Rhetoric

 

Obama certainly gives good speeches, including last night's exuberantly confident health care address to Congress.  Too bad the campaign's over now and that so little really happens after his rhetorical flourishes . . . other than his ever-lower poll numbers.  Also, he's pretty loose with the facts.  Stories abound this morning about South Carolina Republican Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" outburst (how foolish can one be?) but let's remember that calling "Bush a liar" was a core Obama campaign message so let's not all get too tied up in our nappies.  Americans also remember the crisis lamentations that were used to rush the Stimulus bill through last fall, written and passed by a Democratic super majority that has not delivered on its promise of growth and employment.

Now we have the health care crisis, that unless fixed right now, repeat right now, the sky will fall.  This is all about the Obama administration's dwindling political capital.  If the administration can not  pass its 1,000+ page healthcare bill now and score a success, Obama's remaining three years will be hobbled and the coming 2010 mid-term Congressional election will result in a realignment of Democrat and Republican numbers and clout.

From The Wall Street Journal's editorial page:

"Mr. Obama's most remarkable sleight-of-hand was his claim that he "will not stand by as the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are." The reality is that nearly all of those "special interests" are standing with him. The doctors' lobby, the hospitals, Big Pharma, even the largest insurers have all invested enormously in government health care.

Mr. Obama's speech was less about persuading the public than it was a political pep talk to this Beltway constituency. He hopes to buy enough political breathing space with a bump in the polls—however short-lived—to steel their nerves to power ObamaCare into law. The only way to stop it now is with a giant wave of popular opposition."

One of the reasons so many Americans oppose this massive government takeover of health care is because the economy still isn't growing again and unemployment is about to climb over 10 percent.