Posted on 09/23/2013 10:34:01 AM PDT by Rusty0604
Soon-to-be-candidate Obama, then an Illinois senator, was thinking about turning down an invitation to speak at a big health care conference sponsored by the progressive group Families USA [in January 2007], when two aides, Robert Gibbs and Jon Favreau, hit on an idea that would make him appear more prepared and committed than he actually was at the moment.
Why not just announce his intention to pass universal health care by the end of his first term?…
“We needed something to say,” recalled one of the advisers involved in the discussion. “I can’t tell you how little thought was given to that thought other than it sounded good. So they just kind of hatched it on their own. It just happened. It wasn’t like a deep strategic conversation.”… I can’t quote much more due to fair use but you should read the rest to see how the pattern recurred during the 2008 campaign. Not until two months after he made the promise described above did he bother to get up to speed on health-care policy, and that was only because Hillary destroyed him over it at an SEIU candidate forum.
What’s striking about this story is how it mirrors the genesis of his half-assed “red line” on Syria. That was also the product of an idle remark that sounded good at the time on a subject that Obama obviously didn’t consider a high priority.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Well who ever thought there was MORE to it than that?
Oh, so the takeover of our medical system hadn’t been planned for years? And Hillary’s push for it during the Clinton administration was all in my imagination?
Yeah, right.
remember Clinton holding up that national healthcare card?
The original article from which allahpundit is quoting appeared in Politico, written by Carrie Budoff Brown and Glenn Thrush. So not worth much, in my view. YMMV.
“Not until two months after he made the promise described above did he bother to get up to speed on health-care policy, and that was only because Hillary destroyed him over it at an SEIU candidate forum.”
Read again.
I think it shows him to be the empty suit that he is. Just saying whatever the voters want to hear to get elected.
You lost me. You don’t really think universal healthcare was an Obama invention, do you? A neat-sounding idea-of-the-moment, that two months later was investigated further, and was later developed into the present monstrosity?
bump
According to what I read, it was added to his campaign rhetoric by his handlers because he was competing with Hillary and she was running on it. I don’t see anywhere that it claims to be his invention.
That sums up the entire Democrat strategy on almost every issue.
It sounds good ... to the moochers that elect us.
And before ya know it, POOF! A “throwaway applause line” morphs into the biggest industry takeover, government boondoggle, and liberty infringement in the nation’s history. /s
Please, FRiend, don’t be this gullible. Sure, Obama is kinda dumb. But this was planned long before we ever heard of the guy.
We all knew Hillary intended to carry out this plan if elected. Now Obama (or his handlers) thinks he can shrug it off with an “Oops, did I do that?”
Perhaps. We know that absent the marionette strings he is capable of gaffes of all sorts. But I find it difficult to believe that, with healthcare sure to be a huge issue in the campaign, the issue had not been addressed by he and his handlers. Also this story wasn’t ferreted out by some intrepid reporters-it was fed to them by Obama’s people. It was put out for political ends. Thus it seems a bit naive to take it at face value.
Oh, I know it was planned. If anything, maybe this is part of the Obama “I didn’t have anything to do with it” excuse like Rush says.
Maybe this?
“People do not associate Obama with his agenda, and that’s because he’s permanently campaigning. He’s running against his own agenda, by design, on purpose. He’s running against what’s happening. He makes people think that he doesn’t like what’s happening and he’s trying to fix it when in fact everything that’s happening is precisely because he wants it to and has made it happen.”
Rush
Yup, you’re probably right.
Maybe.
I kind of believe Obama really didn't have a plan... after all, when push came to shove, he just said "pass a health-care plan" and let Pelosi and Reid take over while he kicked back and took credit for the end result.
Except that I don’t think Obama knows or understands much. He bumbles and stumbles, and so we’re prone to underestimate him...when it’s not him doing all this, but those pulling his strings. So he just smiles and shrugs, and our attention is distracted.
Jon Faverau the crappy director and even crappier actor?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.