Maybe It's Not Going According To Plan

While it may seem at times that Barack is a steamroller flattening the opposition at every turn, there are increasing signs of cracks in the machine.

Just as people are powerless to avoid looking away from a disaster, I watched The Barack Obama Show on ABC "News" last night. I knew that many of my friends would not but that they would be curious as to how it went, and I did not want to be in the position of merely wondering. I was heartened to learn today that I had not contributed to an artificially high viewer rating; the show bombed.

That's an awfully strange fact, since the show opened by taking a show of hands from the 164 people in the "audience" when asked about the importance of the issue. Careful to point out that the group was comprised of people from both sides of the aisle, so to speak, we witnessed not one raised hand when asked if any of them believed in the status quo in regards to health care. In a sampling of 164 people, and a unanimous consensus that something must be done - or changed - one would be led to believe that the issue was of paramount importance. Why then did no one watch? It was tied with "some 8 p.m. comedy repeats as the lowest-rated program on a major broadcast network."

The first question was designed to humanize the president, asking how he would deal with a family member falling terminally ill. Never mind that asking a wealthy man such a question goes beyond ludicrous; why wasn't he asked what he was doing for his brother George, who lives on a dollar a day in a hut in Kenya? Or about his illegal-alien aunt living in a rent-controlled apartment in Massachusetts?

Of particular note - at least to me - was the way in which this bogus news broadcast was presented. We already know about Obama's set-up question the other day from a HuffPo reporter, but this was ABC News, for crying out loud. It was supposed to be an honest debate on whether or not to saddle the American people with astronomical costs through taxation to fund yet another Obama program, one that is also being shot through the barrel of congress as though it had a few thousand pounds of gunpowder behind it.

Anyone who hasn't noticed the halting, tortured speech of this president when forced to speak extemporaneously has certainly not been paying attention. When the trusty teleprompter is present, he is fine and dandy. Not so much when he is alone. And yet there he was last night, speaking with all the confidence one could imagine, with none of the customary "uh's, um's or aaands" that have already become the hallmark of Obama's omnipresent speeches sans technology. I have opined at length on the breech of journalistic protocol exhibited by this spectacle, but it bears noting yet again that ABC News - coordinating such an event and participating in the guarantee of flawless delivery by the president - is nothing short of subservience to the State.

Add to this the complete reversal of demeanor in Charlie Gibson. During the campaign last year, many will remember Gibson's obvious disdain and dismissal of Sarah Palin in their epic interview in which he treated her as an irritatingly precocious child. Last night we witnessed an energtic and enthusiastic Charlie Gibson, eagerly reciting his lines in the play of plays. As if that weren't enough, we saw Dianne Sawyer dutifully running through the small gathering - microphone in hand - performing her best impersonation of Ricki Lake, not only offering the rising guest an opportunity to be heard, but aiding in the phrasing of the supposedly spontaneous question.

Those are style issues which I thought should be addressed, but what of the substance? Obama used his obedient mouthpiece to offer that since a large part of our health care is already government-run - see Medicare and Medicaid - then we should embrace this monstrosity as a fact of life. He went on to denigrate the salaries of medical specialists as a cost-prohibitive obstacle to "affordable" health care. Qualifying his complaint, he bemoaned the high cost of a medical education as a catalyst toward high prices for doctor visits.

He did offer a solution, however. He actually suggested that we should pay more - "we" meaning the government and therefore, we the people - for the education of more general practitioners and fewer specialists. We should- according to the president - lower the bar for actually achieving a medical degree in order to produce more doctors. This will meet the demand of an additional 40-some-odd million patients. No one on the show raised a single eyebrow at this declaration that somehow pumping doctors through a matchbook-generated 800 phone number would save money but not produce sub-par care.

To sum up that bit of idiocy, the Obama plan is to make it easier to become a doctor in order to produce more doctors. How would you like this principle applied to commercial airline pilots? Hey, we could save a bundle. Oh yeah, there is another way to save millions: tell old people whose days are already numbered to make their peace with God (although the particular deity may be subject to debate). When Obama runs health care - and if you are terminal - a quick ending is what you should seek. Please don't drain the fragile reservoir of funds that will be better spent on actually saving someone.

I know by the ratings numbers alone from last night's show that I am not alone in my incredulity at this administration's audacity, and I am comforted in that knowledge. While it is nice to be accompanied by so many skeptics, however, it still remains that the controlling party in both houses of congress and the Executive branch care not a whit about our concerns. Therefore, all of you should become proactive in contacting your representatives and vociferously - while respectfully - voicing your objections to the Obama-ABC plan to radically change the countenance of your country.

Write to them here.

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