Joe Wilson And The Politics Of Barack Obama

Joe Wilson is now under attack for calling (accurately) President Obama a liar. Sure, his timing and method probably weren't the best...but he was right, wasn't he? Why is that fact escaping all the whiners? Fortunately, Wilson isn't backing down:

And, before you buy the shock -- SHOCK -- of the Left for this outburst, remember how the Democrats treated George W. Bush in some of his speeches. We already covered the 2005 boo-fest, but here's another good clip from 2006:

Nice. They interrupt Bush to pat themselves on the back for blocking Social Security reform (which, by the way, is still critically necessary)! And Gateway Pundit notices something particular about that pat-fest...


That's Barack Obama, front and center. File this one under 'it's okay for Democrats but not Republicans'.

RedState cuts to the chase on the actual substance of the issue. Here's the bottom line:

The Media Matters guys are out lying today about Joe Wilson.

They are crying to everyone that the Democrats’ health care legislation specifically excludes illegal aliens from health care.

It does.

But only a confused moron like David Brock and his minion would be so vapid and shallow as to take Congress at its word (they never would if it were a Republican plan).

The Democrats have blocked specific Republican attempts to require citizenship verification to get on the government plan. Why? The State Medicaid agencies are given the ability to set eligibility standards for the low income subsidies that will be used for the plan. And they have no incentive not to enroll illegal aliens, particularly since it’s a 100% federal match.

So doctors are not required to verify citizenship because they and the states will get greater allotments the faster the rolls grow. H.R. 3200 claims to block illegal aliens from the plan, but provides incentives to ignore citizenship.

It is like telling a kid that it is against the law to drink, but then specifically not enforcing the law, nor providing any money or manpower to enforce the law.

Anyone who argues that illegal aliens aren't covered is either completely uninformed or deliberately choosing to play semantics with the truth.

Heritage also posts a couple of videos that really make me question whether or not the White House realizes that YouTube is a free service available to anyone with a PC and an Internet connection (which is almost everyone):

Hm. Which is it, Mr. President? Will our tax dollars pay for abortions, or will they not? Or does it just depend on who's listening to you at any given moment?

President Obama has often said he wants to take the best ideas of both sides and implement them. In a rare instance of actually doing what he said he would do, he appointed someone to take a look at one of the GOP's favorite proposals, tort reform:

There are credible estimates that serious tort reform could save the country between $100 and $200 billion annually in wasteful spending, as doctors practice defensive medicine to preempt lawsuits. … Now Obama says he’s going to study the issue. “I am directing my Secretary of Health and Human Services to move forward on this initiative today,” he said.

That would be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, whose resume includes eight years as director of the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association.

So Obama has chosen a former industry lobbyist to run tort reform.

Whew, what a relief! Thanks for getting right on that, Mr. President!

All in all, though, not many people saw the speech, as Fox won the ratings that night, and Obama even lost to 'So You Think You Can Dance'. I think the sparkle has rubbed off the hope-n-change-mobile.

One of the most serious indicators that this speech failed, though, is the fact that Democrats consider it a failure:

One very experienced Democrat, a former Senate staffer who appears ofter on cable talk shows was very, very angry this morning. He believes Obama has completely destroyed the chance the nation had to get health care reform accomplished.

He simply stated that President Obama was not telling the truth on many key points in his speech yesterday.

The three big ones this unnamed Democrat pointed out are:
1. Obama will implement mandates
2. Obama will add to the deficit
3. Obama is giving up on covering everyone

It's interesting to note that both the Right and the Left are unhappy with Obama, and for diametrically opposed reasons. Fortunately for us, that means we're winning the arguments based on fact, tradition, and reason. Now, if we could just get Congress to listen to us...

There's my two cents.


Related Reading:
Obama's Self-Mythologizing