Obama & God LLP - The president goes from glibness to grandiosity on "matters of life and death."
By JAMES TARANTO
Best of the Tube Tonight
We're scheduled to appear this evening on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" as part of a political roundtable. The hourlong program starts at 7 p.m. ET, with a repeat showing at 4 a.m. ET, and the roundtable will be in the second half-hour.
Obama & God LLP
It's been just over a year since the Rev. Rick Warren asked then-Sen. Barack Obama, "At what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?" The next president of the United States answered with a glib dodge: "Well, you know, I think that whether you're looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade."
At the time, we quipped: "Obama just can't win with these right-wingers, can he? For months they've been blasting him for acting like the Messiah. Now they're attacking him for acknowledging he's not God. Well, not yet, anyway."
We thought we were kidding. Then we read this report from Ben Smith of Politico:
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A reader points out that President Obama's call with the rabbis today--as recorded in Rabbi Jack Moline's and other clerics' Twitter feeds--freights health care reform with a great deal of religious meaning, and veers into the blend of policy and faith that outraged liberals in the last administration.
"We are God's partners in matters of life and death," Obama said, according to Moline (paging Sarah Palin . . l.), quoting from the Rosh Hashanah prayer that says that in the holiday period, it is decided "who shall live and who shall die."
The president ended the call by wishing the rabbis "shanah tovah," or happy new year--in reference to the High Holidays a month from now.
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"We are God's partners"?! Hmm, God & Obama? No, wait! Obama & God. Yeah, that's much better!
As Tevi Troy notes at National Review Online, "The reference to the 'who shall live and who shall die' prayer was strange. . . . Is this really the context in which he wishes to discuss health reform--a powerful and unseen being making determinations of life and death? One would think that he would want to avoid anything that could raise the specter of rationing, death panels, or the like."
Further, "We are God's partners in matters of life and death" is not part of the Rosh Hashanah liturgy. Those words are Obama's. Granted he is in a higher pay grade than he was a year ago--but not nearly as high as he seems to think.
Both the glib "above my pay grade" and the grandiose "we are God's partners" reflect a disturbing callowness on the president's part. Someone who seeks power over life-and-death matters--whether by running for president or by pushing for legislation vastly expanding governmental authority over medical choices--ought to be able at least to make a pretense of maturity and humility.
Josh Yuter, a rabbi and blogger who participated in the conference call, notes that the president urged the rabbis "to address the health care controversy in their upcoming High Holiday sermons"--an idea Yuter finds troubling:
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To be sure, most of the Rabbis on the call probably would advocate for substantial health care reform anyway, and I do not know to what extent the President sought out religious leaders or the religious leaders proposed the audience with the President. In either case, I find the blurring of church and state to be disconcerting not only on political grounds (and legal/tax purposes), but also for competency. Rabbis have enough difficulty understanding the nuances and intricacies of their own religion to be promoting specific policies in areas for which they have no expertise.
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That's true of politicians as well as rabbis. If God needs a partner, you'd think he'd at least find someone with applicable skills.
Get Me Some Flomax, I'm All Wee Weed Up!
We were going to title this "Bushism of the Day," but we decided that would be unfair to George W. Bush, who, although admittedly less than Churchillian in his oratorical abilities, is beginning to seem eloquent in comparison with today's Democratic politicians, including the one who said this yesterday:
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"There is something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee weed up!"
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Yes, the president of the United States is talking baby talk. We don't even know what "wee weed up" means, although the president's comment does lead us to wonder if ObamaCare would cover Tamsulosin prescriptions.
ObamaCarCare
Reader Brian Boyd comments on a presidential quote we noted yesterday:
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President Obama's statement that the chronically ill and those toward the end of their lives are accounting for potentially 80% of the total health care bill out here is better understood in terms of owning a car.
Automobiles that are badly made or near the end of their useful lives account for potentially 80% of the total auto repair bill out here. If we could only send them to landfills and concentrate our auto repair expenses on those automobiles that are not actually in need of repair we could reduce auto repair costs in this country.
If the average life span of a person is approximately 80 years, and that of a car 10 years, then a car between the ages of nine months and about eight years could be considered worth fixing. If one buys a car, and it needs repairs or major tuning in the first nine months or after eight years, it's better, under the ObamaCarCare plan, to just advise the owner to let it rust and allow the insurance money to be spent on another vehicle in that age range which is actually working fine.
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When we read Boyd's email, we thought it a bit of a stretch--but then we remembered something the president said during yesterday's session with followers:
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Another example is, the way we reimburse hospitals right now, we don't incentivize hospitals to get their patients the best treatment the first time out, because if a patient is immediately readmitted, well, we just pay them the same rate as they were the first time.
Now, think about if your car needed repairs, and you sent it in and got it fixed--you thought. A week later the same thing breaks down. When you went back to the auto shop, you'd probably want them to give you a little discount on fixing it the second time.
But we don't do that right now with respect to hospitals. And those are the kinds of changes that we can make that would pay for about two-thirds of the cost of health reform.
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Speaking of cars, the New York Times reports that "the government will end its popular 'cash for clunkers' program on Monday, more than two months early, because it is already running out of money." Would you buy a used car from this man?
Stable Condition
Remember how Yasser Arafat used to talk peace in English while promising in Arabic to drive the Jews into the sea? We're reminded of this by the debate over ObamaCare. In English, its supporters keep insisting that the so-called public option--essentially, establishing a new insurance company run by the federal government--is totally different from what is known as single-payer, the complete nationalization of the medical-insurance industry.
But a new video on YouTube demonstrates that, like Arafat, the Obamacarers are talking out of both sides of their mouth. The two-minute video simply strings together a series of clips saying the opposite, beginning with Sen. Russ Feingold (D., Wis.), in an interview with the public-access cable show "Democracy Now!":
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Q: Do you support single-payer health care?
Feingold: I do. I always have. I don't think there's any possibility that that will come out of this Congress, and so for people to simply say that's this way or nothing, are looking at something that can't happen now. But I would love to see it, and I believe the goal here is to create whatever legislation we have in a way that could be developed into something like a single-payer system.
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Here's Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, now secretary of health and human services, speaking at Harvard in 2007:
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I'm all for a single-payer system eventually. I think what we have to do, though, is work with what we've got to close the gap.
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Rep. Barney Frank (D., Mass.), last month:
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I think if we get a good public option, it could lead to single-payer, and that's the best way to reach single-payer.
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White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, answering a question in June:
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Q: Hey Rahm, why did the president take single-payer off the table?
Unidentified woman: Look, sorry. I'm sorry, we don't have time for this.
Q: No, in 2003, he said he was for single payer, and now he's against it. Why did he flip-flop?
Emanuel: Because as I just--it's what I just said in there.
Q: What?
Emanuel: The objective is what's important. It's not the means.
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And here's a finger-wagging Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D., Ill.):
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This is not a principled fight. This is a fight about strategy for getting there, and I believe we will!
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Arafat won a Nobel Peace Prize in 1994. Apparently Norwegians only understand English. But unlike Arafat, these pols are stating their true intentions in English. Which makes it all the more inexcusable when media outlets like the Associated Press (see our item yesterday) produce pro-ObamaCare propaganda and claim to be debunking "myths."
Nothing Wrong With EnronCare
- "In Britain, the government itself runs the hospitals and employs the doctors. We've all heard scare stories about how that works in practice; these stories are false."--former Enron adviser Paul Krugman, New York Times, Aug. 17
- "It was a simple thing. Another blood test, some more investigations into whatever flawed gene or missing protein might be the cause of my daughter's troubled life, with her terrible seizures, her blindness, her inability to walk or talk or eat unaided. Over the past 15 years, there have been many such attempts to identify her condition. One year later, we asked the doctor, a top geneticist at one of the world's most famous hospitals, what had happened to the results. His office told us a rambling story about financial restrictions and the need to send such tests to a laboratory in Germany. They said there was little he could do but promised to pursue our case. It was a bare-faced lie. The precious vial of blood had been dumped in storage and forgotten. The following day it was despatched to a laboratory in Wales and 40 days later the specialists came up trumps. They identified her condition, an obscure genetic mutation called CDKL5. . . . The most shocking thing was not the lying. Nor even the incompetence. It was our total lack of surprise at the turn of events, since after 15 years suffering from the failings of the National Health Service we are prepared for almost any ineptitude."--Ian Birrell, Independent (London), Aug. 21
An Insult to Jackasses Everywhere
"TV listings: The Prime-Time TV grid in Thursday's Calendar section mistakenly listed MTV's 'Jackass' show on the MSNBC cable schedule at 7 and 10 p.m. where instead MSNBC's 'Countdown With Keith Olbermann' should have been listed."--correction, Los Angeles Times, Aug. 21
Someone Alert the Death Panel
- "Rumor Has It That Palin's Moving to Rhode Island"--headline, Providence Journal, Aug. 20
- "RI Wind Farm Plan Abandoned After Death"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 21
Life Imitates 'The Simpsons'
- Bart: "But you gotta support the team, Dad! They're already threatening to move to Moose Jaw."--from "Wild Barts Can't Be Broken," aired Jan. 17, 1999
- "Moose With Giant Warts Causes Commotion in Homer"--headline, Anchorage Daily News, Aug. 21, 2009
A Crucial Voting Bloc
"N.J. Cockroach Contest Predicts Corzine Will Beat Christie in Governor's Race"--headline, Star-Ledger (Newark), Aug. 20
I Am a Man Who Looks After the Pigs
"WHO Predicts 'Explosion' of Swine Flu Cases"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 21
Good News for Ford
"Former Porsche Officials in Probe"--headline, The Wall Street Journal, Aug. 21
Unfrozen Caveman Goalie
"B.C. Hockey Legend Found Alive"--headline, CBC.ca, Aug. 20
'Oh, No, We're Just Friends'
"Home-Invasion Shooting Suspects Denied Bond"--headline, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 20
World's Heaviest Jewels
"3 Charged Over 40 Million Pound Jewel Heist in UK"--headline, Arizona Daily Star (Tucson), Aug. 21
Perverse Incentives
"Reward for Tacoma Apartment Arsonist"--headline, KING-TV Web site (Seattle), Aug. 20
It's Always in the Last Place You Look
"3,000-Year-Old Butter Found in Kildare Bog"--headline, Leinster (Ireland) Leader, Aug. 21
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control
- "Traffic Noise Could Be Ruining Sex Lives of Frogs"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 21
- "Inside Obama Administration, a Tug of War Over Nuclear Warheads"--headline, NationalJournal.com, Aug. 18
- "Devastating Cuts Expected Under Doomsday Budget"--headline, KYW-TV Web site (Philadelphia), Aug. 20
- "Campbell Takes a Gamble, Cuts Salt in Tomato Soup"--headline, Sacramento Bee, Aug. 20
- "Transgender Belly Dancer Helps Launch Arab Gay Initiative"--headline, Local (Sweden), Aug. 21
- "Rep. Boren Promises to Shave His Head if He Votes Yes on Health Reform"--headline, Hill, Aug. 20
News of the Tautological
"Flu Drugs 'Not Needed' in Healthy"--headline, BBC Web site, Aug. 21
News You Can Use
- "Male or Female? Gender Tests Are Not Always Easy"--headline, Associated Press, Aug. 20
- "Don't Sneeze on Your Roommate"--headline, Omaha World-Herald, Aug. 21
- "How to Turn Seawater Into Jet Fuel"--headline, NewScientist.com, Aug. 18
- "Basic Advice to Writers: Don't Be Boring"--headline, RightWingNews.com, Aug. 19
Bottom Stories of the Day
- "Meet the Pizza Delivery Guy"--headline, WTOP-FM Web site (Washington), Aug. 19
- "King County Jail Inmate Dies From Natural Causes"--headline, Seattle Times, Aug. 20
- "Obama: Republican Conspiracy Out to Kill Health Reform"--headline, Washington Times, Aug. 21
Well, the Jerk Store Called. Their Shipment of You Got Lost in the Mail!
Commentary's Rick Richman notes an amusing exchange the other day between ABC's White House correspondent, Jake Tapper, and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs:
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Tapper: In a letter sent last week to the White House from the National Association of Postal Supervisors, the president of that union, Ted Keating, said that his union had a, quote, "collective disappointment that you"--meaning the president--"chose the Postal Service as a scapegoat and an example in efficiency." Does the president--has the president seen that letter? Has he responded? Does he regret using the post office as an example of inefficiency?
Gibbs: I doubt he's seen that letter, and I don't have any reason to believe he regrets it, since he repeated it.
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Richman observes: "It might have been better to say something like 'I don't know if he has seen the letter yet, Jake, but I am sure he will respond because he holds the Postal Service and its employees in the highest regard'--rather than assert that Obama must not regret using the post office as an example of inefficiency, since he did it twice."
But if Gibbs had any wit, he'd have said: "The president has responded in a private letter to Mr. Keating. I'm sure it'll arrive any day now."
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