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Home Front: Politix
Obama: the Great Miscommunicator
2009-08-11
Dorothy Rabinowitz, Wall Street Journal

...The election over, the warming glow of those armies of supporters gone, his capacity to tolerate criticism and dissent from his policies grows thinner apace. His lectures, explaining his health-care proposals, and why theyÂ’ll be good for everybody, are clearly not going down well with his national audience.

This would have to do with the fact that the real Barack Obama—product of the academic left, social reformer with a program, is now before that audience, and what they hear in this lecture about one of the central concerns in their lives—his message freighted with generalities—they are not prepared to buy. They are not prepared to believe that our first most important concern now is health-care reform or all will go under.

The president has a problem. For, despite a great election victory, Mr. Obama, it becomes ever clearer, knows little about Americans. He knows the crowds—he is at home with those. He is a stranger to the country’s heart and character.

He seems unable to grasp what runs counter to its nature. That Americans donÂ’t take well, for instance, to bullying, especially of the moralizing kind, implicit in those speeches on health care for everybody. Neither do they wish to be taken where they donÂ’t know they want to go and being told itÂ’s good for them.

Who would have believed that this politician celebrated, above all, for his eloquence and capacity to connect with voters would end up as president proving so profoundly tone deaf? A great many people is the answer—the same who listened to those speeches of his during the campaign, searching for their meaning.

It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose, but that was coming. It began with the spectacle of the president, impelled to go abroad to apologize for his nation—repeatedly. It is not, in the end, the demonstrators in those town-hall meetings or the agitations of his political enemies that Mr. Obama should fear. It is the judgment of those Americans who have been sitting quietly in their homes, listening to him.
Posted by:Mike

#8  Â“The president has a problem.”

Wrong - the "president" IS the problem. It's compounded by Pelosi, Biden, and Reid, but the base of the pyramid of shame is Barrack Hussein O'Bumble.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2009-08-11 18:39  

#7  Couldn't smell the horseshit until her face got shoved in it.
Posted by: mojo   2009-08-11 14:20  

#6  The CBO has also said the “savings” pitch is impossible to score

Actually, Depotguy the CBO pretty much said costs will go up from preventive care expenses

Congressional Budget Expert Says Preventive Care Will Raise -- Not Cut -- Costs

Old rule of actuary. You can't lower costs by increasing utilization.
Posted by: Beavis   2009-08-11 10:46  

#5  Â“The president has a problem.”

It boils down to the bottom line – it always does. How are we gonna pay for this thing? The CBO has already determined that current legislation drives up cost and will increase the deficit. The CBO has also said the “savings” pitch is impossible to score. In other words, it’s not real money and therefore subject to typical DC accounting gimmicks. Even the novice salesman understands that “broke” ain’t an objection to be overcome – it’s an obstacle. Apparently this concept isn’t taught to Ivy League flim-flam artists.
Posted by: DepotGuy   2009-08-11 10:07  

#4  How many people just turn off the sound when Obama comes on the TV? Millions.
Posted by: whatadeal   2009-08-11 09:21  

#3  Who would have believed that this politician celebrated, above all, for his eloquence and capacity to connect with voters...


The people that don't believe are the MSM stooges that hid his ignorance, cupidity and nastiness behind their veneration of his tele-prompter skills.
Posted by: AlanC   2009-08-11 09:18  

#2  He should have taken the blue pill.
Posted by: Black Bart Ebberens7700   2009-08-11 09:18  

#1  It took this battle over health care to reveal the bloom coming off this rose

Possibly for some.
Posted by: Besoeker   2009-08-11 08:15  

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