Obamateurism of the Day

And whether he put the state of Hawaii up to lying about it on his behalf, too!

ProfessorMiao on July 23, 2009 at 8:16 AM

Hey Hawaii, damn nice State you got there, be a real shame if something, oh like a north Korean nuclear tipped missile were to happen to it…

doriangrey on July 23, 2009 at 8:19 AM

Touché!

maverick muse on July 23, 2009 at 8:24 AM

Yesterday I relayed a precise point Tinian made /Ace.

Health care is not the issue, health insurance is. And insurance is not a right or privilege, but a service one purchases.

This morning, Erik @ RedState observed Mr. Malleable’s shuffle, So Now It’s “Health Insurance Reform.”

Did you notice Barack Obama’s shifting strategy? It is no longer “health care reform” that Obama agitates for. It is “health insurance reform.”

There is a big difference according to polling. People recognize that American healthcare is really the best in the world, despite Obama’s best efforts to claim otherwise.

It is the insurance system that people don’t like or trust.

But now Obama opens himself up to a serious problem. According to Obama, he has “great health insurance, and so does every member of Congress”.

That begs the question — if we’re going to have a taxpayer funded health insurance program, why shouldn’t we just allow every American to get on the President’s and Congress’ healthcare plans?

No reform is needed. Just open up that plan to the American people. Offer it across state lines just like a Blue Cross-Blue Shield Plan.

Keep it simple.

maverick muse on July 23, 2009 at 8:30 AM

The big story today is how Obama inflamed racial tension in his news conference.
JiangxiDad on July 23, 2009 at 8:26 AM

Stupid is as stupid does.

Power Line did a follow up on the Prof’s storyline; the “victim” substantiates the police report.

From yo-yoing to mau-mauing, posted by Paul.

“I studied the history of racism. I know every incident in the history of racism from slavery to Jim Crow segregation,” Gates told The Washington Post on Tuesday in his first interview about the episode. [note - really, everyone single one?] “I haven’t even come close to being arrested. I would have said it was impossible.”–The Washington Post, Krissah Thompson

Gates is actually admitting plenty here. For if he has lived as a black man in America for 58 years without ever being mistreated by the police, to the point that he believed being arrested was an impossibility in his case, that speaks rather well for the police forces of America.

The Post reporter characterizes these events this way: “The sight of two black men forcing open a door prompted an emergency call to the police.” But the reporter has no basis for claiming that race played any part in the call. Indeed, Gates himself says he is “glad that someone would care enough about my property to report what they thought was some untoward invasion.” Whatever else one might say about Gates, he is more rational on the subject than Krissah Thompson of the Washington Post.

What happened after the police officer arrived is in dispute. Here is Gates’ account as reported by the Post:

The white officer who arrived found Gates in the house (the driver was gone) and asked him to step outside. Gates refused, and the officer followed him in. Gates showed him his ID, which included his address, then demanded that the officer identify himself. The officer did not comply. . . .[Gates] then followed the officer outside, saying repeatedly, “Is this how you treat a black man in America?”

The police deny that the officer refused to identify himself. But notice that even in Gates’ version, the officer merely confirms that Gates owns the house and then withdraws. Gates keeps the matter alive by following the officer and repeatedly accusing him of racism.

The police say that Gates did this in a “loud and tumultuous” way. The officer tried to calm Gates down, according to the department, but Gates would not desist, saying instead that the officer did not know who he was “messing with.”

Gates does not deny these specific assertions, at least not as far as the Post reports. Instead, he argues that nothing he did justified his arrest. He also claims that, because he weighs only 150 pounds, he would not “give flak to a big white guy with a gun.” But in his own telling (as reported by the Post) he did give the officer some flak. And if the officer was behaving in an unthreatening way (as seems to have been the case), and if Gates was very angry (as seems to have been the case), then he might well have acted “loudly and tumultuously” notwithstanding his slender build. Keep in mind that Gates must have been extremely tired after his long trip. Anger, in response to even a well-intentioned intrusion by the police, would be a natural reaction.

Nonetheless, abusing a police officer is a low percentage move, and this is true regardless of racial considerations. Another Post reporter, Neely Tucker, makes this very point in a piece called “When the Cops Are Called In, Anger Is a Dangerous Weapon to Brandish.” Thus, while Gates may or may not have a case that his conduct did not rise to a level that would justify an arrest, his claim that his arrest was racially motivated seems weak on the facts presented in the Post’s sympathetic story.

JiangxiDad, as you point out, “this is true regardless of racial considerations” doesn’t fly with Obama who disregards truth and makes EVERYTHING about himself to inflame racially charges societal tensions.

maverick muse on July 23, 2009 at 8:44 AM

Actually, the best musical representation for The One is Rap, viciously threatening extreme violence with acute antipathy for the individual and humanity at large.

maverick muse on July 23, 2009 at 9:08 AM

OneVision on July 23, 2009 at 8:59 AM

yea…I wondered that too. What the heck did that question have to do with healthcare?

becki51758 on July 23, 2009 at 9:07 AM

Absolutely spot on, OneVision.

becki, the press proved that the potus wasn’t the only one in the room with attention deficit disorder.

maverick muse on July 23, 2009 at 9:13 AM