Early last year as the endorsement battle was fully engaged, videos and quotes of Obama’s long time pastor, Jeremiah Wright, came to light. These videos and quotes showed the man that Obama referred to as his “mentor,” was a racist and anti-Semite. Although he had spent the bulk of his adult life in Wright’s congregation, Obama denied that he knew of Wright’s heinous perspectives. When challenged about Wright, Obama responded:
He does not speak for me.
In other words, Obama and the compliant media which echoed his defense, were telling us that this was a problem entirely with Wright, or as Obama might say “This isn’t about me!” Those of us who had our own ability to think knew that the opposite was true, it was entirely about Obama and his acceptance of Wright’s ideology.
After the Saddleback Forum last August in which he denounced late term abortions, an audio tape surfaced of Obama arguing against an Illinois statue that would require medical support for babies that survived botched abortions. In his attempt to reconcile his recently stated position with the past recordings, Obama tried multiple explanations. All of the explanations were focused on issues that other people had created. None of the explanations had anything to do with Obama changing his position, misunderstanding the issue or lying. In other words, Obama could have said, “This isn’t about me!” Again, a reasonably inquisitive mind was able to see that the excuses Obama rasied were red herrings and that in fact, the issue was all about Obama.
If you do a Google search of “Obama “not about me”” you’ll find numerous instances in stump speeches, his world reunification speech in Germany and even his endorsement acceptance speech where Obama told people that his candidacy was “not about me.”
During his last prime time media love fest, President Obama refuted that health care reform was a personal issue for him saying:
This isn’t about me!
In fact, you might say that Obama’s entire national political career has been spent with him telling people “this isn’t about me!
Since that last statement, President Obama has inserted himself directly and personally into the debate over health care reform. At town hall meetings in New Hampshire, Montana and now Colorado, President Obama has personally defended health care reform. At each stop he couriously debates and defends what is or isn’t in “the plan.” Curious because President Obama doesn’t have a plan of his own and repeatedly responds to the few challenging questions by avoiding an answer or by making erroneous assertions about what the House plan contains. Even the USAToday, a paper that is not considered unfriendly to Obama, identified numerous Obama falsehoods following the New Hampshire townhall. Many of these falsehoods were repeated in Montana.
What are the results? In the month since he claimed it wasn’t about him, Obama’s dream of a government take over of health care has been met with stiff resistance. Since Obama’s personal involvement, Rasumussen Reports polling shows that support for health reform has fallen 5% and those who disapprove of health care reform now represent a majority. In a new poll by Rasmussen, 54% of voters now believe that doing nothing would be better than implementing the plan that is coming through the House. This is especially important as independents favor doing nothing by almost a 3 to 1 margin.
Contrary to his protests, the health care debate is all about President Obama.
Obama came into office on the sweet spot of a wave. Iraq, a sagging economy and a Republican party that operated largely indistinguishably from the Democrats, gave Obama a populace that wanted change so badly they were willing to give an inexperienced, opportunistic, job hopper a chance to play president. In fact, change was desired so badly that neither the media or those who supported Obama, stopped to ask much about the details as to what Obama wanted to change. If they had, they would have found that from the start Obama was focused on the takeover of the health care industry via a single payer system and the takeover of energy via cap and trade. These two items were/are cornerstone to the transformation of America that he envisions and promised.
After moving through the House with relative ease, Cap and Trade is sitting in the Senate. 60 votes are required to move the Cap and Trade bill through the Senate. With Kennedy and Byrd rarely in the Senate due to their illnesses, the Democrats would need to get 2 Republicans to side with them if they can get the other 58 Democrats to support the bill. That is a big IF, and moving towards “not likely,” as the economy continues to struggle, the economic reality of the bill continues to sink in and global warming “science” is finding less and less support amongst voters. In fact, Cap and Trade has lost so much momentum that even Democrat Senators are now saying that it won’t receive a hearing until next year….if at all.
Having Cap and Trade in limbo is good and bad. It’s good because passage of the legislation would be disastrous for the US economy. It’s bad because as one of Obama’s two major pieces of legislation, having it in danger of dying puts more pressure on the issue of health care reform. As the only other major legislation, if health care reform fails it will relegate the man once held in messianic admiration to that of purveyor of just another mystic religion that serves no purpose other than to provide emotional highs with no ability to resolve anything. It is this fear that has Obama personally engaged in the health care debate.
President Obama’s personal insertion to the middle of the health care debate is much like Kevin Bacon’s appearance towards the end of Animal House. Standing in the middle of the melee and shouting “All is well. All is well,” didn’t calm the public for Kevin nor will it for Obama. In both instances the acts were those of desperation. As it didn’t work for Bacon, neither will it for Obama.
With President Obama fighting to find new scapegoats to blame and allies for support, the path and outcome of the health care reform debate is far from certain. That said, one thing is certain. The next time you hear Obama, discussing any topic, say “This isn’t about me,” you will know without a doubt that after sifting through all of the obfuscation and half truths, the one thing in fact it is about is Obama!
