After more than a week of condemning "town halls" that they couldn't control as "astroturf," Democrats held a Potemkin Town Hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Everyone clapped on cue. Armed guards kept the riff-raff outside. A liberal state representative, a teacher's union veteran, and a little girl from fifty miles away offered praise disguised as questions. There were more African Americans on the dais in Portsmouth than in the entire state of New Hampshire. Isn't this the very definition of "astroturf"? "I don't want people thinking I've got a bunch of plants in here," Obama proclaimed. Too late. The president practically pled for a hostile question, which, even when audience members declared themselves skeptics, never really came. CNN's Kyra Phillips's assurance that the audience wasn't "handpicked by the White House, by the way" sounded as authoritative as when she dubbed New Hampshire the "live (rhymes with five) free or die" state (Damn teleprompters!). Even in the political-climate-controlled setting, Barack Obama couldn't help undermining the case for a government takeover of health care: "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. Yeah, they are. It's the post office that's always having problems." My point exactly.
I love that last quote. Not only is what he said accurate, but it proves once again that the Used Car Salesman in Chief can not think and talk without reading off of a teleprompter.
While on the subject of not being able to think and read a teleprompter at the same time, Kyra Phillips' gaffe on the "live free or die" state reminds me of that story, often told by Stan Evans and perhaps apocryphal, of a news anchor reading aloud "World War Eleven" on air after coming across the words "World War II" on a teleprompter. I was on with Kyra years ago, and she seemed intelligent, so her slip one hopes was of the type anyone would have that was on camera for hours a day. But it's worth noting that she is the on-air talent whose mic was left on while she was in the bathroom gossiping about various family members--gossip shared with her bathroom buddy and all of CNN's audience.
Lol Dan. World War Eleven in deed. That's a classic. The "Live" (rhymes with "five") gaffe was one as well. Anyone can have a slight block occasionally. It comes down to whether they catch themselves and hesitate indicating that they ARE on the ball and have caught themselves or just cluelessly move on.
We have a lot of people in politics and media these days who are not particularly learned and it shows.
Just the fact that most of the people in government pushing this destructive hog of a healthcare bill have no idea what's in it demonstrates lack of intellectual effort and general laziness and that it's all about the hype.
It's becoming apparent to more people than just those who were paying attention all along that the O is ideological front man masquerading as a learned professional.
Gee, Mr. President. How do you think that would work out if the Post Office were overseeing Fed Ex and UPS trucks for "Quality of Delivery", controlling their rates, not allowing them to charge more for weight (because that's just greedy!) --while trying to bring down the sum cost of shipping package in the US?
