Yesterday, before a joint session of Congress, the Fearmonger-In-Chief took to his bully pulpit for the 112th time, in another attempt to sell his health care program to the American people. This is a piece of legislation that, if it were expressed in oil paint, would resemble a Jackson Pollock original.
Informed Americans realize that this is no more about health care than Cap-and-Trade was about global warming; it is merely a manufactured crisis designed to scare us into expanding the powers of the federal government - yet again. Of course, credit must be given to the spirit and innate intelligence of Americans everywhere, since Obama's poll numbers show that he is fooling fewer and fewer of us each and every dayThe rate at which the President of the United States has spent his political capital rivals the rate at which he's spent us into trillions of dollars of debt; it can only be described as dizzying.
But more importantly, he continues to burnish his credentials as a man who has only a passing and fanciful acquaintance with the truth. That he dissembles so easily and breezily is a testament to the man's oratorical skills, though that particular facility is not one we usually look for in a leader of any kind, let alone the leader of the free world. But he sure can tell a whopper. Sort of Clinton-esque, but without the likability.
Last night's effort was a mother-lode of such gems - if you found yourself sputtering with indignation early and often, you were in plenty of good company. One after the other they came, these pearls before swine: waste and fraud will be eliminated from Medicare; the plan will not add "one dime" to the deficit; only 5% of Americans will be on the government plan, and so on and so on.
Finally, after President Obama put on his best poker face and said that illegal aliens would absolutely NOT be covered under his plan, and when he could stand it no longer, Representative Joe Wilson (R-SC) channeled the disbelief and frustration of millions of viewers, blurting out the words, "YOU LIE!" in a moment so priceless I must offer it to you here and now:
Go ahead. Play it again. And this time, pay particular attention to the expression on Nancy Pelosi's face: she's shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you! Here, indeed, is a moment to rival Rick Santelli's plaintive and angry cry, "Are you listening, President Obama? Do you hear us?"
Of course, Wilson has since dutifully apologized and issued his mea culpa. But the damage has so deliciously been done; I relish the moment.
