Miscellaneous punditry

Victor Davis Hanson on how deftly Obama puts his foot in his mouth.

Somehow the president in the last few hours, in his now characteristic stereotyping, has managed to insult the nation's police with his "stupidly" comment, the nation's surgeons with his reference to greedy tonsil-cutting, and the nation's elderly with his aspirin quip — all reminiscent of the "typical white person" castoff, Pennsylvania clingers speech, and the Special Olympics one-liner. [emphasis added]

(I missed the aspirin remark - ?)

Peter Baker of the New York Times on Obama's "carpet bombing" of the media:

In the past four days, Mr. Obama gave “exclusive” interviews to Jim Lehrer of PBS, Katie Couric of CBS and Meredith Vieira of NBC. He gave two interviews to The Washington Post on one day, one to the editorial page editor and one to news reporters. He held a conference call with bloggers. His hourlong session in the East Room on Wednesday night was his second news conference of the day. And on Thursday, he invited Terry Moran of ABC to spend the day with him for a “Nightline” special.

The all-Obama, all-the-time carpet bombing of the news media represents a strategy by a White House seeking to deploy its most effective asset in service of its goals, none more critical now than health care legislation. But longtime Washington hands warn that saturation coverage can diminish the power of his voice and lose public attention

(As an aside, when does he, like, work? Isn't there more to being president of the United States than giving interviews and campaigning?)

Mark Steyn on why omnipresence doesn't work:

No real star goes in for over-exposure, because you're devaluing your own currency. (And that's before you add in off-prompter missteps like the Prof Gates answer.) Bagehot's famous line on the British monarchy is that you mustn't let daylight in upon magic. Obama's magic is fading because it can't survive contact with daylight.

Jonah Goldberg on why healthcare can't be a right:

Now, imagine if the government had a body of experts charged with figuring out what your free-speech rights are, or your right to assemble, or worship. Mr. Jones, you can say X and Y, but not Z. Ms. Smith, you can freely assemble with Aleutians, Freemasons, and carpenters, but you may not meet in public with anyone from Cleveland or of Albanian descent. Mrs. Wilson, you may pray to Vishnu and Crom, but never to Allah or Buddha, and when you do pray, you cannot do so for longer than 20 minutes at a time, unless it is one of several designated holidays. Please see Extended Prayer Form 10–22B.

Thomas Sowell on Obama's use of phony scapegoats to distract us from the real issues:

The government does not have some magic wand that can “bring down the cost of health care.” It can buy a smaller quantity or lower quality of medical care, as other countries with government-run medical care do.

It can decide not to spend as much money on the elderly as is being spent now. That can save a lot of money — if you think having a parent die earlier is a bargain.

The idea of a “duty to die” has been making some headway in recent years around the fringes of the Left. It is perfectly consistent with the fundamental notion of the Left that decisions should be transferred from ordinary citizens to government elites.

Liberals don’t have to advocate it. But, once you have bureaucrats empowered to decide what treatments you can and cannot get, they may well decide that money spent keeping some 75-year-old grandmother alive for a couple more years could be better spent politically by enabling ten younger people to have acupuncture or visit a shrink.

Even if her children or grandchildren are willing to spend their own money to keep Grandma alive, when bureaucrats control the necessary technology or medication they may decide that it is not for sale.

Reps. John Boehner and Thaddeus McCotter on how Obama's healthcare reform encourages euthanasia:

“Section 1233 of the House-drafted legislation encourages health care providers to provide their Medicare patients with counseling on ‘the use of artificially administered nutrition and hydration’ and other end of life treatments, and may place seniors in situations where they feel pressured to sign end of life directives they would not otherwise sign. This provision may start us down a treacherous path toward government-encouraged euthanasia if enacted into law. At a minimum this legislative language deserves a full and open public debate – the sort of debate that is impossible to have under the politically-driven deadlines Democratic leaders have arbitrarily set for enactment of a health care bill.

“This provision of the legislation is a throwback to 1977, when the old Department of Health Education and Welfare proposed federal promotion of living wills for cost-savings purposes described as 'enormous.' At that time, the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of Chicago decried this effort by saying: 'The message is clear: government can save money by encouraging old people to die a little sooner than they otherwise would. Instead of being regarded with reverence, and cherished, human life is subject in this view to a utilitarian cost-benefit calculus and can be sacrificed to serve fiscal policy and the sacred imperative of trimming a budget.'

“With three states having legalized physician-assisted suicide, this provision could create a slippery slope for a more permissive environment for euthanasia, mercy-killing and physician-assisted suicide because it does not clearly exclude counseling about the supposed benefits of killing oneself.

“Health care reform that fails to protect the sanctity and dignity of all human life is not reform at all.”

That was unpleasant. For dessert, read this from Iowahawk. It's also unpleasant but at least it's funny.

One more. This has nothing to do with Obama or healthcare but it's outrageous. From Michelle Malkin: USA Today columnist blames Peeping Tom victim

Christine Brennan tweets the following:

Women sports journalists need to be smart and not play to the frat house. There are tons of nuts out there.

Erin Andrews incident is bad, but to add perspective: there are 100s of women sports journalists who have never had this happen to them.

Huh? Someone planted a hidden camera, filmed Andrews getting dressed, and posted it on the internet. How is Andrews to blame?

And the line of the day, from Mark Steyn:

Outside, Sgt. Crowley's mama failed to show.

Comments welcome.
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