Obama speaks

(Note: further comments about Obama’s Ohio appearance, plus video link, is posted here.)

As we can see from Obama’s remarks at a town hall meeting in Ohio today, he is still ensconced in his little world, his little gnostic bubble, where reality is supposed to bend to his desires no matter how harmful and irrational they may be, and if it doesn’t, it’s other people’s fault—people who do nasty, “ugly” things, people who “scare the bejesus out of everybody,” people who “buzz-sawed” his beautiful health care bill to smithereens in Massachusetts. Yes, that’s right, he described a peaceful, lawful election in the state of Massachusetts as a “buzz saw.” That’s what this bum thinks of America. All of which is a good sign. It suggests Obama will not adjust to reality, will not “grow” in response to defeat, but will remain a bitter, hostile alien in this country, clinging to his health care bill and his cap and trade, which in turn will make it more and more difficult for him to impose his will on us in any area, and will also make it a reasonable possibility that he will be a one-term messiah.

Which is sort of a contradiction in terms, isn’t it?

Obama lashes out: Health care hit ‘buzz saw,’ ‘ugly process,’ opponents ‘scaring the bejesus out of everybody’
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent, Washington Examiner
01/22/10 5:02 PM EST

In his remarks at a town hall in Elyria, Ohio today, President Obama vowed to keep pushing for a national care bill, although he conceded that his efforts hit “a little bit of a buzz saw this week”—a reference to the election of Massachusetts senator-elect Scott Brown and the subsequent collapse of Democratic support for immediate passage of the health care measure passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve.

Obama did not go into detail about what went wrong, choosing instead to lash out at opponents of the Democratic plan. “It’s just an ugly process,” Obama told the crowd. “You’re running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that’s aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And then you’ve got ads that are scaring the bejesus out of everybody. And the longer it takes, the uglier it looks.” Still, Obama promised to “keep working to get this done,” although he offered no plan for reaching his goal.

Here is the portion of the president’s remarks dealing with health care:

Since this has been in the news a little bit this week—(laughter)—let me say a little something about health care. I had no illusions when I took this on that this was going to be hard. Seven Presidents had tried it, seven Congresses had tried it—and all of them had failed.

And I had a whole bunch of political advisors telling me this may not be the smartest thing to do. “You’ve got a lot on your plate: the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression; two wars. You may not get a lot of cooperation. you’re going to have a lot of pushback from the insurance companies and the drug companies. It’s complicated. Don’t do it.”

Now, let me tell you why I did it. I knew that insurance premiums had more than doubled in the past decade. I knew that out-of-pocket expenses had skyrocketed. I knew that millions more people had lost their insurance, and I knew that because of that economic crisis that was only going to get worse. When you lose 7 million jobs, like we lost over the last two years, what do you think happens to those folks’ health insurance? What happens when their COBRA runs out?

I took this up because I wanted to ease the burdens on all the families and small businesses that can’t afford to pay outrageous rates. And I wanted to protect mothers and fathers and children by being targeted by some of the worst practices of the insurance industry that I had heard time and time again as I traveled through this country. (Applause.)

Now, let me dispel this notion that somehow we were focused on that, and so, as a consequence, not focused on the economy. First of all, all I think about is how we’re going to create jobs in this area. All I think about is how do we get banks lending again. I’ve been doing that the entire year. So have folks like Sherrod and Marcy and Betty. But what I also know is, is that health care is part of the drag on our economy. It’s part of the eroding security that middle-class families feel.

So here’s the good news: We’ve gotten pretty far down the road. But I’ve got to admit, we had a little bit of a buzz saw this week. (Laughter.)

Now, I also know that part of the reason is, is that this process was so long and so drawn out—this is just what happens in Congress. I mean, it’s just an ugly process. You’re running headlong into special interests, and armies of lobbyists, and partisan politics that’s aimed at exploiting fears instead of getting things done. And then you’ve got ads that are scaring the bejesus out of everybody. (Laughter.) And the longer it take, the uglier it looks.

So I understand why people would say, boy, this is—I’m not so sure about this—even though they know that what they got isn’t working. And I understand why, after the Massachusetts election, people in Washington were all in a tizzy, trying to figure out what this means for health reform, Republicans and Democrats; what does it mean for Obama? Is he weakened? Is he—oh, how’s he going to survive this? (Laughter.) That’s what they do. (Laughter.)

But I want you—I want you to understand, this is not about me. (Applause.) This is not about me. This is about you. This is not about me; this is about you. I didn’t take this up to boost my poll numbers. You know the way to boost your poll numbers is not do anything. (Laughter.) That’s how you do it. You don’t offend anybody. I’d have real high poll numbers. All of Washington would be saying, “What a genius!” (Laughter.)

I didn’t take this on to score political points. I know there are some folks who think if Obama loses, we win. But you know what? I think that I win when you win. (Applause.) That’s how I think about it.

So if I was trying to take the path of least resistance, I would have done something a lot easier. But I’m trying to solve the problems that folks here in Ohio and across this country face every day. And I’m not going to walk away just because it’s hard. We are going to keep on working to get this done—with Democrats, I hope with Republicans—anybody who’s willing to step up. Because I’m not going to watch more people get crushed by costs or denied care they need by insurance company bureaucrats. I’m not going to have insurance companies click their heels and watch their stocks skyrocket because once again there’s no control on what they do.

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Jim C. writes:

Yes, he’ll be a one-term messiah—more precisely, he’ll be the one-year messiah. It’s all over for Barry and his agenda, and I doubt that the Democrat Party will be dumb enough to nominate him in ‘12.

Hillary—just about anyone—would make a lot more sense. Seriously, I’d rather have Michael Corleone as president—at least Michael had his priorities straight.

LA replies:

The way things are going, your point about “one year” rather than “one term” seems accurate.

And, yes, he’s so far gone right now—I don’t mean the Massachusetts loss so much as his own behavior, his statement lashing out at America, he, the U.S. president, calling a peaceful election a “buzz saw,” making him seem like someone who has lost the ability to carry on—that even the inconceivable seems at the moment conceivable, that the Dems could dump him in ‘12.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 22, 2010 06:52 PM | Send