This is getting pathological. According to this story in Politico, President Obama, when asked whether he had intentionally misled the public in order to get the law passed, he replied: “No. I did not.” He actually did, repeatedly. Here’s just one example–on the president’s pledge that “If you like your health-care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health-care plan, period”–that comes to us courtesy of Glenn Kessler, who works for that well-known right-wing outlet the Washington Post.
Mr. Obama added this: “I would just advise every press outlet here: Pull up every clip and every story. I think it’s fair to say there was not a provision in the health care law that was not extensively debated and was fully transparent. It was a tough debate.”
Mr. Obama is confusing some things. The issue isn’t whether there was an extensive and tough debate. There was. The issue is whether the president and his White House, during that debate, intentionally misled us. He and they did, all the time, on all sorts of matters related to the ACA. The conservative criticisms of the president were entirely on the mark. They were the truth-tellers; the president was not.
No American can take joy in saying this, but the evidence clearly warrants it: We have a president who is lying about his lies. It’s not good for him, for the office of the presidency, or for our political culture. He might try telling the truth. At this point it won’t salvage his presidency, but it might begin to repair some of the extraordinary damage to his credibility.
“Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.” ¯ Winston S. Churchill
There's a link in the story to an earlier WaPo article, Oct 2013, where the president earned Four Pinnochios for his huge whopper ‘no one will take away’ your health plan. This article catalogs his statements in a time line proving that even after the bill had been written and passed, the president continued to tell his lie about the grandfathering in of old plans. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact...ur-health-plan/
here's the conclusion:
The Pinocchio Test
The administration is defending this pledge with a rather slim reed — that there is nothing in the law that makes insurance companies force people out of plans they were enrolled in before the law passed. That explanation conveniently ignores the regulations written by the administration to implement the law. Moreover, it also ignores the fact that the purpose of the law was to bolster coverage and mandate a robust set of benefits, whether someone wanted to pay for it or not.
The president’s statements were sweeping and unequivocal — and made both before and after the bill became law. The White House now cites technicalities to avoid admitting that he went too far in his repeated pledge, which, after all, is one of the most famous statements of his presidency.
The president’s promise apparently came with a very large caveat: “If you like your health care plan, you’ll be able to keep your health care plan — if we deem it to be adequate.”
Four Pinocchios
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“Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.” ¯ Winston S. Churchill
" He might try telling the truth. At this point it won’t salvage his presidency, but it might begin to repair some of the extraordinary damage to his credibility."
I doubt Zero evaluates his presidency, or his credibility.from the same perspective as Peter does.
"People who are increasingly questioning Barack Obama's competence are continuing to ignore the alternative possibility that his fundamental values and imperatives are different from theirs. You cannot tell whether someone is failing or succeeding without knowing what they are trying to do." http://www.creators.com/print/conservati...t-happened.html
That's exactly right. For example, one might falsely assume that justice was the motive for the President stepping in between the arrest of Harvard prof Henry Gates by Sgt James Crowley.
The president wanted all to see this as a "teachable moment" but Sgt Crowley saw it as two sides agreeing to disagree.
When asked what the president's role was Sgt Crowley said, "He supplied the beer"
STELLAR!!!
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“Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.” ¯ Winston S. Churchill
I think we're at the point now that whatever Obama says is a lie. When he says "no" translate that to actually being yes and vice versa. Its really that bad.
Quote: conservgramma wrote in post #5I think we're at the point now that whatever Obama says is a lie. When he says "no" translate that to actually being yes and vice versa. Its really that bad.
I think we've been at that point all along, cg.
It's certainly not unusual for a politician to be a stranger to the truth, but Obama is more comfortable with lying than any I've ever seen.
I'm not just being cynical in saying that I don't believe he knows what truth is.
“Show me a young Conservative and I'll show you someone with no heart. Show me an old Liberal and I'll show you someone with no brains.” ¯ Winston S. Churchill