Barackian Known Knowns and Known Unknowns

Shot:

“If George W. Bush becomes president, the armies of the homeless, hundreds of thousands strong, will once again be used to illustrate the opposition’s arguments about welfare, the economy, and taxation.”

— Mark Helprin in the Wall Street Journal, Oct. 31, 2000, and later a near-daily leitmotif of James Taranto’s “Best of the Web Today” column in the Journal.

Chaser:

“10,000-word New Yorker article on rise in homelessness mentions ‘Barack Obama’ zero times.”

— Headline, the Daily Caller, yesterday.

Oh and speaking of Taranto, what did the president not know, and when did he not know it was a topic he explored via these collated headlines:

• “Obama ‘Unaware on Investments”–headline, Albany (Ga.) Herald, March 8, 2007
• “Obama ‘Unaware of Illegal Aunt’ “–headline, BBC website, Nov. 1, 2008
• “Obama Unaware of Tea Party Protests”–headline, Examiner.com, April 15, 2009
• “Obama Unaware of Backroom Deal, White House Says”–headline, Dallas Morning News website, June 4, 2010
• “Blago Judge: Obama Unaware of Seat Exchange Bid”–headline, Associated Press, May 16, 2011
• “Sebelius: Obama Unaware of ACA Website Glitches Before Launch”–headline, CaliforniaHealthline.org, Oct. 23, 2013
• “Obama Reportedly Unaware NSA Spied on 35 World Leaders”–headline, ABCNews.com, Oct. 28

Of course, as we all now know, there was one fact that the president did know for quite some time: “On Monday, NBC News reported that President Obama’s administration knew for three years that Americans would lose their current insurance under Obamacare,” Ben Shapiro writes at Big Journalism.

Naturally, this being NBC, the article went through several strange edits and updates throughout the night, as Ben notes above, at one point apparently vanishing from the Web before reappearing. “Under Pressure From The White House, NBC Throws Its Reporter Under the Bus and Censors News That Obama Wrote Regs to Disqualify and Terminate Health Insurance Policies,” Ace of Spades adds.

“They later re-inserted the censored material. But what would compel them to delete true information in the first place?”, Ace asks. “Fears for Barack Obama’s political position, of course.”

Read the whole thing.

Related: “Megyn Kelly Reminds Viewers: Obama Said You Can Keep Your ‘Acme’ High-Deductible Plan,” Tom Blumer writes at Newsbusters:

At the 0:59 mark of the video which follows (HT Mediaite), viewers will see Kelly introduce and then replay Obama’s February 2010 promise that “any insurance you have will be grandfathered in,” even if it’s an “Acme Insurance, just a high deductible catastrophic plan”:

As Allahpundit writes, spotting Democrat Steny Hoyer and “13 More Liars” on the left who made some variation of the “if you like your plan you can keep your plan” formulation:

Democrats made a cold calculation: They had the numbers in Congress to do this and they were going to do it, even if that meant lying repeatedly to the public about the cost and consequences, even if it meant forfeiting a majority in the House for the next decade. This is what they wanted and now they’ve got it, and they can’t stand it. Enjoy.

No wonder, Ron Fournier of the National Journal, a frequent defender of the administration began the lede of his article yesterday thusly:

Incoming from Democrats:

“Dem Party is F****d.” That was the subject line of an email sent to me Sunday by a senior Democratic consultant with strong ties to the White House and Capitol Hill. The body of the email contained a link to this Los Angeles Times story about Obamacare “sticker shock:”

“The Democratic consultant said none of this is news to him, but he wonders why Obama wasn’t honest with Americans. He predicted surprise and outrage over higher costs and lesser coverage. ‘We will own this problem forever,’ the Democrat wrote.”

Update: I almost forgot this item from yesterday, which brings this post back full circle: While the latest edition of CBS’ 60 Minutes ran a damning report on the administration and Benghazi, the transcript of the text reveals no actual mentions of the words “Obama” or “Hillary.”

As William Bigelow of Big Journalism quips at the conclusion of his post, “In the whole interview, not one mention of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. After all, what difference does it make?”