PJTV is holding its Virtual Healthcare Forum on July 22 from 7:00-8:30PM Eastern (details here). We’re in the middle of locking down participants who will include Congressmen Cantor and Price (a doctor yet!) when he hears that Obama is making his big healthcare speech at 9, only a half hour later.
Coincidence?
I’m not prepared to say… [Oh, come on.-ed. Oh, shut up.]… but the participation of John Goodman alone in our forum should give the President pause, not to mention some bad news about the cost of his proposal from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
What fascinates me about Obama is that he is so convinced that he is doing the right thing. His mother must really have doted on him. An intelligent person in the current situation would normally be filled with doubts. Not our President. He thinks he knows. What a weird man.
In the new world order of Entitlement, there’s no room for appreciation and no room for doubt. Never mind experience and making a few mistakes, it’s all about knowing, just knowing you’re right—like Al Gore, scientist he is not—and moving forward before there’s time for anyone to make sense of what is nonsensical.
We need to start calling out Congressmen and driving them crazy about this now.
“What fascinates me about Obama is that he is so convinced that he is doing the right thing.”
I guess it depends on the meaning of “the right thing’.
More and more, I think he may actually want to destroy our country with a Cloward-Pliven type strategy.
I used to think ‘No way. I may disagree with him, but he doesn’t want to actually harm America’. But now I think it’s 50/50 that he might.
Make Congress fear the taxpayers more than they fear Obama.
I think Roger Kimball’s got it right: Libs don’t care about results so much as feeling good about themselves.
Rage against success = prime emotional ingredient of lib worldview. James Piereson called it “punitive liberalism.”
Economics for O=not about creation of wealth but 1) redistrib of wealth & 2) penaliz’g those w temerity to succeed
Doesn’t matter that incr taxes on the successful wont bring in much $$. What matters is punishing success.
Les, I think it’s close to 100%. He’s not stupid, so I’m convinced this is all by design. Once the economy is wrecked, we have embarked irretrievably down the Road to Serfdom, as Hayek so aptly put it. At that point, we have no ability to help ourselves, and so must become wards of the state. Given the joke that “education” has become since the teachers’ unions grabbed control of K-12 and the leftist academy destroyed liberal arts in universities, I am not surprised that many Americans have no clue what is happening, and no historical points of reference for comparison.
I hadn’t realized until I read it on a blog somewhere that Obama was booed the other night when he threw out the first pitch. So I guess even the toy departments of the MSM are in on the fix.
“He’s not stupid, so I’m convinced this is all by design. Once the economy is wrecked, we have embarked irretrievably down the Road to Serfdom, as Hayek so aptly put it.”
On the one hand, I guess it does not matter if they do it through incompetence or malice. Once it’s wrecked, it’s wrecked.
OTOH, if it is determined that they did it through intentional malice, the 2nd Amendment may start to be used as it was originally intended. Not very likely, I know; but not entirely impossible. I pray it never comes to that.
His goal definitely seems to be destruction.
oh come on. When was the last time you saw a President express doubt about a policy he promoted? I’m sure he does have doubts and keeps them to himself. And do you really think his projected certainty about his health care proposal is ‘weirder’ than, say, Bush 2s projected certainty about Iraq?
Besides, all he said today is that there will be health care reform. At this point there are four or five pretty different policy options on the table. There’s clearly a lot in play between the White House and Congress about what form the legislation will take, and Obama hasn’t thrown his weight yet irrevocably behind one of the major options. The only thing he’s taking off the table is maintaining the status quo of medical care in this country. And really– beyond a few lobbying groups– is there *anyone* who thinks our health care system performs well enough to not be altered at all?
Okay, here’s what you do. Reschedule the forum for AFTER the speech so you can comment on it.
is there *anyone* who thinks our health care system performs well enough to not be altered at all?
Depends on who does the altering. I think the Democrats are incapable of altering anything for the better and so we would all benefit if congress went on vacation for the next two years. That would be the best thing the Democrats could do for us.
Obama and most Congresscritters have no experience running a business or managing anything. Just as Al Gore has no experience with climate science. The comment about Bush ignores the fact that he left the war in the hands of the military and may have been badly served by some who did not want to get involved in nation building. When he realized the policy was not working, he changed and adopted polices advocated by junior officers who did have better ideas. Do you think Obama is going to take advice from people in the health care business ? I don’t.
“Do you think Obama is going to take advice from people in the health care business ? I don’t.”
Barack Obama only listens to those allegedly benevolent elites who graduated from our “best” schools. They do not need to possess any particular knowledge. Winging it should be sufficient because, at the end of the day, their intelligence and good intentions should suffice. This is why Obama does not hesitate to appoint 31 year old law school drop out Brian Deese to such an important position at General Motors. The president cannot even begin to comprehend why one might seriously question this decision. Obama is mostly flabbergasted at the dissent. And no, I am unfortunately not exaggerating.
Mike Shuster, wannabe-Obama-apologist, asked:
“And really– beyond a few lobbying groups– is there *anyone* who thinks our health care system performs well enough to not be altered at all?”
If I cut off your hand, you will be in great agony and will doubtless take the position that the “status quo” is unacceptable. Does that mean it is okay for me to “reform” the situation by then cutting off both your arms?
Such is the nature of the situation with healthcare. Governments — both state and Federal — have burdened it with vast regulations, controls, rules and interventions that both limits the supply of healthcare and destroys the incentive of healthcare providers to compete with one another. At the same time, Medicaid, Medicare and SCHIP have greatly inflated the demand for healthcare while destroying for millions the incentive to seek the best value for their healthcare dollars (since it is no longer their dollars paying their doctor bills).
Squeezing supply plus destroying the incentive to compete plus artificially inflating demand while destroying the consumers incentive to shop for the best value — that’s a sure formula for exploding costs and declining service.
And having started and fed this bonfire for decades, the liberal/leftist Obamabots now claim they can put this fire out by pouring gasoline on it — by, basically, expanding the insanity of Medicaid and Medicare to engulf the entire population.
So, YES, the status quo is a better alternative than that.
It might have been that he spent more time being raised by grandparents, who are always more indulgent, rather than his mother.
Let’s also not forget that educational institutions in general do try to put their students in a position where they can develop. (I’m talking about creating opportunities, rather than classroom instruction.)
So the handsome and intelligent Mr. Obama came along at a time when schools and companies were trying to bend over backwards to make everything easier for people like him to participate in society at large.
Who would have thought that the first black/partially black American president would be a spoiled rotten elitist who grew up in comfortable surroundings, and who never had to learn to handle serious adversity, setbacks, or even normal opposition along the way.
Only in America!
“…What fascinates me about Obama is that he is so convinced that he is doing the right thing. His mother must really have doted on him…”
As you suggest,doting mothers of only sons do often create men with huge egos. Winston Churchill springs immediately to mind.
But contemplation on the source of Churchill’s optimism leads immediately to contemplation on Hitler’s blind faith. Hitler’s mad ego was fueled by adoring crowds and cocaine.
Confidence-wise I suspect Obama is closer to Hitler than to Churchill. Though the two are vastly different, they are both of them, unlike Churchill, socialists and statists. The core appeal of both is racial. And though contemporary Chicago isn’t Berlin in the Thirties, there is a certain symmetry in their political methods. Obama uses ACORN like a heterosexual and unarmed SA. Last but not least, both share a special hatred for the that towering and incomparable hero of Western civilization, Winston Churchill.
Shallow pop-psychology from a remote vantage? Absolutely. But we are only at the very beginning of the tragic national drama known as Barack Obama. Before it’s over we will to see the mask of aplomb slip and glimpse the other side of this freakishly sunny personality. The secret cigarette smoking is merely a tiny hint of the raging tension beneath the calm surface.
But the source of such blind confidence is anybody’s guess. My own reference to obama’s what-me-worry? megalomania is Bernie Madoff.
Our tragic national drama has barely begun. At some point
Correction: The last two paragraphs are foul ms. overlooked and not discarded. Please ignore.
Our new Commander In Chief has morphed into Scolder In Chief.
Does he really command enough influence to scold America into fully embracing a huge state, high tax, zero growth society when people all over the rest of the world have finally seen his rubbish for what it is, a dangerous pipe dream?
I really think it’s the opposite, Roger. Here’s this kid, half-black in the 60′s, abandoned by his father, dragged to Indonesia by Suharto, abandoned by his mother, raised by the grandmother who he famously said was frightened by black men she saw on the street … not a picture of someone who was doted upon. (And sufficiently estranged from his family that he apparently didn’t return to Hawai’i when his mother was dying there of cancer.) Sorta sounds like this, in fact:
This is quoted from Wikipedia’s discussion of narcissistic personality disorder. Another part says:
More than anything else, I suspect Obama is deeply (subconsciously) fearful.
“
“More than anything else, I suspect Obama is deeply (subconsciously) fearful.”
The situation only got worse when Obama reached his teen years. This is was the time he also realized that guilt tripped whites could be easily manipulated. Obama merely had to evolve into an “authentic” male of color and the rewards would be mind boggling. He would barely have to do any work whatsoever to get so much in return. The hurt and subconsciously fearful young man would now have the opportunity to stick it good and hard to those who somehow oppressed him. Needless to add, the politically correct culture Obama inhabited told him the white man was ultimately responsible for his predicament.
We are moving towards Fascism—but it will not be one dominated by the so-called multi-cultural elite. It will instead be lead by white extremists. They will not hesitate to torture and murder anyone deemed the enemy. Ironically, we will be among their primary victims. Center-right individuals will be blamed for being too understanding and compromising.
He is weird alright.
The thing that strikes me the most is the urgency, the need to do it all right now without thinking or talking about it.
Just trust me Obama says.
Why not wait until the recession is behind us? Maybe balance the books. Reform entitlements…. and then after a lot of debate try to come up with something that most Americans are comfortable with… Or not, but at least debate the topic in an open and above board way…. But oh nooo, we have to act as if our collective hair is on fire.
That just seems a tad off putting if you know what I mean.
That’s quite an assumption, that Obama’s intelligent. Well schooled in leftist assault tactics, yes. But has he ever expressed a thought independent of the leftist playbook of specific response to specific stimulus? In other words has he ever come across as thoughtful? No.
“Look, Ethel, he’s on again!”
“But Honey, wasn’t he on just 20 minutes ago?”
“Yea, but now he’s talking about health care.”
Obama has an ego, but at the same time he wants to be part of a group, and not necessarily as the alpha-male. There’s a certain aspect of Obama that wants to be liked by everyone who he doesn’t perceive as part of his pack’s enemies and/or their allies — with the “pack” of course being the liberal Democrats he’s been aligned with during adulthood, and the enemies of the pack being not just Republicans and conservatives, but even countries whose leaders are/have been seen as friendly with Republicans (which goes towards explaining the antipathy towards Great Britain and Israel).
It’s that non-threatening aspect of his personality that allowed him to be elected president in the first place, but also makes him almost totally unwilling to challenge his normal allies within the Democratic Party, even when they’re leading him off a cliff. An Obama who was more aggressive and (possibly) more willing to go against his own clique would be a better politician today, but he never would have met the threshold to be elected the first African-American president of not reminding swing voters of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson.
The big question is if Obama loses on health care, cap-and-trade and other issues like card check, will be be willing to throw his longtime allies overboard to save his presidency, or will he bond closer with the left in his party and try to use even more hardball Chicago-style politics on his perceived enemies. Rahm Emanuel spent years working with Bill Clinton and knows “triangulation” and spent four years recruiting Blue Dog Democrats to run in swing districts to give Nancy Pelosi control of the House. So it’s not as if noone in the White House is aware of the blueprint on how to move to the middle to save your own skin, but I don’t know if Obama will be able to do it unless he’s got Emanuel and a bunch of other people providing the muscle to break out of his current ideological bind.
There are many astute observations and insights into actions and motivations of the president…I am inclined to see the comments above
as more likely to describe and explain why the powers to be picked him to be their puppet, rather than serving as a way to project the direction he is most likely to choose.I believe he is an actor,a
hired hand who will be unquestionably obediant. True he is fearful,
true he is without principle, true he is bold because he believes his masters can buy his way out of embarassment or danger. In the end however he is dangerous because he is not his own man, but he is the president and he is certain he owes us , the nation, nothing .