Oh, all right, not really. But the last time I remember the Washington Post quoting a president at length, it was when George Herbert Walker Bush was running for his second term against Bill Clinton. Pres. Bush had undiagnosed Grave’s disease, which makes your thoughts race, and he could not speak in coherent paragraphs.
Anyway, on April 3, Obama gave a 17-plus-minute answer to a question on his recently enacted healthcare law. And the Washington Post reporter, Anne E. Kornblut, was less than reverent in dissecting his peroration:
Toward the end of a question-and-answer session with workers at an advanced battery technology manufacturer, a woman named Doris stood to ask the president whether it was a “wise decision to add more taxes to us with the health care” package.
“We are overtaxed as it is,” Doris said bluntly.
Obama started out feisty. “Well, let’s talk about that, because this is an area where there’s been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I’m going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have,” the president said.
He then spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze. His discursive answer — more than 2,500 words long — wandered from topic to topic, including commentary on the deficit, pay-as-you-go rules passed by Congress, Congressional Budget Office reports on Medicare waste, COBRA coverage, the Recovery Act and Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (he referred to this last item by its inside-the-Beltway name, “F-Map”). He talked about the notion of eliminating foreign aid (not worth it, he said). He invoked Warren Buffett, earmarks and the payroll tax that funds Medicare (referring to it, in fluent Washington lingo, as “FICA”).
Always fond of lists, Obama ticked off his approach to health care — twice. “Number one is that we are the only — we have been, up until last week, the only advanced country that allows 50 million of its citizens to not have any health insurance,” he said.
A few minutes later he got to the next point, which seemed awfully similar to the first. “Number two, you don’t know who might end up being in that situation,” he said, then carried on explaining further still.
“Point number three is that the way insurance companies have been operating, even if you’ve got health insurance, you don’t always know what you got, because what has been increasingly the practice is that if you’re not lucky enough to work for a big company that is a big pool, that essentially is almost a self-insurer, then what’s happening is, is you’re going out on the marketplace, you may be buying insurance, you think you’re covered, but then when you get sick they decide to drop the insurance right when you need it,” Obama continued, winding on with the answer.
Halfway through, an audience member on the riser yawned.
But Obama wasn’t finished. He had a “final point,” before starting again with another list — of three points.
“What we said is, number one, we’ll have the basic principle that everybody gets coverage,” he said, before launching into the next two points, for a grand total of seven.
His wandering approach might not matter if Obama weren’t being billed as the chief salesman of the health-care overhaul. Public opinion on the bill remains divided, and Democratic officials are planning to send Obama into the country to convince wary citizens that it will work for them in the long run.
It was not evident that he changed any minds at Friday’s event. The audience sat politely, but people in the back of the room began to wander off.
Even Obama seemed to recognize that he had gone on too long. He apologized — in keeping with the spirit of the moment, not once, but twice. “Boy, that was a long answer. I’m sorry,” he said, drawing nervous laughter that sounded somewhat like relief as he wrapped up.
But, he said: “I hope I answered your question.”
I predict that as Obama goes on the road he will deliver similar performances and get similar coverage because what he reveals about himself is both frightening and appalling. First of all, Obama displays his laziness and dislike of mastering policy. He lurches from buzz phrase to jargon, apparently believing he is dazzling the crowd. This is an alarming level of self-deception. Even modestly well-informed people know immediately he has no idea what he is saying. Second, Obama reveals his contempt for the intelligence of his audiences and/or his absolute faith in his ability to snow people. Either way, that’s not reassuring. Third, people are onto Obama’s habit of filibustering to run out the clock. He’s already had problems attracting crowds and this will accelerate the trend — well, until ACORN and the SEIU are hired to fill the chairs.
I’m looking forward to stories comparing what Obama says is in his healthcare legislation and what’s really in it, and what he said was in it that isn’t. Definitely America has a fee-vah and all it needs to see the wisdom of swallowing Obamacare is more cowbell:
Eek! — the Blue Oyster Cult song title is a little too appropriate: “Don’t Fear the Reaper.”
Oh, and I hope Ms. Kornblut likes her new beat monitoring the police scanner on the graveyard shift.
Well, Woodward and Bernstein got their big break working night shift police beat, it got them Watergate. Since then, everything has been some kind of “gate”. If some drunk drives through a closed gate and then drives away, uncaught the news would call it “Gategate”. So, Ms. Kornblutt will be okay, there is enough theft and corruption in this Administration that night shift police beat is a great gig.
Ms. Kornblut knows that the Dem party has screwed itself out of a top notch leader who is also a policy wonk. In order to elevate the “new man” on the block.
Good for her that she is calling it like it is! Even if she does end up on the graveyard shift listening to police reports, she will be in good company! LOL.
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I made my O voting family and friends watch this and then asked them to explain why they think he has a high IQ. Because…damn…
I think Obama has a lot in common with the popular conception of Dubya. People voted for him because they liked the idea of having a drink with him (although they’d rip your throat out for pointing that out.) He may be intelligent (although I’ve seen no evidence of that so far) but is fundamentally uncurious. He strikes me like one of those people who read one popular book on economics and assume they, like, totally understand the international finance system – and sometimes that’s scary. He doesn’t read. He has no time or respect for any opinions that might get in his way. Sound like a familiar thought?
He’s essentially there to make urban, middle class redneck “eiltes” feel good about themselves. It’s ironic that these groups are now losing everything that made them middle class – like the ability to pay their kids’ way through college.
Liz,
One of the stories from Obama’s childhood that really captures his personality is the only time his father came to visit. He scolded Obama for being lazy and not doing his homework.
Obama is still lazy and not doing his homework. I think his intelligence is only slightly above average. Where he excels is in his ability to get brilliant people to do his homework and let him take the credit. He also excels in his ability to manipulate and his will to dominate.
You are quite right that Obama is an uncurious man. And I would LOVE to see samples of his writing. What do you think they would reveal about his intelligence and education?
Cynthia
“What do you think they would reveal about his intelligence and education?”
That he was a C/D student, both in grades and in intellect. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that, as long as someone has skills that make them a good administrator and leader, which can happen. With Obama, it clearly hasn’t. This would be damaging because, in the absence of actual experience and accomplishments, all he had was the idea that he was brilliant in high school and college. Living on past “glories”, indeed.
There is also the issue of any far left politics he had – and awkward questions about whether he still had them. Bob McDonnell could distance himself from his college work because his views on women in the military actually changed. I doubt the O has that option with his beliefs. (Heaven forfend he’d ever be forced to be honest about his politics. Or be asked about them. That’s just crazy talk.)
Cynthia,
Both I and my sister Liz, who majored in English and did quite a bit of literary analysis have been persuaded that Bill Ayers is the actual author of “Dreams From My Father.” I have a friend who is a professor of English at Emory University who has studied Ayers’ writing extensively and has come to the same conclusion. I’m not sure who ghost-wrote “The Audacity of Hope,” but I’m fairly certain Obama isn’t the author of that book either.
You’re quite right that Obama’s talent lies in manipulation – in persuading others that he is sincere, and that they should do his work for him. This is actually quite characteristic of sociopaths, who are often very charismatic. They also seldom possess unusually high IQs, but are able to persuade large numbers of people (and often many of their intellectual superiors) that they DO in fact have high intellectual skills. This is why it is SO CRITICALLY important to judge an individual based upon his ACTIONS and not simply on his (often meaningless and insincere) words.
Applying this yardstick to Obama quite quickly gives one the measure of the man, and the picture which emerges is far from a pretty one.
Mark J. Koenig
Yes, American Thinker published pieces in the fall of 2008 saying that both content and style analyses of Obama’s autobiographies performed by at least six experts pointed to Bill Ayers as the author of both.
Obama is so uninformed about practically everything that it is going to be entertaining to watch him speak over the next few months to try to sell Obamacare and the rest of his economy- and democracy-killing agenda. I predict people are going to start saying, “How stupid does he think we are?” The answer is, “Pretty stupid, based on your track record, Obama voters. After all, you bought one of his biggest lies at the get-go, which was his claim that attending Rev. Wright’s church for 20 years did not portend anything about Obama’s own character, beliefs and loyalties. And if you believe it did, then you are a RAAAAACIST!”
Cynthia
Cynthia,
Glad to notice you spelled raaaaacist correctly….with 5 A’s! 😉