Althouse: I didn't watch.

June 25, 2009

I didn't watch.

Did you?

44 comments:

Salamandyr said...: No.

His diction is annoying. And he has a tendency to blow sunshine up ones skirts when the reality of his programs are always worse than what he stated.; 6/25/09, 1:18 PM
garage mahal said...: Didn't watch but it received a "boring Obama speech" tag. Huh.; 6/25/09, 1:20 PM
A.W. said...: Saw the great gotchya moment when the doctor asked obama if he would restrict his family to only federal care. he said no.

Some are calling it the dukakis moment. Well, the question was similar to dukakis' question, but to be fair and accurate, Obama's answer was the opposite. Dukakis was coldly consistent. Obama wasn't warm and fuzzy, but he clearly decided to be inconsistent out of the obvious emotional issue.

They have video of it over at hot air.; 6/25/09, 1:21 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Didn't watch but it received a "boring Obama speech" tag. Huh.

garage, some things are just obvious without having to see them. Like knowing Hillary has a giant ass.; 6/25/09, 1:23 PM
KCFleming said...: I thought The Obama Show was 24/7.; 6/25/09, 1:24 PM
Joaquin said...: What? With reruns of Gilligan's Island on another channel! PLEEEEASE!; 6/25/09, 1:24 PM
Big Mike said...: Me either, but I see over on InstaPundit that I missed a key moment -- when Obama owned up to the fact that he wouldn't abide by the rules he plans to put in place for the rest of us when it comes to his own family.

It resonates with a theme of many of my previous comments on this blog -- that limousine liberals vote Left because their personal wealth shields them from the consequences of the laws and regulations that the left wing of the Democrat party promulgates. (See also wind farms off Cape Cod, Kennedy opposition to.)

What's startling is that he openly admitted to it on national TV.; 6/25/09, 1:26 PM
garage mahal said...: garage, some things are just obvious without having to see them. Like knowing Hillary has a giant ass.

See without a picture of your wife's ass for comparison I'd have no idea what you consider "giant". Maybe it's much, much larger and you're just blowing smoke. Who knows!; 6/25/09, 1:34 PM
Beta Conservative said...: Wednesday night is "So You Think You Can Dance" followed by "Top Chef Masters".

Everybody knows that.; 6/25/09, 1:36 PM
bagoh20 said...: Oh, Hoosier, Please, can I get some warning? I got coffee here!; 6/25/09, 1:39 PM
Jim said...: He also completely blew a question asked by a woman about her (at the time) 99-year old mother who received a pacemaker despite the fact that it's generally recommended against it. The woman is now 105-years old. Her question was essentially: what will happen to women like my mother under your plan when "best practices" says she can't have the pacemaker?

His answer?

um...
ah...
"best practices"
um...ah...
"most efficient care"

blah blah blah

Translation: Too bad, honey. Kiss mom goodbye. No pacemaker for you.

Gibson asked him about end of life care which constitutes 26% of all Medicare expenditures.

Obama's answer once you cut through the BS?

"That's an area where we're going to be looking at cutting costs."

Sorry, guys. If grandma's on the ropes under ObamaCare, government's going to pull the plug in the name of "cost efficiency."

He couldn't even handle the predictable questions that were asked, let alone face hard questioning from someone knowledgeable in the subject.

He was woefully unprepared to do anything but talk in circles the whole time. (This is really starting to be a pattern. Where are his briefers who are supposed to get the guy up to speed before he goes on the air? Are they doing their job, but the information isn't just sinking in or what?)

It's no wonder that ABC didn't allow rebuttal time to opposing viewpoints or allow anti-ObamaCare advocacy ads. I have no doubt that the White House set that as a precondition for doing the infomercial in the first place. They had to have prepped Obama for it, and they knew he wouldn't be able to handle it.

The handpicked audience was another laugher. Gibson asked if anyone thought that we needed to make changes to our healthcare system, and all 165 people raised their hands. All of them. Not a single person who thinks the government should keep their grubby hands off our healthcare? Really? They couldn't find even one person in the whole country? Oh yeah. That's not stacking the deck at all. That's definitely "challenging the president with hard questions."

I expected him to be forceful and charismatic on what is pretty much his signature issue. But he was dry and boring and, to use Ann's word, "bland."; 6/25/09, 1:42 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Mike

add to that Congresspersons (and Obama) voting against the school choice (voucher) program in DC and sendig their kids to Sidwell Friends

No Althouse,

I missed the infomercial. I knew how the stoy wasgoing to end.

question:

What do Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA Hospital system have and common?

Bonus question:

Will Obamacare be better and cheaper than those 3?

Why?; 6/25/09, 1:47 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: See without a picture of your wife's ass for comparison I'd have no idea what you consider "giant".

Damn garage. I mean I know you have your nose buried so far up Hillary's cootch you may think you have some real attachment to her but she really isn't your wife now is she?

But that's ok. I can forgive you being a complete cocksucker since I know you're still smarting from Obama kicking your girl's giant ass.; 6/25/09, 1:49 PM
Jim said...: I also loved the cut-in where they had the doctor complaining that people were spending too much time in intensive care during the last year of their lives, and that we "really need to do something about that."

WOW! I mean really...WOW!

My wife looked at each other in disbelief. Did a doctor - you know, the guys we trust with our lives - actually just openly advocate denying treatment to dying patients in the name of saving a dollar? He did!

Talk about inhumane and callous.

Wow...; 6/25/09, 1:52 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: What's startling is that he openly admitted to it on national TV.

I stopped being startled by this moron's open hypocrisy when he admited having his office so warm 'you could grow orchids' while telling the rest of us great unwashed that we can't set our thermostats to 75 or drive our SUVs or eat what we want.; 6/25/09, 1:52 PM
Ironclad said...: Can we have the Congress "test drive" the new health plan for a year or so before they force it on everyone else? We know they are exempt since they have their own plans, but it would be interesting to watch - I mean, let's get out in front and LEAD!.

On a more serious note, why can't they show how all these changes will fix things by trying it on on the VA, Medicare & Medicaid first?

And I was waiting for the answer to the question = "Why would the people now who use the emergency rooms as primary care pay for insurance - if they know that they can keep showing up at the ER and not be turned away?" Just because it is "affordable" does not mean that people will buy it - just look at all the people who drive without insurance.; 6/25/09, 1:53 PM
Jim said...: Ironclad -

"Just because it is "affordable" does not mean that people will buy it - just look at all the people who drive without insurance."

Because part of ObamaCare is the requirement that you get health care insurance whether you want it or not - under penalty of fines if you don't.

Your freedom to make your own healthcare choices is being stripped away right in front of your eyes. Even the White House has had to backtrack off its promise that everyone will get to keep the health insurance that they have because they know that the immediate effect of instituting a government-run health plan is for employers to drop the health plans they currently offer and switch to the government-run plan.

Even if there weren't going to be a financial incentive to do so, do you honestly believe that the federal government won't put in mandates that require all contractors to offer their government plan before they can do business with the government?; 6/25/09, 2:03 PM
garage mahal said...: But that's ok. I can forgive you being a complete cocksucker since I know you're still smarting from Obama kicking your girl's giant ass..

I told you before I don't politics personally. Do I post like a guy that is still smarting from last fall? Ha!; 6/25/09, 2:27 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I told you before I don't politics personally.

You're right. You just save the personal stuff for people you have political differences with.; 6/25/09, 2:35 PM
paul a'barge said...: did not watch; 6/25/09, 3:08 PM
Ironclad said...: Jim - There is a requirement that you purchase auto liability insurance too - how many times do you read about a driver hit and injured by someone that did not buy it?

This is much like the requirement for having a social security number to work too - and how is that working out? And while having insurance is required buy a car - driving it is a different thing. I don't think they will be putting people in jail for not having it - and unless you can refuse emergency services if you do not have coverage - the whole exercise is a joke.

My point is that unless the system is essentially - free - you will always have some segments of society that will not buy it.; 6/25/09, 3:23 PM
Larry J said...: I don't watch infomercials.; 6/25/09, 3:25 PM
essaybee said...: Jim said:
"My wife looked at each other in disbelief. Did a doctor - you know, the guys we trust with our lives - actually just openly advocate denying treatment to dying patients in the name of saving a dollar? He did!"

Did he say it was because of money? Because it's more likely he was troubled by having to medically torture old dying people because their relatives want to prevent the unpreventable.

Patients who are near the end, with no possibility of changing that fact, are often subjected to too much hopeless painful treatment because the family inisists that the hospital "do everything" to save the patient. It's expensive, futile, and possibly torture, but the docs have to do it anyway.

I work in a hospice. Death is sometimes really, really horrible, and dragging it out is not a kindness.; 6/25/09, 3:39 PM
KCFleming said...: Which Obama news network was this on?
ABC? CNN? MSNBC? NPR?
All of them?

It's one continuous BK ad.
I mean shit, do their anchors have to wear kneepads now?; 6/25/09, 3:41 PM
Salamandyr said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/25/09, 3:43 PM
KCFleming said...: "family inisists that the hospital "do everything" to save the patient"

Well that's a problem easily solved, in the exact same way other nationalized systems have solved it.
Age cut-offs for treatment.

Over 65 or 70?
Ha ha! Goodbye, you old dumbshit.
You have duty to die and get out of the way. Oh, and leave your money with us; you won't be needing it.

Don't let the hearse door hit you on your way out.; 6/25/09, 3:44 PM
Jim said...: essaybee -

"Did he say it was because of money? Because it's more likely he was troubled by having to medically torture old dying people because their relatives want to prevent the unpreventable."

It was 2 back-to-back clips that were introducing the question of the coverage of "end of life" care under ObamaCare.

The first clip was of the doctor. The other was of a family with a mother/grandmother in the last stages of a terminal illness saying that they were going to do everything possible to put off her final days. Although the doctor didn't specifically say he was talking about the cost, the context of the clip made it clear that was the topic under discussion.; 6/25/09, 3:45 PM
Jim said...: Pogo -

"Over 65 or 70?
Ha ha! Goodbye, you old dumbshit.
You have duty to die and get out of the way. Oh, and leave your money with us; you won't be needing it. "

Obama was asked if there was going to be an age limit on the provision of care as a way to control costs, and he specifically refuse to deny it.

As ludicrous as it seems to think about it, Obama evidently seems to think it's a good idea.; 6/25/09, 3:47 PM
Salamandyr said...: Essaybee,

My mother recently died of a brain tumor. The same one that Ted Kennedy suffers from. By the time we knew it was inoperable. The only option was radiation and chemo, including the new drugs that have prolonged Kennedy's life. Much like Kennedy, this wouldn't cure her, but might give her as much as a year more of life. By my mothers choice, we opted to try them.

For us, they didn't work. My mother got sicker, and chose to forego further treatment. She soon passed, just the end of March. She had just turned 67 on March 8th.

At each point, my mothers wishes were followed, we treated till she wished to forego treatment. You know and I know, under Obamacare, Mom wouldn't have even had the option to try to treat. One year of life would not be a "worthwhile expenditure of resources". They wouldn't want to "waste money".

But you want to bet Ted Kennedy would still be able to get his cancer drugs?; 6/25/09, 3:50 PM
Jim said...: Salamandyr -

"But you want to bet Ted Kennedy would still be able to get his cancer drugs?"

That's not a fair bet. Obama himself admitted that he wouldn't subject himself to ObamaCare because he has enough money to get the "best" for his family.

Kennedy's riches make Obama's wealth look like chump change.; 6/25/09, 4:06 PM
Shanna said...: On a more serious note, why can't they show how all these changes will fix things by trying it on on the VA, Medicare & Medicaid first?

Guys, I'm with you on Medicare/Medicaid, but the VA is a completely different system. It's not perfect but it does a lot of things well.

It is not a model that Obama will use for government healthcare, because the VA actually gives many patient more time in the hospital than they would get in the private sector. They are limited in scope and have a very specific population. It's not the same as giving the whole country health insurance. Obama care would be very, very different.

And before anybody says Walter Reed, that was the Army, not the VA. Just FYI. Oh, and it can be a bitch to hire some disciplines, because the pay system is odd.; 6/25/09, 4:27 PM
KCFleming said...: Age limits and medical rationing are for the little people.

That's why Obamacare specifically excludes Congress and federal employees (the exemptions are in section 3116).; 6/25/09, 4:30 PM
holdfast said...: "I work in a hospice. Death is sometimes really, really horrible, and dragging it out is not a kindness."

Sometime, and sometimes not - there are a lot of factors, but I would rather not turn the decision over to some G-11 three timezones away. Insurance companies are bad enough, but the government will be MUCH worse.

One of the reasons I was happy to move here from Canada was the fact that I could have some control over my health decisions - not total control, of course, because there are limitations and restrictions in private insurance, but my employer is good enough to offer a number of options at different prices. I understand that quality health care is expensive - and I am willing to pay for it. I also understand those costs are exacerbated by the practice of "defensive" health care, which is in large part occasioned by the predations of trial lawyers (a/k/a the Dems' most reliable fundraisers). Obama's plan does nothing to address this - excess tests and the high cost of malpractice insurance contribute a lot to the cost of care in America, plus the unknowable cost of doctors leaving the profession early or refusing to practice in "high risk" areas (O.B.).

If there really is some segment of destitute citizens who lack any care, then maybe look at expanding and reforming Medicade, but the current proposal will kill of most private care within a generation - leaving a "Public" system for 90%+ of the population and private only for the super-wealthy.; 6/25/09, 4:33 PM
essaybee said...: I didn't mean to say that Obamacare would cover curative care in the very old, I just meant to suggest that the doctor was more likely motivated by compassion for the patient than by the money. Guess I could have stated that more clearly.; 6/25/09, 4:36 PM
Salamandyr said...: Essaybee,

I didn't really mean to go off on you; but I do disagree that there isn't an underlying on the part of these medical regulators to let the inconvenient "die off" to free up resources for the more healthy and the ones with more photogenic illnesses.; 6/25/09, 4:45 PM
Jim said...: essaybee -

I don't disagree that being motivated by compassion is a bad thing, but there was no discussion in the clip about "compassion" or even "pallative care."

Neither my wife nor I would have been shocked by anything of the sort. It was the blatant, in-your-face, "it's all about the money" attitude.

I would like to think that all doctors would fight hard against this sort of thing to ensure that our last days are filled with compassion. But there sure wasn't any being shown last night by this doctor or Obama himself.; 6/25/09, 4:53 PM
KCFleming said...: Oh us doctors will be compassionate as hell when we pull the plug at 70. No treatments, just lotsa compassion.

Well, you oldsters may not go gently into that good night, but you will go.

Bye!; 6/25/09, 4:58 PM
Jim said...: holdfast -

"If there really is some segment of destitute citizens who lack any care, then maybe look at expanding and reforming Medicade, but the current proposal will kill of most private care within a generation - leaving a "Public" system for 90%+ of the population and private only for the super-wealthy."

1) Lots of articles have been written about the composition of the "uninsured" in this country. Once you do all the math, you're actually only talking about 1-2% of the population is truly "uninsured," and public hospitals are already required to treat them if they go to the emergency room.

2) What makes you think that the 90/10 split you mentioned isn't exactly what Democrats want? Much like the two-tier system that existed in the Soviet Union, the Committee members were able to live a life of luxury while the rest of the country toiled in poverty. That works out great if you're one of the Committee Members: you have power and wealth and no one will ever be able rise through the social ranks to challenge your position in society. If that sounds like "limousine liberalism" to you then you're painfully close to the mark.

What's always funny about the vast majority of people who are arguing for Leftist politics is that they always assume that they will wind up as one of the Committe members instead of one of people toiling in poverty. Guess what? There aren't going to be nearly enough chairs left when the music stops playing, and that will be the day that our Leftists will be horrified to find out that they've been played for fools all along.

Here's a hint: if you're not, today, right now, attending the cocktail parties in Manhattan or private dinners in Washington where the rich and powerful Democrats congregate: you're one of the useful idiots who will be left without a chair when the music stops.

It'll be too late for "I told you so" then, and far, far too late for "I'm sorry. You tried to warn me" too.; 6/25/09, 5:10 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: "But you want to bet Ted Kennedy would still be able to get his cancer drugs?"

We're all Mary Jo Kopechnes now.; 6/25/09, 5:49 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: garage, some things are just obvious without having to see them. Like knowing Hillary has a giant ass.

Well, that's just her own fault. She could have divorced him at any time..; 6/25/09, 6:35 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: garage, some things are just obvious without having to see them. Like knowing Hillary has a giant ass.

Well, that's just her own fault. She could have divorced him at any time..

Ok DBQ you win. I mean that was fricking brilliant. :-); 6/25/09, 6:48 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Ok DBQ you win. I mean that was fricking brilliant. :-)

/bow

:-D; 6/25/09, 7:17 PM
Penny said...: I watched the show, and I am sorry I did. Not because I was bored, but because it was frightening. I know this may be a bit of an overstatement, but I couldn't help thinking about the Jews being marched to their death in Nazi Germany. All along the way, people had "hope". How tragic. There was no hope, just tactics to keep them calm on their way to die.

Then I kind of flashed back to the first few minutes of Obama's show where everyone in the audience raised their hand to wanting changes to our healthcare system. We should be screaming bloody murder at some of the things he had the audacity to say last night.; 6/25/09, 7:23 PM
Anonymous said...: This will cost roughly $4T to not cover everybody and to underpay doctors.

Sounds like a great idea.; 6/26/09, 1:13 PM