dealing with nation states at this point. We’re concerned with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Al Qaeda’s allies. So when you have a non-state actor, a shadowy operation like Al Qaeda, our goal is to make sure they can’t attack the United States.”
Conclusion: perhaps if the president were an American soldier hunkered down in the middle of a s**t storm, eating MREs and wondering if today was his last day on earth, he might want the Commander-in-Chief to let the world know that “victory” is the ONLY option he’s interested in. Perhaps if we were talking about a children’s soccer game–where liberals think “not keeping score” prevents hurt feelings–such touchy-feely nonsense might be tolerable. But bloodthirsty jihadists? Spare us all Mr. President, especially those Americans in harm’s way.
–In his most recent column, Charles Krauthammer gets right to the nut of why healthcare reform in its current state is a load of b.s.: “This is not about politics? Then why is it..that in this grand health-care debate we hear not a word about one of the worst sources of waste in American medicine: the insane cost and arbitrary rewards of our malpractice system?” Krauthammer has the answer: “No mystery. The Democrats are parasitically dependent on huge donations from trial lawyers.”
Conclusion: the best way to reform the healthcare system is to reform the legal system–first. The bet here is if that were done properly, we might not need healthcare reform at all.
–A story emanating from sources outside the United States–one our mainstream media has shown zero interest in–states that computers taken from former Honduran president Mel Zelaya’s office “contained the official and certified results of the illegal constitutional referendum Zelaya wanted to conduct THAT NEVER TOOK PLACE.” (my caps)
Conclusion: where have we heard that “rigging an election” thing lately? Oh, I remember. Iran, a country the president didn’t want to “meddle” with, even as he jumped right into the Honduran fray backing Zelaya. Perhaps the president should be given some slack, however.
He “didn’t have all the facts.”
atahlert@comcast.net
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