Thamsanqa Jantjie’s erratic performance provoked international ridicule, but all he really did was turn the failed president’s words into a disappointing jumble of incomprehensible nonsense. As is now apparent, Obama is quite capable of achieving this by himself, writes Tim Blair.
Many Australians were puzzled by American resistance to Obama’s universal health care plan, back when it was first proposed in 2008. They couldn’t understand why the US would not embrace an Australian-style system of health coverage.
One reason is that the system in the US was proposed by Obama and his useless administration. If you thought Labor’s attempts in Australia to install home insulation and run grocery price websites were lame, they have nothing on Obama’s bid to reshape the massive US health sector.
Just as Labor did in Australia, Obama initially enjoyed near-universal media support. The allegedly impartial fact-checking site PolitiFact backed Obama five years ago for this claim:
No. 1, let me just repeat, if you’ve got a health care plan that you like, you can keep it. All I’m going to do is help you to lower the premiums on it. You’ll still have choice of doctor.
According to PolitiFact: “His description of his plan is accurate, and we rate his statement True.”
Leave aside the puzzling move of judging a political promise in the absence of any action, and move ahead to this year. Millions of Americans have lost their existing health coverage. Millions find themselves waiting for months to see doctors they don’t know. PolitiFact now reports: "As cancellation letters were going out to approximately 4 million Americans, the public realized Obama’s breezy assurances were wrong. For all of these reasons, PolitiFact has named ‘If you like your health care plan, you can keep it,’ the Lie of the Year for 2013." Former Obama fans who credited their hero with almost mystical powers when he was first elected now realize that as Jantjie is to communicating with the deaf, Obama is to the US presidency. [More]
[BH]
