He was petulant; he was childish; he was a community organizer and agitator; he lied; he was divisive; he attacked me; he attacked Sarah Palin; he attacked conservative Republicans in Congress who dare to challenge government-run health care. He continued to attack tens of millions of Americans who spent the summer attending town hall meetings. It was crude. It was disgusting. The most crude and disgusting performance by any president I have seen.

Obama Poisoning the Well

The president was deliberately poisoning the well, claiming that his opponents are dishonorable and ill-intentioned. And, as AllahPundit and Mark Tapscott point out, the bill will of course cover illegal aliens. Even the Congressional Research Service says so….

CRS also notes that the bill has no provision for requiring those seeking coverage or services to provided proof of citizenship.

Indeed, as an Obama official interviewed on NPR this morning admits, the administration has moved the ball in the other direction, removing existing restrictions requiring people to provide proof of citizenship to get various federal benefits on the grounds that they were too onerous and causing those legitimately eligible to give up or be denied.

Also:

Why Obama Misleads on Abortion Coverage

The Fiscal Trigger Nonsense

On to the Next Speech

Style:

For what it’s worth, I didn’t think the president helped himself last night. He reminded me of the smart kid who feels he doesn’t need to prepare. The speech was very inconsistent in tone, from don’t-frighten-the-horses utilitarianism to the grandiosity he finds so hard to resist (the this-is-the-moment stuff*) to the petulant imputations of bad faith to anyone who disagrees with him (which is at least as unbecoming as what that no-name Congressman did)….

Not saying that’ll work, but, given the extraordinary complacency of the speech, evidently the president and his courtiers still feel they’ve got it all over anybody else.

Setting:

I don’t think he was served by the setting and the unearned ovations that come with it: There’s a reason why joint sessions have mostly been reserved for foreign policy. The ritual suits affairs of state. But health care is an affair of you and your body — that’s why his numbers tanked over August, as people realized it wasn’t just about helping “the uninsured” but about potentially dramatic changes to their own health care. The parliamentary frippery subliminally underlines what increasing numbers of voters don’t like about it — that your hip replacement is now in the care of Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank.

Last Night Didn’t Quite Do It

Integrity:

Obama’s problem with warning Americans about bickering, partisan politics, lying, and misrepresentation last night is that his green advisor Van Jones just left after it was disclosed that he called Republicans “a–holes”, whites polluters / more prone to mass murder in schools, and charged the former President with involvement in 9/11.

Substance:

Yet, all the American people wanted last night was 1) the rough cost and where the money comes from (not more gimmicks that bad people will have to cut their profits or magic savings will come from waste and fraud [if the latter is really true, why not bank the savings right now?]); 2) how those who fall through the cracks will be covered (is it 30, 46, or how many million in Obama’s latest version?); and some appreciation that a great system can be improved, rather than the old anecdotes about victims of bad people that we’ve become used to on the campaign trail.

Style:

The President really has to watch this constantly return to these soaring cadences that deliver banalities. One cannot sound like Lincoln if there really is no message. It is time to move on, ignore criticism, and offer something that most can work with; instead, after 9 months we are getting a ‘they are mean to me’ whine at about every speech and photo-op, in the manner of biblical prophets who lash out at doubters.

Blurring the Outline – Covering Up the Details:

Obama never gives many concrete details, nor gets precise and concise, and now one wonders whether it is because he simply thinks he can go to the hope and change / soar like an eagle mode, and we will once more get mesmerized, or he has nothing to say at all, or both. But most caught on to all that, and now want a plan, not a prophet.

When will Lou Dobbs be joining him?

Eph – It is now

DISPAIR AND SCREW-UPS”

-HD\FedupArtist

“Once more, unto the breach, dear friends…”