Obama says strong opposition to his program is legitimate
(Note: see a commenter’s
reply to my question whether Obama is just playing good cop / bad cop.)
In appearances today reported by the AP, Obama went beyond his press spokesman’s earlier pro-forma comment that opposition to health reform is not related to the color of Obama’s skin, a statement so minimal it did nothing to quell the controversy. Obama not only said that the fierce opposition is not motivated by race. He placed the debate, properly, in the context of America’s historic argument over the size and role of government. Also, remarkably, instead of dismissing the other side as people playing “games” and being obstructionist, as he did last week in his speech to the Congress, today he was clearly suggesting that the disagreement is legitimate and that the issue is one on which rational people could have very divergent views.
Thus Jimmy Carter’s mad statement to Brian Williams the other day, with which many prominent figures in the media agreed, has been given the kabosh by Obama himself. What will the anti-conservative hate spreaders say now?
Or am I getting it wrong and this is just more good cop / bad cop?
Obama: Health care anger not motivated by his race
Fri Sep 18, 7:16 pm ET
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama said Friday that angry criticisms about his health care agenda are driven by an intense debate over the proper role of government—and not by racism.
“Are there people out there who don’t like me because of race? I’m sure there are,” Obama told CNN. “That’s not the overriding issue here.”
Obama, the first black president in the nation’s history, spoke about the issue of race during a battery of interviews on Friday. In a media blitz aimed at pounding home his health care message, he taped interviews with ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and Univision to be shown during the networks’ Sunday morning talk shows.
Some excerpts aired during Friday night broadcasts.
Time and again, Obama was asked about whether the tenor of the health care turned nasty because of undercurrents in racism. Former President Jimmy Carter raised the point prominently this week when he said the vitriol was racially motivated.
Not so, Obama said.
“There’s been a long-standing debate in this country that is usually that much more fierce during times of transition, or when presidents are trying to bring about big changes,” Obama told CNN.
To NBC News, Obama put it this way: “It’s an argument that’s gone on for the history of this republic, and that is, What’s the right role of government? How do we balance freedom with our need to look out for one another? … This is not a new argument, and it always evokes passions.”
Obama said most people across the country are just trying to follow the debate and figure out how proposed changes would help them.
“Now there are some who are, setting aside the issue of race, actually I think are more passionate about the idea of whether government can do anything right,” Obama said told ABC News. “And I think that that’s probably the biggest driver of some of the vitriol.”
Some health care town halls over the summer had bitter moments of confrontation. And South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” at Obama during the president’s address to a joint session of Congress last week. The White House has said for weeks that such moments are not representative and overblown.
Obama told CBS News that the media was partly to blame.
“The 24-hour news cycle and cable television and blogs and all this—they focus on the most extreme elements on both sides,” Obama said. “They can’t get enough of conflict. It’s catnip to the media right now.”
Obama also is visiting David Letterman on Monday, the first appearance ever by a sitting president on Letterman’s “Late Show.”
- end of initial entry -
September 19
Marco Jawsario writes:
Damas y Caballeros:
This is obviously an orchestration of good cop / bad cop, with that viejo Jimmy Carter being the bad cop. Who cares what Jimmy Carter thinks anyway? His job is to make Obama look good, because this summer Obama has been having muchas problemas with his amigos opening up their bocas grandes and making the people mad. Por ejemplo, Obama’s professor friend called that white cop a racist. Obama then opened his boca and said la policia acted stupidly. Then Nancy Pelosi called white protestors “Nazis,” and other bad things. Black poltical leaders now claim if guys like Joe Wilson aren’t put in their place, then before too long whites will be riding around the countyside in white sheets. Liberal and moderate whites thought that when they voted for Obama, there would be no more of this race card shuffling and dealing. Fat chance. They are running from Obama like the Italian Army runs from the enemy.
So, Obama has to make nice to the white people, otherwise he will be up el Rio Grande without a paddle. He will say nice things now, but leave just enough socialism in health care reform so that when the heat is off, his Marxist allies can build on it. They have operated this way every time. No mas. I will paraphrase el Greco grande anciento, King Leonidas of Sparta, from the movie, “300” to describe how we must think and act.
“Health care is where we fight!”
“Health care is where Obama loses!”
Health care is where Marxism in America dies!”
Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 18, 2009 11:24 PM | Send