Reversal of Fortunes & Sorry Apologies

A Target-Rich Environment

It’s such a target-rich environment that I hardly know where to begin.  Not that more pot-shots are really needed in the pile-on – even many liberals (Pres. Clinton, Senators & Congressmen, pundits) and some mainstream media are joining in like rats jumping the sinking Obamacare ship (or train wreck, if you prefer).  I’ll be quoting and linking several liberal sources.  Finally – the bipartisanship Obama promised!  

It is refreshing to see the smug, condescending looks on the faces of Democrats replaced by worry or panic, and a loss for words replacing their political advice to the GOP.  For a change, here’s some advice to them:  don’t sell your half-baked utopian plans to the American people with fraudulent promises – you will eventually be found out, and they won’t be happy.  And you should have listened to us in early October and taken us up on the offer to delay Obamacare.  Does anyone believe that, as narrowly as Obamacare passed, it would have without those fraudulent promises (not to mention cornhusker kickbacks, etc.)?  They obviously made all the 

difference.

Contortionists

The mental contortions of some loyalists to spin this more favorably are remarkable, and the president seems to compound his lies with more.  E.g., that he had said all along there was a clause qualifying “period” after “If you like your plan [& doctor], you can keep it.  Period.”  Very Clintonian.  Some like Carney try dismissing it as only 5% affected (which amounts to 15 million Americans) – which itself is a lie and gross underestimate.  Those on the individual market getting cancellations look to be at least 10-15 million (at least 5 million so far), and estimates including the small business (28% of them) & other markets raise it to at least 32-52 million (some 18%), to as high as some estimates of 129 million (some 40% of the U.S.) by the end of 2014.  That latter number may (or may not) include members of families under those plans, which would raise the number of individuals affected higher. 

These numbers are higher than the number of people without insurance that Obamacare was supposed to remedy, and Democrats certainly never acted like those numbers were too insignificant to worry about.  You may recall during the shutdown how they bemoaned the poor furloughed government workers, who amounted to less than a million, and who never lost a day of pay.  And how about that great holy grail of liberalism – a woman’s choice about abortion?  They’ll defend that choice to the death, regardless of whether it’s only X million women actually getting abortions.  But as to people’s choice of health care, well, that’s not so sacrosanct – the government supposedly knows better what you should have, and what you should pay for it.

In “Obamacare has its Moment of Clarity” (http://www.nationalreview.com/article/362784/obamacares-moment-clarity-charles-krauthammer), Krauthammer describes how “The cancellations lay bare three pillars of Obamacare: (a) mendacity, (b) paternalism, and (c) subterfuge.”  Regarding the latter, he says, “The planners knew all along that if you force insurance buyers to overpay for stuff they don’t need, that money can subsidize other people.

“Obamacare is the largest transfer of wealth in recent American history. But you can’t say that openly lest you lose elections. So you do it by subterfuge: hidden taxes, penalties, mandates, and coverage requirements that yield a surplus of overpayments.

“So that your president can promise to cover 30 million uninsured without costing the government a dime. Which from the beginning was the biggest falsehood of them all. And yet the free lunch is the essence of modern liberalism. Free mammograms, free preventative care, free contraceptives for Sandra Fluke. Come and get it.

“And then when you find your policy canceled, your premium raised, and your deductible outrageously increased, you’ve learned the real meaning of “free” in the liberal lexicon: something paid for by your neighbor — best, by subterfuge.”

A Reversal of Fortunes

Because of the Obamacare train wreck, people may already be forgetting about the shutdown, which had largely been blamed on Republicans.  But now, when it is remembered, it may be viewed differently – people now know and understand how bad Obamacare is, and why the GOP was willing to fight so hard to stop or delay it.  And they are now more likely to see the GOP (e.g., Cruz, Lee, Rubio) as their champions.  A new Quinnipiac poll shows more people trust Republicans than Democrats on the economy, health care, foreign policy, etc. – basically across the board.  What a difference a few weeks of Obamacare make! 

The administration is in panic & damage control mode.  See “A White House in Crisis Mode, but Some Allies Prod for More Action”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/09/us/politics/a-white-house-in-crisis-mode-but-some-allies-prod-for-more.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

One indication of initial effects of this reversal was in the Virginia governor election last week.  Republican Cuccinelli was behind double digits a couple weeks before , but after Obamacare and Obama began to unravel, he shot up to within a couple percent of Mcauliffe, despite being vastly outspent, and all the dirty tricks of his opponent (e.g., taking his words grossly out of context to set Hispanics against him).  But look for more in the 2014 mid-term election – by then Obamacare will be in even greater disarray, and its proponents in greater disrepute.  It could be a repeat of the 2010 mid-terms.

See also “Obama’s likability succumbs to political gravity” at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/10/31/obamas-likability-succumbs-to-political-gravity/

“Obama's approval rating sinks to low in three November polls”  http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/13/how-president-obama-can-stop-the-bleeding-on-obamacare/?wpisrc=nl_politics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/13/this-chart-does-not-look-good-for-president-obama/

The Gallup poll write-up: 

http://www.gallup.com/poll/165833/obama-image-strong-decisive-leader-takes-hit.aspx?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_content=morelink&utm_term=Politics

This article says that in almost all 2^nd term midterm elections the president’s party loses significantly in the House & Senate – average 48 & 7 seats, respectively (lately 10 & 4).  This bodes well for the GOP further solidifying their Congressional majority, and the possibility of regaining the Senate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2013/11/13/why-president-obamas-sinking-job-approval-numbers-matter-a-lot/ 

Yeah, that’s the ticket – it’s Bush’s fault for setting a precedent.

And for all those who said give it a chance, how much more of a chance will it take to plainly see the train wreck?  When it has really wreaked havoc on the US health care system & economy?

All Talk & No Action;  Websites for Dummies

Peggy Noonan described this administration as fastidious at the talk, inept & aloof at execution.  And this is a surprise to anyone for a man with no executive experience as we’ve been telling people since the 2008 campaign?  By comparison with the HealthCare.gov website rollout, Obama’s team did immaculate websites and social media in the campaign and fundraising – blowing away the GOP IT efforts.  I studied it at a campaign workshop after the election.  They have it down to a science.  They had a tight organization & execution.  They obviously are much more committed to, and better at, winning elections with hollow promises than they are at actually doing the hard work of governing and delivering on promises.  They have great Utopian dreams, but lack any practical ability to implement them. 

As Krauthammer describes in “Obama’s Unraveling Rhetoric,” (http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/obama-unraveling-rhetoric-article-1.1510228), “Confronted with a crisis of governance, how does President Obama respond? He campaigns.

“I’ve got one more campaign in me,” he told grass-roots supporters Monday — a series of speeches and rallies, explains The New York Times, “to make sure his signature health care law works.”

“Campaigning to make something work? How does that work? Presidential sweet-talk persuades the nonfunctional Web portal to function?

“This odd belief that rhetoric trumps reality leads to strange scenes. Like the ShamWow pitch, Obama’s nationally televised address trying to resell Obamacare.......

.....

“This rather bizarre belief in the unlimited power of the speech arises from Obama’s biography. Isn’t that how he rose? Words. It’s not as if he built a company, an enterprise, an institution. He built one thing — his own persona. By persuasion. One great speech in 2004 propels him to the presidential level. More great speeches and he wins the White House.

“But then comes governance. A speech in Cairo, utterly crushed by the Arab Spring. Talk of a Russian reset, repeatedly thrown back at him by a contemptuous Russian dictator. Fifty-four speeches to get health care enacted — only to see it now imperiled by the reality of its ruinous rollout and broken promises.

“I’m not surprised that Obama tells untruths. He’s surely not the only politician to do so. I’m just surprised that he chooses to tell such obvious ones — ones that will inevitably be found out.

Who will tell Obama that lies so transparent render rhetoric not just useless but ridiculous?”

Dennis Prager calls Obama the most damaging president in U.S. history.  He quoted Krauthammer’s article that the only thing Obama has built is his own persona – by rhetoric.  So that’s what he’s relying on to rescue Obamacare.  Back on the community organizer stump – when he should be learning and exercising more executive leadership. 

See also “Why can't Obama run the government as smoothly as his campaign?” at

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/04/nation/la-na-obama-manager-20131103 and note that’s in the mainstream media, and LA Times at that!!  The honeymoon may finally be over.  Yes, they're finally awakening to the fact that the emperor has no clothes.  All talk and no action.  That can only fool people for so long, and his time's run out.  He's already a lame duck, with 3 years to go, as Stephanopoulos suggested.

At the Congressional hearings, someone gave Sibelius a copy of “Websites for Dummies.”  Apparently she didn’t find it humorous.  Someone has also noted that there are zero CEO’s in government running Obamacare or overseeing the website.  Another failing of leadership.  And the liberal bias against business and businessmen is going to wreck their own grand plans, as well as American health care.

Do the Math

There are other disastrous results coming as the other cars in the train wreck derail.  One expert indicated that we’re losing 25,000 doctors a year in the U.S., in part due to baby boomers retiring [but also due to slightly younger doctors getting out of the business or going into concierge medicine, and unavailable to the masses].  But we’re training only 15,000 per year.  So our net annual loss is 10,000 doctors per year, at a time that demands are rising due to aging baby boomers, and now presumably a large number (30 million?) of new insured under Obamacare.  It doesn’t take a genius to do this math & see what’s coming – less access, longer waits, etc.

ObamaCare Cancellation to Enrollee Ratio: 50 to 1

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

"Though the number is estimated to eventually hit as high as 10 to 15 million, right now the number of insurance policies canceled due to ObamaCare is 5 million. Wednesday, the Obama administration claimed that 106,185 Americans enrolled in ObamaCare. Except, according to the White House, those are not actual enrollments. Some have not paid for but have only “selected a marketplace plan.” Orwellian nonsense aside, that is still somewhere around a 50-to-1 ratio of cancellations to enrollees.

"The question now is, will that gap ever close? Because if it doesn’t, at the end of the year, when those 5 million canceled plans expire, we are going to be living in a country where ObamaCare has actually increased the number of America’s uninsured.

Read more at http://patriotupdate.com/2013/11/obamacare-cancellation-enrollee-ratio-50-1/#1prg6qJfUUoKFigA.99

“Oh, What a Tangled Web We Weave...”

As late as Oct. 31 in Boston, Obama was still saying if you like your health care plan you can keep it – which drew 4 Pinnochios from the Washington Post. Andrew McCarthy, former federal prosecutor, called this (the promise about keeping your plan if you want) the greatest fraud perpetrated on the American people.  Even serial fraud – that typical premiums will drop $2500, Benghazi, etc.  But of course no one will indict him.  Or even impeach him for lying – and doing actual harm to many millions of Americans -- every bit as much as or more than Nixon or Clinton.  Maybe the public will now finally begin to take Obama’s great words with a big grain of salt.  His credibility is below 50% -- so much for the public trust in his office.  But of course Oprah attributes it to racism.

There are some reported incidents of critically ill people losing their specialty care due to the Obamacare-driven cancellations.  And so now perhaps we can begin to say something even dense liberals can understand, in their own language – “Obama lied, and people died.”

Sorry Apologies

Obama is very good at apologizing to other countries for the “mistakes” of other administrations, but apparently not to Americans for his own mistakes (or outright lies or fraud).  It just shows who he really respects, and who he disdains.  Parodying Obama’s oft-repeated and now broken promise, someone said “If Obama likes his apology, he can keep it.”  But there is some glimmer of progress – in his press conference yesterday he admitted he’s not perfect!!!  I know that’s a shocker to many of his ardent worshippers.  For their benefit, here’s a liberal interpretation of scripture: 

Psalm 23, Newly Revised According to Modern Principles

Proverbial wisdom for the Age of Obama.

MARK HELPRIN

Updated March 1, 2013 7:51 p.m. ET

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of debt, I fear no bankruptcy, for Obama is my shepherd. He prepareth a table of food stamps before me, and maketh me lie down beside waters He hath cleansed and seas He hath made recede, even though the bad Republicans wisheth the earth to be burnt unto a cinder, and will not buy the electric car that is good, for it hath zero emissions, and receiveth its power from a power plant, which hath not zero emissions, but the ways of the President are mysterious.

“He hath told the stubborn Israelites, evil builders of apartments, that they know not their own interests and He does, and know not what they do, when they fear the nuclear weapon of the Persians. The ways of the President are mysterious. He alloweth the Persians to get the nuclear weapon (unless He hath something up His sleeve), for He knoweth that when they behold Him they will stay their hand, and not burn the Israelites unto a cinder, as they pronounce.

[there is more of this at http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887323940004578255810468323252] 

Even Bill Clinton said that Obama needs to do more than apologize – he needs to keep his promise so people can keep their policies and doctors.  Diane Feinstein & Nancy Pelosi and an increasing number of Democrat Senators & Congressmen also, fearing for their 2014 re-election, are chiming in.

One Liberal’s take:  “A Sorry Apology -- President Obama wants to apologize without taking responsibility. That’s not how apologies work.” [Apologies without responsibility seem to be the vogue in this administration after Fast & Furious, Benghazi, NSA, the website, etc.]  http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/11/barack_obama_s_bad_apology_the_president_s_apology_for_the_affordable_care.html

So after his first poor attempt at apology (see the liberal’s criticism just mentioned), he gave another speech to try to patch up his image and regain credibility & political clout – but not really address the problem.  But after so much loss of credibility, how can we trust him to fix the problem & make good on his promise(s)?  He’s basically admitted we can’t, and he won’t.  As he has done so well so many times before (with budgets & continuing resolutions), rather than actually solve a sticky problem, he merely kicks the can down the road – this time into 2014 – so that those who are getting insurance cancellation notices will be able to keep their plans – another year.  Then they face the same problem.  And he hasn’t even apologized for or made even a ruse of addressing his lie about lower premiums (and deductables).

One problem is, he has no legislative or executive power to force insurance companies to do even that, or to change the existing law he signed.  He may think he does, by executive fiat or personal charisma, as he seems to have done in many other areas by executive order or regulations, or by selectively enforcing the law.  And so he called a group of insurance execs into a secret meeting, no doubt to strong-arm them.  But to do it more legitimately, some 50 Democrats joined Republicans in Congress to support a bill to do it by legislation.  Again, the same problem will exist when that year is up.  But of course Obama & the Dems hope that will be after the 2014 elections – for them it’s more about politics and power than seriously addressing the welfare of many millions of Americans.

He can’t even deal with immediate problems, let alone problems not that far down the road when our national debt and unfunded liabilities will come crashing down all around us and the next generation.  And he has basically admitted to that, as well, saying that they are not near-term problems he feels compelled to deal with.  But he’s more than willing to compound those problems by doubling our debt & proliferating the unfunded liabilities, and leave that to some poor successor to deal with.

Other News

On Iran, Netanyahu described the deal presented to (and later rejected by) Iran as a “bad deal” – it eases sanctions, romances the rogues, and alienates allies.

Black participation in the workforce is at a 31-year low (60.7%).  Aren’t they just overjoyed at what Obama’s done for them (along with inner city conditions & crime), who voted for him by over 90%?  Well, maybe they are – more of them than ever are on food stamps – free lunch.

As a result of Incognito’s teammate bullying, the team(s) will now go thru more sensitivity training.  It could be interesting watching NFL games – “Pardon me – I’m sorry for forcibly tackling you.  Next time I’ll be more considerate.”  Incognito wants his name cleared.  With a name like that, I would think it already is.  Who?