‘The Road We’ve Traveled:’ A misleading account of Obama’s mother and her insurance dispute

Washington Post ^ | March 19, 2012 | Glenn Kessler

[COUNTrecount]

Narrator Tom Hanks: “He knew from experience the cost of waiting [on health care reform].”

President Obama : “When my mom got cancer, she wasn’t a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all her resources”

Michelle Obama: “She developed ovarian cancer, never really had good, consistent insurance. That’s a tough thing to deal with, watching your mother die of something that could have been prevented. I don’t think he wants to see anyone go through that.”

Hanks: “And he remembered the millions of families like of his who feel the pressure of rising costs and the fear of being denied or dropped from coverage.”

“The Road We’ve Traveled” is a very slick and impressively produced campaign film—sheer catnip for Obama fans. There are a number of facts and figures that could be challenged, but for now we are going to focus on this sequence. The series of words and images is an excellent example of how such films can create a misleading impression, while skirting as close as possible to the edge of falsehood.

The sequence, in fact, evokes a famous story that candidate Obama told during the 2008 campaign—that his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, fought with her insurer over whether her cancer was a pre-existing condition that disqualified her from coverage.

But the story was later called into question by Dunham’s biographer. The fact that Obama’s initial claim is not directly repeated suggests the filmmakers knew there was a problem with the campaign story, but they clearly wanted to keep some version of it in the film.

The Facts

During the 2008 campaign, Obama frequently suggested his mother had to fight with her health-insurance company for treatment of her cancer because it considered her disease to be a pre-existing condition. In one of the presidential debates ..

[Buckeye McFrog]

apparently Moochelle has a God Complex and thinks she can prevent anyone from getting cancer.

[EQAndyBuzz]

So Obama lied, the media didn’t vet the story before filming it, a leftwing actor bought into the fraud and it is now a campaign commercial given free time on the airwaves.

Nothing to see here.. move along.

[Albion Wilde]

When people don't believe in God, or rather they believe the government can and should be God, they can't accept life's difficulties. Ovarian cancer still is very difficult to identify early enough, and then it was even more difficult. Most women who got it only became aware after the symptoms had progressed too far. We had one in our family. Tragic.

Life is hard for people who don't put their heads in the sand, blame others and immediately ask who they can sue when misfortune hits. Lefties think life shouldn't be hard.

[Girlene]

LOL, WaPo gives this film Three Pinnochios

[Netizen]

She liked to skip paying taxes too.

Obama has said that his and Michelle Obama's "student loan debt was higher than [their] mortgage". This may be less a function of their high student loans than a low mortgage payment; public records show that they put down $110,000 on their three bedroom condo in 1993. Forty percent down will dramatically reduce interest and principal payments. Given that the Obamas didn't have children for another six years, their decision to purchase a larger condo instead of paying off some of those student loans that they constantly complain about doesn't speak much of their money skills.

President Obama : “When my mom got cancer, she wasn’t a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all her resources”

Michelle Obama: “She developed ovarian cancer, never really had good, consistent insurance. That’s a tough thing to deal with, watching your mother die of something that could have been prevented. I don’t think he wants to see anyone go through that.”

In 1995, Stanley Ann returned to Hawaii, where she died of ovarian cancer.

The Obama File

So, why didn't he help his mother?

[The_Media_never_lie]

A free country and a lying media are incompatible.

[Graewoulf]

Meanwhile, the drumbeat of Dictator Baby-Doc Barak continues to grow louder - - .

[GreatMan]

Maybe because she was Caucasian?

[ridesthemiles]

Sooooo—
Someone tell me how much health care Indonesia grants to their residents???

Stanley Ann went there on her own. Nobody had a gun to her head.

Leave the USA & then get no ‘decent’ health care?

Not our fault, you JackWagon!!!

The tone of this narrative is just sickening.

Over & Over, one is led to believe that ‘decent health care’—paid for by millions of OTHERS would keep a person from DYING!!!!

Is there a single ‘reporter’ in the entire USA who can structure a sentence properly?

Last week, Diane Sawyer & the current ‘health expert doctor’ were saying that eating red meat made you die!!!!!This prattle went on for over 3 full minutes in the evening news!!!

I have news for all these bleeding hearts:

WE ALL ARE GOING TO DIE !!!!!!!

[FourPeas]

So, why didn't he help his mother?

I had the misfortune of having a ring-side seat to watching a narcissist "care" for his mother as she was dying from cancer. She spent the last 2-3 weeks of her life in the hospital, much in ICU (this was the late 1970's). As a dutiful son, he visited her every week for at least a half hour or so. She died alone; he hadn't been to visit her in nearly a week.

[Walkingfeather]

Hold on.... are you saying you were in the room, ward icu with obama and his mother during this time?

[FourPeas]

Different narcissist.

[mindgames]

If we take him at his word here:

President Obama : “When my mom got cancer, she wasn’t a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all her resources”

...then how could he or his family have previously come up with the money to send him to an expensive private high school in Hawaii and THREE expensive colleges?

Occidental tuition—$58,432 in 2012

Columbia College tuition—$48,188 to $59,208 in 2012 x 3 = $156K average

Harvard law school tuition—$ 75,800 in 2012 x 2 = $151,600

Total college years costs: $229K

Very, very odd.

[mindgames]

Correction—total would be $366K, at least in 2012 bucks.

[Whenifhow]

In this post, first is the video by Tom Hanks which you may have already seen. But there is also a video on the blog of Beck on GBTV talking about “the Road We’ve traveled” (Title of Hanks documentary) and “the Road we are traveling” (Title of a book by Stewart Chase) (see notes below) He connects the dots from 1942 progressives to today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2POembdArVo

Did Beck Just Uncover the Origins of Obama’s New Documentary?

http://noisyroom.net/blog/2012/03/19/did-beck-just-uncover-the-origins-of-obamas-new-documentary/

Related thread
• Tom Hanks In Obama Documentary: “He Would Not Dwell In Blame”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2860520/posts

Beck’s Video Notes:

Stewart Chase – “The Road we are Traveling” Book title
Coined the term – the New Deal
From the 1942 – change the Free market enterprise
A Fabian Socialist – Eugenicist
Friend of Walter Lipman
Member of Woodrow Wilson Administration
Said we would Change free market enterprise

“After the we will clear up the mystery – it isn’t socialism, or capitalism – it is X.... we’ll define it later”

“We could call it socialism or communism, we could call it state capitalism.”

The war will give us a chance to finish this – if we do this right, we would not be able to turn the ship around

State Capitalism

Strong Centralized government
Executive arm growing at the expense of the other arms
Control of Banks, SEC, credit
Underwriting of employment
Social security,
Food, Housing, & Medical care
Deficit spending to underwrite
Abandonment of gold
Control of foreign trade, natural resources, energy, transportation, agricultural production, organized labor, enlistment of youth corps, national service
Heavy taxation, with emphasis on estates and incomes of the rich
State control of communications and propaganda

This book was not an indictment – it was saying this is great.

This is “the Road we are traveling” (we are)
Anyone who has studied progressivism – now it is past tense – we have traveled it.

Cass Sunstein wanted this job because he is a fan of Edward Bernays – those people who agree with Sunstein –these guys would know this book and theory – they know the players.

It is State capitalism.
Who is Stewart Chase? If we do it right, we will not be able to turn the ship.

We were traveling this road in 1942, but now the documentary is the “Road we have traveled”.

[AuntB]

Bumping this article for this election cycle, mainly because it’s from the Washington post, with real facts!!!