When the going gets tough, Obama gets orating
It’s no secret that President Obama is going to address a joint session of Congress at 8 PM Eastern Time tonight. Except for the annual State of the Union speeches, presidents usually reserve the joint session address for very big issues indeed. As this piece points out, this will be only the 18th time in the last half-century that a president has felt the pressing need.
Somehow, though, I suspect we’ll be seeing more of this sort of thing from Obama. His ace in the hole, his solution to nearly every problem, is to give a speech.
I’ve written before about how little I like speeches in general, and political speeches in particular. Still, I plan to at least try to listen to Obama tonight and perhaps even post about it.
My dislike of speechmaking is idiosyncratically intense. But it seems the American people are starting to agree with me, at least about Obama. What was once perceived as his greatest strength is apparently starting to wear thin (I’ve read several poll results that state this, but right now I’m having trouble finding a link to any of them—if anyone can provide one please feel free in the comments section).
What will Obama say, and will his words succeed in convincing Congress and/or the American people (two very different beasts) of the worthiness of his cause? I haven’t a clue. But I agree with those who observe that the usual generalities about good intentions and extending coverage while magically cutting costs just won’t resonate the way they did back in the good old days of Obamalove.
Is the slippery Obama capable of actually giving some concrete details of what should be in the bill, and why, and how it will work? Probably, although I wouldn’t bet money on it.
But even if he does, I hope people pay attention to what he leaves out. Obama could easily list four or five principles of the bill that I might even agree with. The trouble is the parts he doesn’t talk about, those 1000-odd pages of dark matter that might work profoundly negative changes on our manner of health care delivery as well as our economy as a whole.
I suspect this speech will be an anticlimax. Obama will get a bit more specific but otherwise it will be the usual feelgood stuff and the usual empty dismissals of his opponents.
It seems I’ve seen a poll or two that Obama’s speechmaking is wearing thin but I can’t find them either.
I have been following the daily Rasmussen poll and noticed that in the past two months, Obama’s speeches have had no positive effect on his poll numbers.
I liked your dark matter analogy.
While relativity is over a century old, and therefore analogies based on it are somewhat tired, I’m pretty damn sure that the mathematics of a centralizing State are the same as those describing a black hole.
Not just our health case system and economy- the world’s. Our system is what subsidises all the single-payer systems out there.
I was looking for a web steam for later on, and got this on first hit — you have to agree to support it before you can watch it…. ???
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hcaddress?source=om_google_hcaddress&gclid=COz8-Yq75ZwCFVRc2godR09dLg
When one has no sound arguments the age old advice was to baffle your audience with BS. BHO has repeatedly proven that he can speak and say very little of substance, but he still continually tries to sway people with emotional appeals.
Make no mistake, the people are tired of hearing the same speech regardless of the issue being promoted. He will be perfectly clear that we must act now to avoid the disaster of doing nothing. We can do no less than what is required for all Americans. Gee, given a little time, I bet we all could probably write his lines for tonight!
Please allow me to quote myself (with a little help) on this forthcoming oration:
If Obamaspew be the food of fools, BRINGETH IT ON!
Give ALL excess of Him, that, surfeiting,
The Obamatrons may sicken, and so die.
That Hope and Change again! it had a dying poll fall:
O, his valved voice slurps o’er my ear like the sweet drool,
That cackles over another bank bailout,
Stealing my money while flatulating! Enough; no more;
His words sound not so sweet now as before.
O Story of O! how tired and boring art thou,
That, notwithstanding his venal verbosity,
Deceiveth as the devil, nought truth enters there,
Of what no validity soe’er,
But falls into debasement and low approval,
Even in a joint session bleat: so full of shapes is his fancy
That he alone is high and fantastical.
Gabriel Malor over at Ace of Spades predicts 5 Obama fibs:
The President will say that there are 42 (or 47; it changes) million uninsured Americans.
The President will say that his plan is “deficit neutral.”
The President will identify some “bad guys” in his speech, probably Republicans and the health insurance industry. Maybe tonsil-stealing, foot-amputating doctors, too.
The President will say that Republicans and his health care reform opponents don’t have a plan.
The President will say that the public option won’t be subsidized.
Stark, that reminds me of the old lawyerism:
If the facts are against you, pound on the law.
If the law is against you, pound on the facts.
If the law and the facts are against you, pound on the table.
This is Obama, pounding on the table. Full of sound an fury, signifying nothing.
I R A Darth Aggie Says:
“The President will say that the public option won’t be subsidized.”
Then he should just get some lefty buddies to start their own private insurance company. They can name it ‘public option’ and offer cheap insurance to whomever they want. 🙂
What will Obama say, and will his words succeed in convincing Congress
can only help with the first part
The White House has released excerpts of President Obama’s address to Congress tonight:
politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/09/09/obama-if-you-misrepresent-whats-in-the-plan-we-will-call-you-out/
there is a lot of games with words in it that most people wont get…
“Let me repeat this: nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have. ”
Cause through the natural outcome of conditions, yes, require no.
we will not require you to get thinner.
so they prevent calorie intake by other means
did they require you to get thinner?
Also, throughout all of this i see complete and total ignorance of how insurance works or how rates are created and so forth.
and one cant improve things one has no understanding of. mandating some kink go away without understanding the reasons behind it will not lead to the kink being solved.
Under this plan, it will be against the law for insurance companies to deny you coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
which means that they will go bankrupt one at a time as the burden of costs go from smaller entities that fail, moving those failures to the larger ones, and up the line.
just from what he says i can tell its designed to collapse insurance thorugh health. (they will take from other lines to stay alive, then collapse).
i started to go through with a few points…
sheesh… its an exercise in a whole lot of ignorance, and a whole lot of shine.
But know this: I will not waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it. I will not stand by while the special interests use the same old tactics to keep things exactly the way they are. If you misrepresent what’s in the plan, we will call you out. And I will not accept the status quo as a solution. Not this time. Not now.
and if they do this last sentence part… it will get real insteresting… for we will see what their idea of empirical truth is and how it exists.
Judging by the released excerpts, Obama is showing up as the New Sheriff in Town. He is getting tough and letting all us varmints know what’s what.
Dad-gummit, he’s going to get health care passed.
He is doubling down … again. We’ll see how well that works. I doubt it will.
I’m going to attempt a live blog of the speech. I’m watching CBS and their coverage is decidedly pro-Obama. But be that as it may, his words will have to convince the 60 some percent of Americans who don’t trust Chairman Zero.
The big question at the outset is whether Obama will play to his leftist base in Congress to force a public option. The left has threatened to blow up the bus if they don’t get their way.
Obama is entering the hall. He is glad handing the crowd like it’s a campaign stop; and probably that’s what he has in mind.
Obama is doing a lot of kissing. Katie Couric is commenting that isn’t wise in the age of H1N1 flu.
He is ready to begin. Hilary is in red in the front row. Nancy is in red behind him.
He is referencing the economic collapse of last year. He acknowledges the recession is continuing and he plans to keep working to end it. He says we have pulled the economy back from the brink. The crowd likes it. So how come unemployment is increasing?
He say he came to build a future. The issue of health care. He wants to be the last president to deal with it. He cites Teddy Roosevelt as the first president to address health care reform. I don’t think penicillin had been invented yet.
He talks about the uninsured, painting a picture of middle class people who want coverage but can’t afford it. He says 30 million can’t afford it. I’ll have to check the figures later. He cites horror stories of insurance company denial of benefits that kills people.
He talks about the high cost of insurance and implies that the cost of insurance is driven up by non-reimbursed coverage of the uninsured who go to ERs for care. he ignores the fact that ER utilization is exactly the same in insured and uninsured people. He denies it.
Now he cites the Canadian experience. He doesn’t want to start over, but “fix what doesn’t work.”
He cites the partisan bickering that has stalled the problem without picking on a particular group, but it’s clear who he thinks is doing the obstruction.
Security and stability are what he promises the insured and coverage to the uninsured.
He is talking details: those with existing insurance will continue with the coverage they have. The insurance companies will not be able to deny care based on prior conditions. They will not be able to change coverage once a person has insurance. So insurance companies will be stuck covering people who don’t take care of themselves. Preventive care will be covered. He is banking that it will save money. it probably won’t, but he thinks no one knows that.
For the uninsured, he promises an insurance exchange to provide competition that will somehow provide affordable coverage.
He promises tax credits for everyone else. It is going to take 4 years to put together the exchange.
here is the shoe dropping: individuals will be REQUIRED to have insurance. Small businesses will be required to offer insurance. He says nothing about how mandating extra coverage is going to do anything but raise the total price tag.
Now he’s going after the “death panels” argument. Classic straw man attack at work. So all his opponents are now lumped in the crazy camp. He says the same about abortion funding opponents.
Now he’s addressing the public option argument. he is channeling Milton Friedman, talking about the free market and choice. So having a public option will somehow promote competition.
The he goes ahead and attacks the profit motive as a means of driving insurance company strategy. he says he just wants to hold them accountable. Can he have it both ways? he thinks so. He predicts less than 5% of individuals would sign up. he claims that the plan would have to be self sustaining (like the USPS? AMtrak?)
He entreats his leftist friends to remember that he only wants to make insurance companies “accountable” I don’t know about you, but I LOST money when I bought stocks of health insurance companies and big Pharma.
No he is guaranteeing that no bureaucrat will come between people and their health.
Now for the bottom line: the plan will not add a penny to the deficit now or in the future. he promises spending cuts if savings don’t work.
Then he plays the Bush card: too many initiatives (like the Iraq war) weren’t paid for.
Now he’s talking about saving money by not paying for waste and ineffective treatments. Drum roll. Here come the death panels. Ooops. Not a penny of Medicare trust funds will go to paying for care. Panels of doctors and “experts” will save money to help everything go OK. Sounds like death panels to me.
Don’t pay attention to lies about cutting benefits. Straw men are ATTACKING medicare entitlements and Obama will fight against it.
He doesn’t address the shortage of primary care doctors which is worsening as the days go by.
Now he finally gets to the whole tort reform issue. He wants to help stop the practice of defensive medicine. But he doesn’t say how.
A final couple of digs at the funding of the war and tax cuts for the wealthy.
And he warns those who want to kill the plan rather than improve it he will show them no quarter.
Now he is using Ted Kennedy to sell the plan. The cameras are focused on Vickie Kennedy. Mary Jo Kopechne was not available for comment.
Now he is reciting the litany of how social security and medicare were opposed as socialism but in fact helped the country. My feeling is that health care inflation started in 1965 with medicare and social security is a ponzi scheme that will bankrupt our grandchildren.
Obama wants to transform society today to further add to those concepts. he minimizes the effects on personal freedom by government intervention in human welfare.
“Still, I plan to at least try to listen …”
Bless you for not writing “try and listen.”