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EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Killing Grandma: How Sarah Palin Won the Healthcare Debate

By: Erick Erickson (Diary)  |  August 21st, 2009 at 08:48 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

My newspaper column went up after midnight last night and already one lefty is frothing at the mouth.

What did I do? Nothing more than quote Democrats’ own words.

Oh, and I pointed out that Sarah Palin won the healthcare debate after using the phrase “death panels.”

You can check out the column here. Here’s an excerpt:

Ezekiel Emanuel, Rahm Emanuel’s brother and one of Obama’s health-care advisors, wrote in a January 2009 white paper that health care should be rationed in a way that “promot[es] and reward[s] social usefulness.” He said age could play a factor in determining who can and cannot access health-care resources.

Emanuel also wrote, “[S]ervices provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens [in the body politic] are not basic and should not be guaranteed. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia.”

Obama addressed this too, saying, “Whether, sort of in the aggregate, society making those decisions to give my grandmother, or everybody else’s aging grandparents or parents, a hip replacement when they’re terminally ill is a sustainable model, is a very difficult question. … And that’s part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.”

. . . .

We will spend money we don’t have to pay for health care, or we will prioritize who gets treatment. It is an inevitable fact of life that the more the government outlays to keep you alive, the more your life becomes subject to a cost/benefit analysis.

Be sure to read the whole column and take note of the leftist crying in the comments.

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COMMENTS

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  • Jack_Savage

    The unhinged lefty yelps about assisted suicide and euthanasia, when you were talking about leaving Grandma to wither and die.

    She doesn’t realize it is a distinction without a difference. I am sure Dr. Emmanuel does.

  • http://www.nighttwister.com NightTwister

    that have eviscerated the insurance companies for years, going back to the height of the HMOs, for doing the very same thing?

    I tell you, it’s not just going to be Grandma. You can add in anyone with a disability that requires expensive care for a lifetime.

  • Section9

    Looks like they’ll do the reconciliation dodge. For once I agree with Peggy Noonan, whose column of today points out that even if Obama wins, he loses.

    Palin may have framed this issue properly (state control vs. individual liberty, something that no-one else had done in quite the way she had been able to….), but Facebook posts are no substitute for speechmaking. That needs to happen. She’s really the only one who can draw the kind of media attention that Obama has.

    Sorry kids, but Mitt Romney showed up at a Chris Christie event back in May and drew fifty people. Palin can draw thousands. I don’t care what Krauthammer and the rest of the Washington conservative commentariat think of her-if she can help the Movement Conservatives kill this monster, then she’ll be a heroine.

  • bk

    Just kidding of course.

    It’s funny to watch the lefties act like Rumpelstiltskin when you use their own words against them. But they of course have no problem in using the old “there are those who say that…” ploy instead of using actual quotes of people on the right. The best example of that recently was Joy Behar quoting what some lefty said about Michelle Malkin’s book instead of quoting Michelle Malkin’s book directly.

  • RedBeard

    The comments remind me of Larry “Even-tempered” O’Donnell shouting on TV at the top of his lungs, “LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! LIAR!” to John O’Neill, while refusing to engage in the slightest bit of rational discussion about the facts.

    Questioning the leftist orthodoxy usually kick-starts a loud and deranged rant. Apparently the idea is to drown out facts and avoid talking about them by engaging in red-hot raging emotional outbursts. This example does not disappoint.

  • GB221

    The grassroot Conservative Movement must continue to put pressure on the conservative establishment to lend real support to Palin, the movement’s natural leader; then she will finally start operating without the enormous handicaps that she has had so far and the Conservative Movement will gain much strength from this.

  • Tbone

    of some hick town or is there some other Sarah Palin?

    ROFLMAO.

    See why she scares the crap out of the Left?

  • Marcus_Traianus

    that all government does is ration and run fiscally unsound operations that would not last a week in the real world? Think about it. Every time the government does something, it uses YOUR money.

    If a government function doesn’t work, they take more money from YOU or give you less of what they are rationing.

    When has the government ever saved you money? The federal budget grows every year. If they could save money why hasn’t it ever happened? “Free” simply means someone else gets the check.

    It is REALLY simple and I tried to use short sentences and mono syllabic words.

  • Section9

    …are basically Banana Republic Bankrupt Programs. Trying to convince the Progressives of the Madness of their ways, of course, is akin to King Canute demanding the tide to go back.

  • Section9

    …who I’ll be a lot more impressed with when she starts getting out on the chicken dinner circuit.

    Although, I must admit that she’s done enough damage to Teh Won from where she’s sitting.

  • Nodamidis

    . . . it was over for ObamaCare. She nailed it beautifully.

  • Bartlett

    uoth Ezekiel Emmanuel:

    “[S]ervices provided to individuals who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens [in the body politic] are not basic and should not be guaranteed.”

    Translation: if you can’t vote, you don’t deserve to live. Which, for advocates of the disabled, ought to give just a little pause. All those developmentally disabled adults dependent on charity and/or Uncle Sam for their bed and board? Kill ‘em. Anybody who’s had enough of a stroke that they can’t clearly articulate their wishes? Kill ‘em. Dementia? Dead. Mental illness? Dead.

    Which is especially cruel, because every one of those groups I just named really does need a little extra health care (nothing special) and support for living, and we as a nation have supported them better than anyone else. But not any more, if the President and his “social utility”squads have their way.

    But what’s REALLY cool is that once they’re dead, they vote Democrat!

  • erp

    Quoting liberals words back to them preferably with video is their biggest fear.

  • izoneguy

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204884404574362971349563340.html?mod=rss_opinion_main

  • Ausonius

    In a diary I wrote about a week ago, I referred to the article which Dr. Emanuel co-authored on rationing health care in the future, and how to decide who receives care. The diary has the link to the complete text.

    See:

    http://www.redstate.com/ausonius/2009/08/12/your-hell-th-care-future-the-scarcity-system-of-dr-emanuels-complete-lives/

    In the text, he mentions that to make decisions based on age is “not invidious discrimination.”

    The double negative tries -but does not – conceal that he believes age discrimination should be a factor when rationing health care in a government plan. Since he is the one of the main advisers in the White House for this issue, we have a right to quote his words, and to assume that he means what he says!

    The continued use of obfuscating Orwellian language by the NObama Administration is both fascinating and frightening!

  • Jack_Savage

    This article is gaining more and more attention, as it should. It really makes me shudder – I read an article about the Emanuel family in Psychology Today that was pretty revealing, and showed the lengths to which Dr. Emanuel influences policy.

  • janis

    You had PaleMoon frothing pretty good by the end of the comment list. Congrats! I hope his/her day goes downhill from there. And that yours goes the opposite.

    Good writeup!

  • jeffreywturner

    I have often wondered if there could be anyone as obnoxious to the liberals as Paul Begala is to me. I think Palin may be the bizzaro-world Begala.

    Think about it, she is the opposite of him in every way. She is a woman, he is a man (albeit not a very manly one). She is attractive in every way imaginable, he is lucky if his own mother thinks he’s cute. She kills with kindness and logic, he kills with lies and cheapshots.

  • djemi

    http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=120607013434&ref=mf

    via

    http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/21/palin-no-health-care-reform-without-tort-reform/

  • azaeroprof

    No matter what you think of her, or what you think of her resignation, or what you think of her as a potential national candidate down the road. This incident has shown the power she *now* possesses. Just set aside your personal feelings about her one way or the other, and think about this: One woman, with one or two POSTS ON FACEBOOK FOR GOD’S SAKES, plays a pivotal role in winning a debate on health care, a debate that SHE WASN’T EVEN PART OF!

    OK, now think about how much we could accomplish with that kind of power if she could speak out (and I agree she should start speaking as well as writing) as the voice of a basically united conservative movement. It doesn’t make a hootin’ holler’s difference what you think of her as a candidate. And some of these “establishment conservatives” (Gingrich, et al) need to suck up their egos a little bit and contact her and help strategize the most effective means to utilize her ability to attract attention. Right now it seems like they’re leaving her out in the wilderness hoping she stumbles so they can take her place. That does not help the movement.

  • janis

    share their place in the limelight, isn’t it? Snark, snark. If they thought for one minute that supporting her would elevate them, they’d do it in a heartbeat. They’re just waiting right now to see if Sarah can actually command millions (in both money and people), or if she will remain on the sidelines as no more than a voice.

    For them the questions should be: What’s more important here? My personal aggrandizement or the success of conservatism for my country?

    I’m fairly certain that we’d know the answers to those questions for a number of politicians, wouldn’t we?

  • Tbone

    I need to find out who she is.

  • cclive

    individual control vs. private insurer control? Private insurers can deny payment of care and services just as the state control could.

  • diakrioi

    “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”

  • GCBWI
  • E Pluribus Unum
  • Flagstaff

    that although the SCUM took off on her because of this statement:

    The Democrats promise that a government health care system will reduce the cost of health care, but as the economist Thomas Sowell has pointed out, government health care will not reduce the cost; it will simply refuse to pay the cost. And who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course. The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama?s ?death panel? so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ?level of productivity in society,? whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil.

    all the sturm und drang that developed around it focused on deriding her “death panel” phrase, which was misinterpreted (and not contradicted by Palin) as being about end-of-life counseling. In context, it is clear she wasn’t writing about end-of-life counseling. She was writing about rationing of critical, life-sustaining, care.

    So, even though her argument was hijacked and not put back on track, she still won. That was a result of conservatives closing ranks behind her, not peeling off to nitpick that she didn’t defend herself well.

    The Tea Party Express arrives in Flagstaff on August 31.

  • vidsweet

    Agreed, *azaeroprof* & *GB221* we need to recruit Palin supporters and combine our talents into action.

    Here?s a premise that I had and I said, back when Palin resigned, before this healthcare turning of the tides: ?A NATION WILL NEED A LEADER. A LEADER WILL NEED ORDINARY AMERICANS LIKE YOU.? Watch that spread of grassroots throughout the nation and tell me what you think–it’s looking positive!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCGMVGCD1Y

    Let?s look at that video and Palin?s resignation in hindsight?back then, many supporters were confused, maybe even heartsick about it. But we just had to have faith in her, and today, we know Sarah WAS CORRECT in her statements. She is MORE EFFECTIVE now that she?s no longer governor, and I thank her for taking a stand on this important issue! She was able to move the conversation into a NEW DIRECTION! She articulated a nation?s thoughts and gave us voice. It?s the voice of a leader, albeit a voice of an ex-governor. Then it took townhall people to listen to her word, and it was these ordinary americans who elevated the rhetoric and conversation. LEADER, meet ORDINARY AMERICANS! No wonder support for the gov, and american values are on the rise, as seen in the video link! It can?t be stopped, her message is everywhere, spreading throughout the nation. Just look at her supporters? reactions? watch the video.

    Watch this, remain engaged and active, because she has raised the call to arms, and sarah NEEDS all of us to do our part. Recruit others, and increase Palin?s supporters! PLEASE SPREAD the link to everyone you know and post on the blogs. E-mail this to everyone, post on conservative & liberal blogs!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCGMVGCD1Y

  • 6eorge Jetson

    they’d play Vince Young (3rd pick overall) instead of Kerry Collins (led the Titans to a 13-3 record last year).

    Put the best players on the field. If she’s winning, give her the resources to do some damage!!!!

    Of course, I would actually like the good guys to win this health care battle. Not so sure whether that’s Priority One at the RNC et. al.

  • 6eorge Jetson

    My doctor has done that.

    A doctor couldn’t do that to the Single Payer monopoly. So we’ll get fewer doctors/doctors going through the motions/even shorter visits.

    Lefties always forget that there are two parties in a transaction. I don’t think fewer doctors will benefit our health care.

  • webmonkeydc

    Everything you need to know about the health care hubbub http://obamaprayers.blogspot.com/2009/08/health-care-hubbub.html

  • vidsweet

    I AGREE, gb221, Palin articulated our concerns and she is the voice of the majority of this country (whether they know it or not, whether they voted for her or not). Everyone, please send this video of Palin’s popularity and the increasing national support for her.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgCGMVGCD1Y

    It’s interesting– I read a poll that said Palin doesn’t do well with older Americans. And yet with one Facebook post, she became their voice. Maybe elder Americans will start to realize what fools they have been to vote for NOBAMA!

    Send the video link to everyone, and let the elderly and the ill know that Palin is on their side!

  • vernestrickland

    ERICK: YOU’RE DOING NOBLE WORK, SIR. THIS POST WAS MARVELOUS. YOUR HEADLINES ARE INSPIRED, AND ANY CONSERVATIVE WORTH HIS SALT CAN’T PASS THEM UP. I’M A FAN. CAN YOU TELL?

    PLEASE CHECK OUT MY STUFF AT

    http://www.examiner.com/x-20074-Raleigh-Conservative-Examiner

    I AM TRASHING OBAMACARE, COMMUNISM, ABORTION, ATHEISM, AND OTHER MALIGNANCIES ATTACKING AMERICA.

    I’LL KEEP THE LIGHT ON FOR YOU.

    VERNE STRICKLAND, WILMINGTON, NC

  • Jeff Woehrle

    Obama and his henchmen have made it plain what they intend to do with their healthcare scheme. We can take their words at face value, or accept the spin they now want to attach to those words.

    And the lies come crumbling down.

  • booksum

    I agree..Palin is the only Republican that can draw the kind of attention Obama can and as for Joe Scarborough, Charles Krauthhammer and their ilk…blinded by that rarefied Washington DC air that gets most of these guys..REpublicans and Democrats alike

  • sapwolf

    Sarah is so much in touch with the average American. She knows what is in the minds of those of us over 65. She now knows what is in the minds of those with special needs children.

    Her instincts are so right on.

    She sits in her ‘forward observer’ position, and calls in artillery strikes accurately and efficiently, then boogies out to set up the next observation post.

    She is in the political zone and knows her people:

    The American People