Obama Takes Aim At Drudge

You'd think Obama would have learned after his utter failure to paint Rush Limbaugh as a horrible, mean person, but he clearly has not. Though Limbaugh is probably more high profile than Matt Drudge, I believe that the Drudge Report is the most visited political website in the country right now, so he's not exactly a chump, either. Here's what happened.

As you saw here earlier in the week, a new video of Barack Obama has surfaced from a couple of speeches before he ran for President. In those speeches, he (and other Dems) clearly advocated universal health care, and using a single-payer system as an intermediary step to get there. Drudge was the first on the scene. Reminder:

The White House 'fired' back at Drudge with this:

Um...okay. Did she seriously accuse the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy of patching together this message to make Obama say something he didn't say? That they've left out context? Seriously, that's the best they've got? That's essentially admitting they have no response. For one thing, that's precisely what Douglass just did. Even more importantly, Drudge then came back and posted the key clip, unedited, with context:

This is taken out of context how? You've seen the clips for yourself, so you make up your own mind. If nothing else, it's blatantly obvious that Obama is saying different things to different audiences. Mary Katharine Ham quotes Phil Klein's analysis, which calls out that exact point:

Taken together, I think this highlights Democratic double-talk on health care. When speaking to liberal audiences who want a single-payer system, Democrats will argue to them that offering a government-run plan within a government-run exchange is the politically pragmatic way of getting to a single-payer system over time. But when addressing the general public, they talk about the government plan merely as something that will provide people with “choice” and foster “competition.” They don’t get to have it both ways.

Or, as Hot Air puts it:

What did Obama say here? He says that he wants to eliminate employer coverage over a transition period, and that he favors a single-payer system. If Obama has ever walked back either of those two statements made as a candidate for two national political offices, I’ve yet to hear it. Instead of explaining some sort of evolution in Obama’s thinking on these points, Douglass attempts to propagandize by claiming that people who saw these clips didn’t hear Obama say exactly what he did. It’s the equivalent of a Jedi mind trick, only it’s the weak-minded trying to conduct the trick.

That about covers it!

Seriously, though, we need to spread this message far and wide. It is obvious that the White House is pushing two different messages on this plan, and has no defense when properly called out on it. No wonder people are getting angry. Even if people like this concept in health care reform, no one likes to be lied to, especially by an arrogant crapweasel who treats you like you're too stupid to figure out his lies.

Spread these videos to everyone you know. The truth will speak for itself.

There's my two cents.


Related Reading:
Politico.com
Ace of Spades