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• Obama’s Tone-Deaf Health Campaign
  The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds—he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country’s heart and character.

  He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans don’t take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they don’t know they want to go and being told it’s good for them.
  It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose, but that was coming. It began with the spectacle of the president, impelled to go abroad to apologize for his nation—repeatedly. It is not, in the end, the demonstrators in those town-hall meetings or the agitations of his political enemies that Mr. Obama should fear. It is the judgment of those Americans who have been sitting quietly in their homes, listening to him

  (tags: Obamacare barack_obama)
• Obamacare: The “Post Office” of Health Care Plans
  At his orchestrated townhall event today, President Obama defended the notion that his government-run public health care plan wouldn’t crowd out private insurers by referencing the symbiotic relationship between UPS, Fedex and the Post Office. Bad timing Mr. President. On Friday, the New York Times Business Section actually called for the privatization of the post office amid staggering losses, and even said it was in “General Motors territory.” So while the President sells you on his “post office” of health care plans, here are some questions to consider:
  (tags: Obamacare)
• Obamacare: Does Linda Douglass know about this? part 2
  Barack Obama's denial that he has advocated a "single payer," Canadian style health care system may not have been the most comic moment of his Portsmouth dog-and-pony show. He also disputed the notion that adding a government plan to "compete" with private insurance plans would drive insurers out of business, indirectly creating a single payer system by indirection.

  Obama acknowledges no competitive advantage accruing to a plan that will obviously draw at will on public funds and has no need to turn a profit. Private insurers should have no problem competing with a government plan, Obama said. "They do it all the time," according to Obama. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine…. It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

  What an argument. While the President sells citizens on his "post office" health care plan, the Heritage Foundation offers a few questions to consider:

  (tags: Obamacare linda_douglas)
• Poll Watch: Public Support for Health Care Reform Drops 21 Points In Four Weeks
  Interesting result from Gallup in my e-mailbox today: When asked, "Would you advise your member of Congress to vote for or against a healthcare reform bill when they return to Washington in September, or do you not have an opinion?" 35 percent said vote for, 36 percent said vote against, and 29 percent said "no opinion."

  UPDATE: Campaign Spot reader Avinash calls my attention to the July 14 Gallup results: "A USA Today/Gallup poll finds 56% of Americans in favor and 33% opposed to Congress' passing major healthcare reform legislation this year."

  This is a 21 percentage point drop in support.

  (tags: Obamacare)
• Nevada GOP Rep. Heller Won't Run Against Dingy Harry Reid in 2010 Senate Race
  Nevada Rep. Dean Heller has decided not to run against Harry Reid (D-Nev.), robbing Republicans of their top recruit against the Senate Majority Leader in 2010, according to an informed source.

  Heller, who was elected to the vast 2nd district in 2006, called National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) earlier today to pass on his decision.

  Heller turned down the race despite internal Republican polling — conducted by the Tarrance Group — that showed him leading Reid by nine points. Many Republicans believe that Heller would have made the race had it not been for the political implosion of Nevada Sen. John Ensign (R). Ensign's acknowledgment of an extramarital affair with the wife of his former chief of staff is seen as extremely damaging to the Republican brand in the state.

  (tags: Dean_Heller harry_reid)
• Obamacare: How Conservatives Are Blowing Their Chance
  Remember, the target audience for Republicans is Blue Dog Democrats in Congress. They won't panic unless they perceive organic anxiety. The White House's goal was to prevent the Blue Dogs from panicking. The swing constituents in these congressional districts aren't angry Republicans, and the Blue Dogs know this. They're political independents for whom the sanctity of the process is important. These are the type of voters who like President Obama because he appears willing to bring people together even though they don't agree with their policies.
  (tags: Obamacare)
• Obamacare: White House: You’re not un-American, but you are still corporate shills so just pipe down
  President Obama wants you to stop talking and Robert Gibbs thinks you are all corporate-funded lackeys. But hey, they don’t question your patriotism. And now they welcome “a real vigorous conversation.”

  Just keep it at an acceptable decibel level.

  Shhhhhh:

  (tags: Obamacare)
• MSNBC Anchor Carlos Watson: ''Socialist' Is Becoming the New N-word'
  But what concerns me is when in some of those town hall meetings including the one that we saw in Missouri recently where there were jokes made about lynching, etc., you start to wonder whether in fact the word socialist is becoming a code word, whether or not socialist is becoming the new N-word for frankly for some angry upset birthers and others. I hope that's not the case, but it sure does say to you what David Brooks said the other day on T.V. which is that more credible conservatives have to stand up and say that there's a line that has to be drawn, that there's a line of responsibility that's important, and that extends to the words that we choose including how choose even legitimate words like socialist.

  What?

  So now that we have a black president, words that have been used in our country for decades — words that have real meaning — suddenly stand for something else altogether that includes a racial overtone?

  What kind of nonsense is this?

  (tags: Carlos_Watson socialism barack_obama racism)
• Obama to Defend Health-Care Plan at Town Hall After Disruptions – In New Hampshire – #tcot
  President Barack Obama will defend his efforts to overhaul the U.S. health-care system at a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, today after a series of protests met his fellow Democrats in recent days.

  Democratic members of the House and Senate who have returned to their home districts have encountered protesters holding signs and screaming slogans such as “just say no” to the party’s health-care plan. The Democratic National Committee has accused Republicans of orchestrating the disruptions.

  Obama and some Democrats in Congress are pushing plans that would offer the option to purchase health insurance from a government-run program, while requiring all Americans to get coverage and putting new restrictions on insurers. Republicans say the effort will increase costs and limit choices for care.

  (tags: Obamacare barack_obama)
• Obamacare: White House Disputes Pelosi Contention that Town Hall Protests are "Un-American"
  The White House disagreed this afternoon with the contention by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, that the disruptions at town hall meetings are "un-American," as the Democratic congressional leaders contended in a USA Today op-ed this morning.

  "I think there's actually a pretty long tradition of people shouting at politicians in America," White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton told reporters on Air Force One when asked about the comments.

  (tags: Obamacare Nancy_Pelosi)

A gaffe, a mistake or blatant misrepresentation?

President Obama today suggested that the health care reform legislation for which he’s pushing has been endorsed by the American Association of Retired Person.

“We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors,” the president said.

At another point he said: “Well, first of all, another myth that we’ve been hearing about is this notion that somehow we’re going to be cutting your Medicare benefits.  We are not.  AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?”

The problem?

The AARP hasn’t endorsed any plan yet.

The country’s largest advocacy group for Americans over 50 issued a statement after the event saying, “While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate.”

Come on, Mr. President – at least get your facts straight.

How can any American believe Obama on health care when he begins spewing the rhetoric without regards to reality.

Obamacare is sinking by the minute.

So says the latest Rasmussen poll.

Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters nationwide favor a single-payer health care system where the federal government provides coverage for everyone. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 57% are opposed to a single-payer plan.

Fifty-two percent (52%) believe such a system would lead to a lower quality of care while 13% believe care would improve. Twenty-seven percent (27%) think that the quality of care would remain about the same.

Forty-five percent (45%) also say a single-payer system would lead to higher health care costs while 24% think lower costs would result. Nineteen percent (19%) think prices would remain about the same.

There’s wide political disagreement over the single-payer issue. Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats favor a single-payer system, but 87% of Republicans are opposed to one. As for those not affiliated with either major party, 22% favor a single-payer approach while 63% are opposed.

President Obama, of course, knows the polling and is hedging his bets by dissing a single payer plan while disingenuously floating a reform program which stealthily brings it about.

Smart politics or is it deception of the highest order?

I don’t think you can fool the voters on this one and note the overwhelming opposition to single payer by independent voters (63%).