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To Channel Michael Dukakis: I Seriously Can’t Believe We Lost to This Guy

In a world where President Obama is "eloquent," maybe government-run health care really isn't government-run... (and other paradoxes of our times)

By: Jeff Emanuel (Diary)  |  August 11th, 2009 at 04:59 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

I don’t know if I’ve seen a worse public speaker in my lifetime more lionized for his public speaking ability than President Barack Obama (D-IL). The homage paid to him by pundits and anchors across the country for his supposedly unique combination of intelligence and eloquence is shown almost by the day to be as misplaced as effusive praise for Vice President Joe Biden’s (D-Slave State) thoughtful, precise manner of speaking would be.

The difference is, you don’t see people tripping all over themselves to praise Biden’s wisdomousness (to use a term from “Friends), or calling for him to make more public appearances as a counter to dipping personal and proposal popularity numbers. You do — inexplicably — see that with Obama, the architect of so many gaffes just one national campaign into his career (and six months into his presidency) that he already rivals the eight years of President Bush in quotable foibles.

“Fifty-seven states”? “Good morning, Sunshine”? “Ten thousand dead – and entire town destroyed”? Give an asthmatic “a breathayzer–inhalater–er, inhaler”?

Now the latest: Today, in defense of his unwavering determination to establish a government-run health insurance entity to compete with existing private insurers (which his Congressional allies are firmly behind as a means to government-run health care as the only option), Obama made a classic argument for…keeping the government out of the market.

The video:

The quote:

If you think about it, uh…uh…uh, UPS and FedEx are doing just fine.

[pause]

Right? Th-The, uh, no, they are! I mean, i-it’s-it’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.

That statement was followed by a long pause, during which one can only assume Obama was struggling to keep up with what he had just said and wondering why he left his Binky home for this appearance (and, perhaps, was wishing Joe Biden was there to take some attention away from his abject blunder).

“UPS and FedEx are doing just fine.” Yes, they are — and their history shows what real competition between private entities can do for a market.

“It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” Again, absolutely true; the Post Office has any number of problems, and the only reasons it is still in existence despite providing a level of service and reliability that would drive a private entity out of business are its monopoly on mail delivery and the fact that, because it is government-run, it can lose an unlimited amount of money and remain both in business and in the competition.

There’s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the Post Office’s existence in the package-delivery marketplace has had the effect of forcing FedEx and UPS to improve their service or to become more competitive.

This brings up a very important question: Why, with the coverage equivalents of FedEx and UPS already serving the American people (at least, as well as they can under a mound of cost-increasing regulation), would we have any desire to hand over our health care to the same crew of failures that runs the Post Office, which even the President concedes is a failure?

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COMMENTS

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  • Rod_Patrick

    But I agree with you on the every content of the diary except the word “gaffe”.

    It’s not a gaffe. It’s the truth. LOL!

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      …to tell the truth :-)

      • Rod_Patrick

        When I was watching it, I thought it was only me who “GOT” confused on the Postal Office blah blah.

        I just concluded that it was not a very well staged townhall for the One.

        But Geezh! You get it too. I think Michelle Malkin too, and so many others.

        OKEY. PLEASE ACCEPT MY APOLOGY.

        IT’S INDEED A GAFFE!!!

        ROFLMAO.

    • bs

      but fifteen-mile-long comment titles are the sole territory of Gamecock. You simply must stop that.

      ;-)

      • Rod_Patrick

        No competition with GC.

        Geezh!

  • E Pluribus Unum

    one can see the strings attached to the Obama character. At one point you can even see the shadow of the manipulator on the wall.

    The shadow looks for all the world like………

    Nah. Couldn’t be.

    Tommy Crown? Is that you?

    • Rod_Patrick

      Now that’s a fishy remark worthy of reporting to the WH.

      LOL!

    • Richard Mullins

      because he can’t seem to not tell everyone what his intentions are. O just can’t be without TOTUS and be on message. EPU, do you think he’s having a Ann Richards moment?

  • ColdWarrior

    and I was just about to post the same sort of Diary (unfortunately my notebook crashed and Jeff beat me too it during he reboot) as this was just too hilarious — Teleprompter Boy goes off teleprompter and steps in it, as usual. Of course, the mainstream media will ignore this latest blunder.

    Several other blogs are already reporting on this and using the video clip, which is just great.

    Now if only our Republican “leaders” will freeze it, ridicule it, etc., etc. ala Alinsky.

    Thank you.

    ColdWarrior

  • justinmeister

    The conservative critique is that if government provides an insurance option that competes with private insurance, the private insurance won’t stand a chance.

    Well, the post office is a public option for mail delivery, while fed ex and UPS are private options. Last time I checked, those companies are doing just fine. Where’s the gaffe?

    No one is proposing a single-payer system, or a socialized system, so just like the post office vs FedEx/UPS, the public option will compete with private insurance. If only private insurance companies can provide quality and affordable insurance, than what is the problem with a government option?

    • http://www.marklaiminger.org Lammo
      • E Pluribus Unum

        I’m not sure yet, myself.

      • Uma Richie

        or put a bag of popcorn in the microwave while the experts get to justinmeister. Part of me also wants to cry over the lack of critical thinking skills and basic economic awareness that brought Obama to power. Please may justinmeister not be representative of the entire 52.

    • janis

      critical of his hero, the zero. If he had, he would have realized that Obama is ALL about single payer or bust. And the gaffe is in the fact that Obama admitted that private enterprise works better than the government does in delivering services.

      Does that strike a chord with you, or would you prefer to continue to believe that Obama knows what he’s talking about when he lies in one instance and then accidentally tells the truth in another? It just so happens that he’s lying when he pushes the gov. option,but refers to it as just another choice. In his plans, it’s the ONLY choice ultimately.

      • justinmeister

        I ask a question, and you guys treat me like Karl Marx.

        I don’t think any political persuasion (conservative, liberal) has a monopoly on wisdom or stupidity. The criticism of Obama in the OP seemed a bit petty, and not particularly thought provoking. If you want to criticize Obama (which you should), do it with intelligence and wit, not lame attacks on a poor answer to a townhall question.

        What I don’t understand is how a public option can simultaneously be bad at providing services (like the Post Office), yet be so popular that it destroys the private insurance industry. Unless you think Obama is lying, and he is secretly crafting sneaky plans to hand over the means of production over to the proletariat.

        • Tbone

          Saying nothing, just honking.

        • Rod_Patrick

          Marx would say:

          “Good question.”

          or:

          “Poor, justinmeister. They are mean. You must take revenge!” /snark

          Seriously, I believe that you can figure out the answer on your own.

          Just try the other line of thinking viz. the viewpoint being alluded by your own question.

          Then fairly weigh in. I’m sure you will find out who Karl Marx really is wrt Health Care system.

          My take on your original post: I WILL NOT WASTE MORE MONEY TO AN EXISTING INEFFICIENT SYSTEM.. NEITHER WILL I INVEST IN NEW, LARGER, BOLDER, BUT SAME INEFFICIENT SYSTEM.

        • nessa

          …this piece, for example:
          Health Care Bill Fact of the Day: Providing Businesses With an Incentive to End Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance
          http://www.redstate.com/jeff_emanuel/2009/08/11/health-care-bill-fact-of-the-day-providing-businesses-with-an-incentive-to-end-employer-sponsored-health-insurance/

          This was on the front page this morning, if you truly wanted answers to your questions rather than just to spout left wing tripe you would have read it and asked specific questions on that thread.

          Go back to Kos, if you want to hang around, be a hang around. That means keep your mouth shut and your eyes open. (NOTE: These aren’t Redstate Rules, just good advice. Take it or leave it.)

        • penguin2

          What did you mean by that. Was that being sarcastic? What is your point. Also, you need to read the bill. there are all kinds of provisions and regulations that eventually do away with private payer health care. Including the one if one seeks to change their plan they’ll be absorbed into the government plan. Insurance companies also will not be able to raise rates or adjust policies. They will turn around and unload their clients onto the government.

          Government run programs are Socialist in nature, whether it is Health care or otherwise. Just saying.

        • aesthete

          Here’s an analogy for ya: say you go to Walmart to get a Coke, and the Pepsi Bandit holds you up at gunpoint, takes an arbitrary amount of money from your wallet (let’s say, $3), and tells you that you can purchase one Pepsi with those funds, but that you can buy nothing else. Will you still get a Coke? Maybe, but only if the Pepsi was so atrociously and noticeably bad that it necessitates the purchase of a Coke. Now, imagine that all kinds of restrictions are put on the purchase of a Coke by the Pepsi Bandit, and that there is now a pamphlet about 20 pages in length detailing those restrictions. Would your intake of Coke remain static when confronted with having to read and follow all of these regulations? No? Then why do you think that it would remain static for HC, even if it was worse than the current HC situation?

          Put mathematically, the cost of private healthcare is now whatever public HC costs + the cost of private HC + the cost of reading and obeying the restrictions placed on private HC, to put it simply.

        • George Claghorn

          This a conservative/Republican website with conservative/Republican goals, and is a community for conservative/Republican activists.

          Don’t like it? There are other blogs.

        • Swamp_Yankee

          USPS vs. Public Plan

          1) skilled vs. unskilled

          No offense to anyone in the industry, but sorting mail and delivering mail cannot be compared to practicing medicine. Its amazing that the USPS can l screw that up, but they do. You cannot assume that the market and the people can and will absorb the same inefficiencies in the health care.

          2) not exactly the same

          USPS has frozen the private sector out of key markets. As a result, the private sector was forced to innovate and excel in a different market. While they both deliver mail, they both have different focal points.

          3) not regulated

          Postal services are hardly regulated at all. Health care and insurance is extremely regualted. The government cannot be trusted to regualted itself. It often tries, but never with the same vigor as it does the private sector. Therefore, compaines like USPS and FedEx can operate without huge audit, compliance, regualtory, litigation burdens and expenses. The private health care industry has that burden, but the public option wont. Sovreign immunity alaone mitigates most legal expenses. Common sense dictates that they wont be fined as much and wont need to incure the same level of compliance expneses

          4) quantity vs. quality.

          There are many unknowns. I grant that. But the decline in care will only felt by the minority that is actually sick. Most Americans are younger, healthy and not ill. They will often trend towards the cheapest option just because they don?t want to pay. Employers will choose the cheaper option as well. The masses that choose the cheaper options will drain premiums from the private plans who will incur high loss ratios from the people who are ill and want good care and the private option. There is no dynamic in postal delivery like this. Private delivery companies do not rely on premiums from one sector to pay for claims of another sector. Private plans cannot afford to provide quality services unless they are getting the premiums from the relatively healthy.

          • red4ever

            the post office has frozen out private means of delivering the mail. UPS and Fedex can exist in only narrowly, government defined areas. Because the Constitution sets up a U.S. Postal system, nothing can be allowed to compete in regular delivery of mail. UPS delivers packages ONLY. Fedex can only do the on-the demand, express service. There was an actual court case that allowed FedEx to exist but not really compete with the Post Office.

            So, to use Obama’s analogy — in healthcare, government will freeze out private companies, except in narrowly defined areas. There will be no real competition between the Obamacare required healthcare and buying your own medical care.

            although, I think it will be more Amtrak than US Post Office.

          • Swamp_Yankee

            I’m not sure your point.

            That’s pretty much what I meant here:

            “USPS has frozen the private sector out of key markets. As a result, the private sector was forced to innovate and excel in a different market. While they both deliver mail, they both have different focal points.”

            But that’s obviously not Obama’s focus. Just because USPS has domain over a part of postal delivery doesnt not explain why it hasn’s forced out private companies. They are not mutually exclusive. UPSP delivers packages as well. The point that liberals are trying to make is why hasn’t the UPSP forced UPS out its own market.

        • smitty

          Even if you take his comments at face value (dangerous), he said that the public option would have to be self sufficient. Given the example he used I don’t see how that’s possible. Considering the USPS is closing POs and is in the red about $8B.

          So which is it, are they going to be self sufficient? If so, how will that be accomplished considering the success (or lack of) of other govt agencies at competing with private enterprise?

    • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

      …introducing an inferior product into the marketplace, and that therefore we shouldn’t worry about a government entity competing with privates (even though it would have the chief advantages of being run by those who make the rules, and being able to run “in the red” financially ad infinetem?

      • bk

        Obama and the Congresscritters have a pool of private jets for their use and limousines available whenever they need them.

        The rest of us have various options. Amtrak (the public option), Greyhound, commercial airlines (the cadillac plan), Hertz/Avis, etc.

        So we have plans and options that are similar to theirs in that we both can get from point A to point B.

    • azaeroprof

      /blockquote
      “No one is proposing a single-payer system…”
      /endblockquote

      This entire charade is a Trojan Horse trying to slip single-payer past a public that would reject it on its face.
      Don’t take my word for it.

    • diakrioi

      who doesn’t know any better. Let’s endeavor to educate him in a respectful way.

      First, let me point out that the USPS has a monopoly on mail delivery. Their private competitors operate under an exception allowed for “emergency” delivery and are prohibited by law from delivering non-emergency mail.

      How did they get this monopoly? There is a small phrase in the constitution that says that Congress has the power, “To establish Post Offices and post Roads”. Legislators interpreted this to mean that the government has a monopoly on mail delivery. This is the way government works, Justin. They interpret laws in the way that gives them the broadest powers possible.

      What logic do they use to justify this monopoly? They claim that if mail delivery were privatized then the private companies would cherry pick the best customers and would not deliver to the poor. Sound familiar? Of course it does because it is the same language used to justify the current version of healthcare reform. The proponents claim that the evil insurance companies only insure the healthy and wealthy and leave the poor without proper healthcare. It is a lie but one that many people believe.

      So there you go young man, your civics lesson for today.

      • azaeroprof

        (what the heck does that name mean, anyway?)

        I’ll lay off the kid.

        Justin, one of the key points here is that the post office is, as diakrioi stated, constitutionally provided and was in existence long before UPS or FedEx. If these private services had come first, and there was nothing in the constitution giving the feds the right to create the P.O., there would be no need (or hopefully desire) to create an inefficient government bureaucracy to duplicate what is being done in the private sector.

        Now, re-read that last sentence (it’s a long one!), replacing “private services” with “private insurance carriers” and “P.O.” with “government-run health care system”.

        • diakrioi
        • http://jeffemanuel.net Jeff Emanuel

          ..under the tyrant Peisistratos. Post-Solon, the three factions were the Paralioi (men of the coast), the Pediaki (men of the plains), and the Diakrioi (hill-men).

          Peisistratos, who became tyrant of Athens in the last days of its pre-democratic governance, led the hill faction, which was the poorest of the three due to its lack of arable land and access to coastal trade.

          • diakrioi

            Obviously, I’m not supporting a tyrant but I come from a long line of mountain people. The hills of ancient Greece were known as the mining district because that was their chief product. My family is also a family of miners. Hence, diakrioi.

      • http://twitter.com/_DPunch Erik_S

        Diakrioi, your’s is a point that is not repeated enough.

        Also Justin, let’s not forget that, as a consumer, if I choose to use the postal option that “is always having problems” a) I have no long term binding commitment to continue to use it and b) if something is delayed or gets lost due to negligence or inefficiency…it’s just mail.

        As a business owner, I use the USPS all the time but only for mail that is unimportant, sacrificial, and/or not time sensitive. Does this sound like a health care panacea?

      • ColdWarrior

        Diakrioi, thanks for ‘splaining all that to justinmeister.

        We all should have a pocket copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution with us for handy reference at all times. I do.

        Thank you.

        ColdWarrior

    • Moriah

      … that the Post Office is having all sorts of problems.

      And that a public option would have the same kind of problems.

      But that’s just my interpretation, I may be wrong.

    • 6eorge Jetson

      Me neither.

      In spite of the restrictions on UPS & FedEx, they still are able to find holes in the lame Postal Service. Can FedEx find room to charge ~10 bucks when the postal service will deliver it for close to free? Yep. Pick up at business friendly times/terms (not those of govt workers), better trust, whatever. The Postal Service could drop it’s price to free and business folks would still pay less than a trip to McDonalds for the convenience.

      But healthcare isn’t a small ticket item on the order of a Big Mac. As you know, the Federal Govt takes in a couple trillion of revenue a year. Will the govt, while it is aiming to kill off private competition, use my tax dollars to subsidize losses in its health care operations? Do I want the govt taking my money to subsidize its inefficiency? No. And what type of pricing/service will the govt provide once it has killed off private competition.

      The next time you ask what you think is a rhetorical question with what you think has an obvious, simpleton answer, you should think through the possibilities more thoroughly.

  • JadedByPolitics

    Most Americans are fully aware of how FedEx and UPS came to be and the fight to compete with the tiresome dinosaur of the Post Office and he actually made our point that the Post Office being run by the government is inefficient.

    Hey bluddogs etc if he is the best you got you guys are in trouble!

  • Rod_Patrick

    The worst thing is this: He even corroborated or further elevated the issue of “health care rationing”.

    Further, he lied when he said that he had no knowledge of the FB memo by that “Private Citizen” or that memo didn’t matter at all.

  • GCBWI

    he first came into the spotlight. The man may be good at reading off a teleprompter, but that doesn’t qualify as being eloquent.

    As for Justinmeister’s comment…well, if Congress decided to stack the regulatory deck against FedEx and UPS in the same manner as HR3200 and the other versions of “health care reform” do, FedEx and UPS wouldn’t be doing so well.

    • forrest

      the govt. can run their competitors out of business simply by dropping their rates below the level where FedEx and UPS can compete. Since they are Taxpayer subsidized, they can do this.
      The same thing would not necessarily happen in the health insurance market. But it could, if the govt. artificially lowers premiums/costs below the point where private insurers can compete. Since Obama is on record saying he wants a “single payer” plan, it is clear this will happen.
      And when Obama decides to take over the small parcel market, he will be able to do that too.

    • Right_Again

      I don?t know if I?ve seen a worse public speaker in my lifetime more lionized for his public speaking ability than President Barack Obama.

      I think President Obama is an incarnation of Saruman and similar to that scheming wizard he has the “voice.”

      His tone is perfect, his cadence is flawless (if using TOTUS), and you find you must obey his every command. But when you stop to think about the words and message, when you compare what he said today with what he said yesterday, when you hear him without the teleprompter, the spell is broken. What was deemed eloquence becomes blather. The rhetorical flourishes are exposed as men of straw. He is reduced in the end to a common politician.

  • Tbone

    Tell me again how this bozo got through college.

  • http://web.mac.com/mayo99/iWeb/Site/VladBlog/VladBlog.html Vladimir
    • azaeroprof
    • George Claghorn
  • From ME to You

    Oops that would be French….my bad!

    • From ME to You

      should be gaffé

      • Rod_Patrick

        But “e” is easier to type.

  • jhleek

    I will add one more tidbit since most has been covered.

    The postal service has 2 types of products. Market dominant (first class and standard mail) product and competitive products (packages). They use the market dominant product to subsidize the competitive product and purposely lose money on packages knowing no one would use their service at all if they charged their actual cost. They can not compete with UPS and FE, even with a huge in place infrastructure because of their agreements with their unions.

    Using this as a basis of thought for how they might run the “public option” would they just continue to cost shift until there were no other private options? Will unions take over all of health care?

    Further, would they ultimately force the take over of all delivery systems (hospitals and doctors) by requiring service with no payment? The USPS will not allow anyone to do door to door delivery since they know ultimately they can not compete. Their legacy costs are killing them (guananteed pensions)

    Imagine all medical delivery provided by the government run by SIEU thugs…

    joe

  • Carol Tarasewicz

    Let’s not forget last summer that he said something along the line of “I can’t hear myself think” teleprompter was broken then due to storm.

    We have to fight, call all the blue dogs, I call my rep weekly, including my senators. Two weeks ago I called Ted kennedy’s office, once to voice my opposition to bill, then John Kerry’s, then my rep, Ed Markey, I was very angry that day, Kerry’s office wanted my zip code, no name, phone number, like most ask. I called Ted K’s office agin to tell them that I do not agree with him 99% of the time, man told me he knows we want to hear from him, whether we are for or against.

    I called Kerry’s office later to leave VM to say he works for us, etc. I was still very angry after reading most relevant pages of billl. Last Friday I had five emails from Kerry, all about healthcare. The dems have been handed talking points, I never heard from him when he was running for president.

    The only emails I have to read are Red State, Powerline and Heritage and I know pretty much of what is going on in USA.

  • ctyankee44

    Don’t you just hate it when the facts rear their ugly head and smack down the propaganda?

    “The Post Office is the one in trouble” — ROFL

    The duality is the amazing thing — I really wish folks would realize the Presbo is a fairly smart guy — statements like that reveal that he actually has a handle on the problems, but is a slave to some ideology that is at odds with the job he has, at odds with the oath he took,

    If we assume we’re stuck whit him in the drivers seat until Jan 2013, the better question might be: What steps can be taken to purge the shadow government? — the folks pulling his strings.

    He and his policies are clearly wounded, but no legitimate force is going to alter the Political reality. The Congress and the courts are equally corrupt, but they are the figureheads — Let’s go after the Eminence Gris the ones truly calling the shots. These dark figures all have one true weakness, they are not entitled to the legal courtesies that the elected officials enjoy. When lights are turned up, and their evil is exposed, their influence can be eliminated.

  • Flagstaff

    I have long had the same opinion of his oratorical abilities. Take away his Binky, and he’s proven to be just a high-priced reader.

    Thjis is right on the money.

    the Post Office has any number of problems, and the only reasons it is still in existence despite providing a level of service and reliability that would drive a private entity out of business are its monopoly on mail delivery and the fact that, because it is government-run, it can lose an unlimited amount of money and remain both in business and in the competition.

    There?s no evidence whatsoever to suggest that the Post Office?s existence in the package-delivery marketplace has had the effect of forcing FedEx and UPS to improve their service or to become more competitive.

    We need to remember it.

  • chrisk1

    as much as you trust a fox in chicken coop. The federal government has destroyed medi- care which is said will be insolvent by 2020, pretty much all but filled the grave with dirt on top of social security, Which I’ve heard that will be broke by 2041. Now there are two good inspirations to make you trust gov. . More recent, Obamas’ great bailout the first one not the one with the auto companies also called “tarp”. Now there was confidence in government action. Obama says we need, we need, we need a bailout now or unemployment could continue to rise, well GUESS WHAT IT DID ANYWAY. Even after every C.E.O you can think of gave there self a raise. At least when bush passed a bailout I got a check to bank back into the economy, all I got from the big “O” was a tab! 2008 Census says 304,059,724 million people live in America the big “O” says 47,000,000 million are without coverage, O.K. Well 257,059,724 million are insured than in one way or another now that doesn’t look to bad to me. The system could use a tweak here and there but not a complete overhaul and definitely not by the government . Like some folks said at a town hall meeting this guy took 5 months to choose a family dog and wants to overhaul the medical system with a 1000+ page bill in 6 wks. when 3/4 of Americans already have health care (run the numbers it is public info.). Lets not even talk about the trillion dollar tab announced by the C.B.O,, and I think that only covers 15 million of Obamas 47 million. This guy is really crazy. If he isn’t trying to spend money he is trying to print it.