Dems are Stunned by Town Hall Anger: Here's a Tip: Cut the Condescension

This is an interesting way of looking at some of the shock that is coming out of the Dems at how raucous and angry people are at these Town Halls.

The Democrats are understandably stunned. They and those sympathetic to them do control everything�the White House, Congress, the mainstream media, the popular culture, and elite education. And they still�despite all that power�can�t get the public to pipe down and go along quietly with their planned takeover of health care. What is wrong with everyone? You can sense the anger, the resentment. And the panic.

Face it Dems are just bad at selling things to people who aren't true believers. Part of it is the condescension that they show toward most of middle America and the elderly. Here is the now apocryphal story this time told by Obama at the NH ObamaCare Pep Rally.

"I got a letter the other day from a woman. She said, 'I don't want government-run health care. I don't want socialized medicine. And don't touch my Medicare.'"

Yup, Obama just said that old people are too stupid to know that Medicare is a government run program (that is incidentally slowly going bankrupt and more and more doctors won't take.) This condescension is the kind of thing that makes it hard for them to sell their policies to everyone else. It is like a company saying "you are too stupid to know what you want so you might as well buy what I am selling."

The people have concerns about what this program will mean for them and calling them "angry, hate-filled Nazi hooligans, duped by Glenn Beck and Limbaugh" does not put them on your side. Insulting people has never gotten anywhere but has served to make them oppose you even more.

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The Senate Backs out Death Panels from ObamaCare

I'm glad the Senate is doing the things that the House should have done long ago.

Yet it has created such a furor that senators decided to excluded it from their version of health care legislation. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement that they "dropped it entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."

I'm not sure why this plan needs to cover this discussion at all. People should just pay for a normal doctor visit when they are ready to talk about this stuff. The idea of having this discussion every 5 years is what people were objecting to.

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Obama Pisses off the American College of Surgeons

It seems that Obama can't go any length of time without putting his foot directly into his mouth. Yesterday he compared ObamaCare to the Post Office and now this gaff.

Yesterday during a town hall meeting, President Obama got his facts completely wrong. He stated that a surgeon gets paid $50,000 for a leg amputation when, in fact, Medicare pays a surgeon between $740 and $1,140 for a leg amputation. This payment also includes the evaluation of the patient on the day of the operation plus patient follow-up care that is provided for 90 days after the operation. Private insurers pay some variation of the Medicare reimbursement for this service.

No wonder he doesn't know much about costs when he thinks a leg amputation costs 50x more then it actually does. Also why can't someone add the prices of things to the reform debate. I mean you can get a rough estimate of just about any service in the US except for health care. Most of the time people have no idea how much certain procedures cost since they only pay a fraction of the cost.

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The MSM Finally Declares Protestors as Genuine

It seems that the MSM is finally understanding that this thing is not only about health care but is also about the insane government spending and the massive deficits.

Many of those raising their voices and fists at the town halls have never been politically active. Their frustration was born earlier this year with government bailouts and big spending bills, then found an outlet in the anti-tax Tea Parties in April and has simmered in the punishing recession.

They have been encouraged by talk-radio and Glenn Beck but how is that different then the anti-war nutjobs being goaded on by MoveOn and Hollywood celebs? These town hall people seem to be mostly older people that aren't getting a strait answer from Obama or anyone else.

How will it effect their Medicare and Medicare Part D? How long will they have to wait to get their artificial hip? Will there be some cold, government bureaucrat nixing their life giving surgery? That kind of stuff has been glossed over. So it makes them scared as well as angry.

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Little Girl that Asked a Question at NH ObamaCare Pep Rally a Plant?

Now this is stooping pretty low to use kids like this. Julia Hall from Malden MA wasn't just some spontaneous kid but the child of an Obama Supporter. I think Obama needs to get in front of an actual town hall and answer real questions that has Americans concerned.

A stand up job where he listens as someone asks him a tough question then answers their question thoughtfully is worth a 100 planted questions. I just want to hear him answer this question: Will you support an amendment that would have you and all members of the White House staff and their familes, Congress and their familes, and the Supreme Court and their familes be the very first enrollees in the public plan?

The second person "randomly" selected to ask a question was a young girl called Julia Hall from Malden MA (asks question at 29m:25s).

Julia read the following question off a piece of paper: "As I was walking in I saw a lot of signs outside saying mean things about reforming healthcare. How do kids know what is true and why do people want a new system that can help more of us".

This randomly asked question gave Obama the perfect opportunity to dismiss talk about "death panels that will pull the plug on Grandma" and to blame Republicans for everything.

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A Spirited Defence Against Liberal Bigotry of the South

These seem pretty rare but this has to be the most fact filled and stringent defense of the South against bigots from the "party of tolerance" that I have ever seen.

Oh, those dumb white Southerners! No other group in American society could possibly believe in preposterous conspiracy theories. Well, maybe one other group, the most reliably Democratic demographic in the whole U.S. electorate. A 2005 study by RAND and Oregon State University showed that a majority of blacks believed that a cure for AIDS was being withheld from the poor; that nearly half believed that AIDS was man-made, with a quarter believing that it was created in a U.S. government laboratory and 12 percent naming the CIA as its source. Black paranoia about AIDS is understandable, given the Tuskegee experiments. Even so, the theory that AIDS was created by the CIA to commit genocide against black people is wackier than the craziest Birther conspiracy theories. Would Kathleen Parker write, or the Washington Post publish, a column arguing that black Democrats "have seceded from sanity"? Would Kevin Drum applaud Parker's insult and extend to it to all African-Americans?

This part especially blows up the "angry white man" being against Obama due to his race instead of his policies. It seem white women don't like Democratic policies more then those so-called "angry white men." Also the supposedly socially backward South has many of the same social beliefs as the core-Democrat constituency of blacks and Latinos.

Curiously, the progressive punditariat, so voluble about "angry white men," is silent about the decades-old Republican bias of white women. Even more curious is the paradox that liberals routinely denounce white Southern Protestants for holding the very social views that are held by majorities or near-majorities of blacks and Latinos who form the electoral base of the Democratic Party.

This is another interesting part too about how the Dems may squander their new found majority by kicking people like the mostly-Southern Blue Dogs to the curb. I think liberals marginalize the Blue Dogs at their peril.

Also if Obama blows the immigration debate looming in 2010 as badly as he is currently blowing health care reform then they may lose the Latino vote in 2010 and 2012 as well. If the GOP can silence the anti-immigrant wing of their party they could easily bring many Latinos on board for decades. Remember that some of the strongest GOP supporters are Cuban-Americans in Florida and I can see socially conservative Latinos easily joining that group if given the chance.

Blacks and Latinos, it appears, are allowed to hold conventionally conservative social views about gay rights, abortion and (in the case of blacks) immigration without being mocked and denounced by elite white liberals in the pages of the Washington Post and Mother Jones, as long as they vote for the Democratic Party on the basis of other issues. This strategic logic should lead liberals to seek out and welcome the vote of white social conservatives in the South and elsewhere, as long as they vote for Democrats for reasons other than the social issues. Indeed, socially conservative white voters helped to create and to maintain the new Democratic majority in Congress. But many liberals, it would appear, would rather have a smaller Democratic Party than one that includes more white Southerners with typically "black" or "Latino" views about sex and reproduction.

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Why Does ObamaCare create Such Anger?

I think this picture sums up exactly why there is so much passion from the people toward this issue. This picture was taken at a pretty rancorous Town Hall given by soon-to-be ousted (most likely) Senator Arlen Specter. People just don't trust the government to run this plan without creating billions in new debt in order to turn the Doctor's Office into the Post Office. It is just that simple.

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Dem's Set Up HealthCare War Room

There is no fighting! This is the War Room!

The effort is being run out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer�s (D-Md.) office, but is being manned around the clock by a rotation of leadership and key committee staff members, according to leadership aides.

Although the war room, or �healthcare hotline,� is primarily designed to give members the ability to get immediate health policy answers and updates from leadership offices, top Democrats are also planning to use it to help their colleagues respond effectively to political and press attacks, if necessary.

�The news is being monitored very closely,� a leadership aide said in describing the various functions of the healthcare hotline.

They are monitoring the "snitch line" for wreckers and counter-revolutionary thought I should think. And you wonder why Americans are scared? The idea that the Dems need a war room to "respond effectively to political and press attacks" that has to be manned 24 hours if just ludicrous.

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Obama NH Town Hall Fails to Impress: Compares ObamaCare to Post Office

I think Obama needs to go down to one of those boisterous Town Halls and take some real questions. This New Hampshire Town Hall was a joke.

During the middle of the civil back-and-forth, one man identified himself as a Republican and said, "I don't know what I'm doing here." The Democratic president said he was happy to have him in attendance.

Toward the end of the session, Obama went so far as to ask for someone to give him a skeptical question. The best he got were queries about why he doesn't chastise Congress more and where the nation would find the additional doctors and nurses it needs.

So he got one "tough" question (Hopefully the guy wasn't beaten by SEIU thugs afterward) and tons of wimpy softballs. Plus he added this "own goal" that had me laughing out loud.

As long as they have a good product and the government plan has to sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan, Obama said.

"They do it all the time," he said. "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. ... It's the Post Office that's always having problems."

UPS and FedEx are strait up smashing the Post Office in terms of profitability, reliability, technological advances, and overall better service. So you want to create yet another Post Office-like entity that will fail miserably and have to be bailed out with even more tax money?

If I were Obama I wouldn't use the Post Office, the VA Hospitals, the DMV, the Stimulus Package, Cash for Clunkers, Fannie and Freddie, Hurricane Katrina relief or just about any other government program as a selling point for what should be called the Post Office Public Plan (POPP.)

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Victim of Hate Crime by SEIU doesn't have Insurance? No Wait He Does

This is just like the liberal blogosphere to not vet things correctly before they fly off half-cocked.

The irony is that Gladney�s situation underscores the vital need for health care reform. He was recently laid off and lost his insurance (14,000 Americans suffer a similar fate each day). Because he has no affordable health care option available, Gladney is now soliciting donations to pay his medical expenses:

But wait, buried at the bottom of the story is the truth.

Update The Washington Independent contacted Brown, who said his client Gladney is not uninsured after all. �He�s just unemployed,� says Brown, and �has insurance through his wife.�

In any case he wouldn't need any kind of insurance if he wasn't beaten by SEIU hatemongers for simply exercising his 1st Amendment Rights. Of course no MSM will touch this story simply because it doesn't fit their narrative that "angry mobs" are shouting down Congresspeople.

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More Violence Toward Protestors; Randy Arthur Thrown into a Wall in Tampa

We have SEIU brownshirts committing hate crimes and assault and battery in St. Louis now we Democratic Town Hall organizers throwing people into walls in Tampa.

One man who said he was injured and intended to file a police complaint, Randy Arthur of Oldsmar, was outside the meeting room with his wife, Kathy Arthur, when organizers tried to close the doors.

She said he was slammed against a wall. He later talked to police officers, his knit shirt ripped and a few scratches visible on his chest.

Mr. Arthur just looks like such a dangerous looking member of a hate filled mob don't you think? Maybe he was just so well dressed a protester that they had to rough him up in order to make an example of him.

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More About Kenneth Gladney's Run-In With Union Hatemongers

Here is more about what happened when protectors meet the brown-shirted (in this case blue-shirted SEIU) stormtroopers at Democrat Russ Carnahan�s town hall in St. Louis.

�Kenneth was approached by an SEIU representative as Kenneth was handing out �Don�t Tread on Me� flags to other conservatives. The SEIU representative demanded to know why a black man was handing out these flags. The SEIU member used a racial slur against Kenneth, and then punched him in the face. Kenneth fell to the ground. Another SEIU member yelled racial epithets at Kenneth as he kicked him in the head and back. Kenneth was also brutally attacked by one other male SEIU member and an unidentified woman.�

Yes, they punched this guy in the face then stomped him on the ground and then committed a hate crime by calling him racist slurs. I hope these people are prosecuted by the full extent of the law. I wonder if Obama will now get these people to sit down and have a staged beer together?

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SEIU Brownshirts Rough up Protestors

It seems that the violence by the SEIU is just the beginning of quite a dark path.

The SEIU has taken center-stage in the Left's push-back on health care reform. They co-sponsored a rally in Tampa that featured fisticuffs. SEIU also had a large presence at a St. Louis rally where at last three of the group's volunteers were arrested in connection with an assault on Kenneth Gladney, who was selling flags and buttons outside the venue. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a conference call with SEIU members last week, in which she called them "brothers and sisters," and SEIU representatives compared Obama critics at town halls to "terrorists."

Also the people that beat Kenneth Gladney were supposedly issuing racial slurs as they beat him too. That means it might be time to dust off some of that hate crime legislation because that is pretty much what happened.

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The Low Hanging Fruit: I think these Savings Should Come before ObamaCare

Now this is an interesting article that could save $500 billion right from the start and not have the government get into the health insurance business at all. The first thing can be solved by tort reform or a cap on malpractice. The claims part can be solved by standardizing insurance forms and procedures.

I was also thrown off by how little savings come from stopping the practice of using the ER like a primary care physician. I figured this would be billions higher.

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White House Open to Scrapping the Public Plan

Now this is quite a reversal in just a few days.

President Barack Obama may accept nonprofit health-insurance cooperatives in place of a new government-run plan as long as consumers are guaranteed more choice and competition in buying insurance, a top aide said.

"We would be interested in that" if those conditions are met, Nancy-Ann DeParle, director of the White House Office of Health Reform, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television�s "Conversations with Judy Woodruff" airing today.

I think this is a good idea if these cooperatives are not controlled by the government but are given a great deal of oversight. They should also appoint an MD as the head so there won't be some ignorant bureaucrat running it.

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