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The Spectacle Blog
It turns out the woman at a White House-sponsored healthcare forum who pulled the heartstrings of the media by asking President Obama for help in treating her cancer was an Obama plant. (Philip Klein blogged about this earlier.)
Debby Smith is a volunteer for Organizing for America, which is a project of the Democratic National Committee. She was invited to the event not by an outside group but by the White House itself.
No wonder the president hugged her.
Nowadays all presidents host tightly choreographed public events aimed at promoting their policy preferences but this one is particularly Riefenstahl-esque in its execution.
Even veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas (see video) thought the taxpayer-funded dog-and-pony show was a bit much.
"I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency," said Thomas, a hardcore liberal who called George W. Bush "the worst president in American history." Thomas accused the White House of "controlling the press" and said just about all Obama events are "prepackaged."
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was dismissive. "We've had this discussion before," he said.
"Of course you would because you don't have any answers," Thomas shot back.
Gibbs mocked Thomas by gently laughing while she spoke. If you watch the video and observe his body language and tone of voice it's obvious that he's trying to make Thomas, who is 88 years old, look like a senile old kook. I may routinely disagree with her interpretation of events, but in this writer's opinion she's no fool.
The arrogance of Gibbs seems to be par for the course for the Obama White House which is intent on destroying the American healthcare system.
But this appalling lack of respect for the longest-serving member of the White House press corps foreshadows how Obama's system of government-run healthcare would treat the elderly.
After all, Obama already admitted his plan for elder care amounts to launching the nation's sick, old, expensive-to-treat people into the hereafter courtesy of government-provided ice floes.
That's the ghoulish calculus of socialist medicine: if you're too expensive to treat, you die.
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Todd Blanchard| 7.2.09 @ 4:44PM
>That's the ghoulish calculus of socialist medicine: if you're too expensive to treat, you die.
Funny, for-profit insurance uses exactly the same formula. If you negatively impact profits, you're cancelled and denied. I'm already denied for an insanely stupid reason. I'll take my chances with the socialists.
KevlarKevin| 7.2.09 @ 5:05PM
Then it has been nice knowing you, Todd. See you in the afterlife.
Ellis Wyatt| 7.2.09 @ 5:23PM
I never, ever thought I would say this, but Helen Thomas is right on this one. The Obama administration's promised openess and transperency has become a joke and is not to be taken serious, even by the state run media. Who knows if this woman is even sick. That is the point we have arrived at with Obama - nothing can believed and it is pretty much expected that what we see and hear is the exact opposite of the truth. The ability to blatenly spew one lie after another the way Obama has exposes the weakness that will bring him down soon - his arrogance.
Robert| 7.2.09 @ 6:48PM
How is it that while every bureaucracy that government creates wastes and defrauds billions of our tax dollars, Americans figure that they will "fix" our healthcare system? What successful bureaucracy going to emulate - Medicaid? Social Security? When We the People allow government to decide who lives and who dies, everything our country once stood for is dead.
Libby| 7.2.09 @ 7:50PM
Go Helen Thomas. About time the press started behaving like journalists.
Gibbs is slimy.
Gold Coins Blog| 7.2.09 @ 9:00PM
Helen Thomas is still as liberal as they come, but at least she's able to recognize BS when she sees it and this whole present administration is nothing but a BS sideshow.
So Obama hugged a plant at one of his fake town hall meetings, sounds like there may be an eco-pun in there somewhere.
Dean| 7.2.09 @ 10:59PM
Government is essentially the god of many people. They love it (when it grows and gives away other people's money), they trust it (when they feel scared and have no one else to pray to) and they worship it (when its photogenic suits say things like 'We are the ones we've been waiting for'). It's an idol. That's why they trust it and are blind to the facts. It's a spiritual thing, and they're too entangled to free themselves.
Dean| 7.2.09 @ 10:59PM
Government is essentially the god of many people. They love it (when it grows and gives away other people's money), they trust it (when they feel scared and have no one else to pray to) and they worship it (when its photogenic suits say things like 'We are the ones we've been waiting for'). It's an idol. That's why they trust it and are blind to the facts. It's a spiritual thing, and they're too entangled to free themselves.
Dean| 7.2.09 @ 10:59PM
Government is essentially the god of many people. They love it (when it grows and gives away other people's money), they trust it (when they feel scared and have no one else to pray to) and they worship it (when its photogenic suits say things like 'We are the ones we've been waiting for'). It's an idol. That's why they trust it and are blind to the facts. It's a spiritual thing, and they're too entangled to free themselves.
Dean| 7.2.09 @ 11:00PM
Government is essentially the god of many people. They love it (when it grows and gives away other people's money), they trust it (when they feel scared and have no one else to pray to) and they worship it (when its photogenic suits say things like 'We are the ones we've been waiting for'). It's an idol. That's why they trust it and are blind to the facts. It's a spiritual thing, and they're too entangled to free themselves.
Dean| 7.2.09 @ 11:02PM
fake error messages--sorry about the repeat posts
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Marilynn| 7.3.09 @ 5:14AM
Atta girl, Helen! Whether they're 90 or 9, you can tell a Detroit chick in a second! She's absolutely correct on this one, and kudos to Chip for the assist. Even Allison Janney would be better than the arrogant putz they have now.
ds80| 7.3.09 @ 2:24PM
Yes, Todd. Put your money where your mouth is and start looking for a cheap flight to Cuba. Or, just label all your posts with "Talks the Talk ONLY".
Since when is good health a right to be paid for by someone else?
D. R.| 7.4.09 @ 8:12PM
My uncle had a relapse of leukemia not too long ago. He chose to try an experimental treatment. He chose that treatment whether or not his insurance would cover it. His private insurance did cover it. No governmental health care program will cover experimental treatments. Do you know why? Because it is the Food and Drug Administration that determines what is an acceptable everyday treatment and what is experimental. At least with private insurance you have the opportunity to have a chance at an "unapproved" procedure. Obamacare - you get what you get, and if the FDA says we don't like that, you don't get that.
I for one am glad my uncle has private insurance. For if he had insurance run by congress, he'd still be in the hospital, at best; if worse in the ground, not still going to work, not still calling his sister (my mother) every Saturday to keep up with how things are going.
So Todd, if you so despise the current health care system... I would have to agree with a previous poster... leave and stay there. For you will find, foreign countries will bend over backwards for a visiting foreign tourist (bad publicity otherwise,) but will let their own citizens suffer.
Oh yes... don't forget... our neighbors to the north... they ran out of funds for some of their surgical procedures before the end of the fiscal year. So sorry for those who0 needed the procedure. And even if wait times, yes there are still wait times, even in Canada are improving, the Canadian system still only pays a block amount per fiscal year for procedures, what if there are more procedures needed than can be paid for in a year? I bet Todd would not want to go to work if he was told he would be working for free for the rest of the year, because the company (read government) did not put enough aside for paychecks. That is what socialism does.