Once again, we return to The Two Faces of Obama, a series inspired by Greg Hengler at Townhall.  These feature Barack Obama making diametrically opposed claims in the same speech in order to argue for his policies.  The last time, President Obama assured us that our health care under ObamaCare would still be handled by the same doctors we already have, just after Obama pointed out that these same doctors would steal a foot or a set of tonsils if they needed to pad their bank accounts.

In his Portsmouth town hall on August 11th, Obama pointed to Medicare as a rousing success, while at the same time warning of its imminent collapse.

At the 17-minute mark we hear this:

“Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path. Medicare is slated to go into the red in about eight to ten years. I don’t know if people are aware of that. If I was a senior citizen the thing I’d be worried about right now is Medicare starts running out of money because we haven’t done anything to make sure we are getting a good bang for our buck, when it comes to health care”.

Five minutes later:

“I do think it’s important for, particularly seniors who currently receive Medicare, to understand that if we’re able to get something right, like Medicare, then there should be a little more confidence that maybe, the government can have a role, not the dominant role, but a role in making sure the people are treated fairly when it comes to insurance.”

Obama’s currently on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, getting some R&R after seven whole months on the job.  Maybe he can use the time to decide whether Medicare is a success or failure, whether doctors are healers or villains, and whether he should punt on the entire idea of government-run health care when his administration keeps having to spin away failure after failure.  (h/t: Pain Train, who noticed it in Mark Steyn’s NR column)

Got an Obamateurism of the Day? If you see a foul-up by Barack Obama, e-mail it to me at [email protected] with the quote and the link to the Obamateurism. I’ll post the best Obamateurisms on a daily basis, depending on how many I receive. Include a link to your blog, and I’ll give some link love as well. And unlike Slate, I promise to end the feature when Barack Obama leaves office.

Illustrations by Chris Muir of Day by Day. Be sure to read the adventures of Sam, Zed, Damon, and Jan every day!