Wednesday, August 12, 2009


ObamaCare Won't Let You Eat Fries

More from the Claire McCaskill event yesterday.

Can we talk? Perhaps it's mean to point out the failings of others, but believe me, we wouldn't have taken this picture if the woman had been wearing a shirt that said, for example, "I Love Puppies." In case you can't read the shirt without clicking on the image, it says, Women's Health Matters. This shirt caught my eye because she was part of a group of about 15 or so people wearing the same pink shirt. We took a closer look since I thought maybe they were part of Code Pink or something. So what exactly does such a slogan mean to this woman? I'm just sayin'. Lady, if women's health really matters to you, then push yourself away from the dinner table and go for a walk, because I don't want to pay for your adult-onset diabetes.

Under Claire's scheme yesterday, I wasn't chosen to ask a question. Had she chosen me, I would have asked this: In his town hall meeting today, Arlen Spector responded to a question about rationing of health care under ObamaCare as a "vicious, malicious, untrue rumor. Next question." His answer was a dismissive platitude, a non-answer about rationing of care. If you have diminished resources, and considering that the government is broke, we will have diminished resources, then you necessarily will need some sort of rationing. Under a government plan, how do you see this rationing of care being implemented?

There was one funny moment that came from a questioner, leaving Claire literally speechless, and I'm guessing that doesn't happen too often. The man's original question had been asked by someone else, so Claire brightly (Claire almost always speaks brightly) asked the guy, "Would you like to ask something else?" He sure would: "Will illegals be able to take their coverage to their homeland?" The audience guffawed.

So did I learn anything? Yes. I learned that even in Hillsboro, Missouri, where they apparently like Claire McCaskill very much, "normal" everyday people are dead set against ObamaCare. I also learned that the Senate was able to pass a bill out of committee before they left for their August break, something I hadn't heard any of the media report; you can read the Senate bill at http://help.senate.gov/. Claire says the bill is 600 pages long. They considered 789 amendments and adopted 31 Democrat amendments and 160 Republican amendments. Claire seems to really like adding numbers to her prepared comments--she rattles them off like other people her age recite their grandchildren's ages and names. She said she read the last 200 pages while flying home from Washington--commercial flight, coach, she pointedly said.

The last thing I learned is that maybe Claire isn't Obama's poodle anymore. During the last campaign, for which she was the National Co-Chair of the Obama Campaign, Claire was talking Obama up at every opportunity, doing bodily contortions so as to appear in any shot she could with The One. Yesterday, she didn't mention Obama's name one time--not once. Interesting.

I actually came away from the event liking the woman. She brought her 81-year-old mother with her and sat her up on stage, which I thought was a nice touch. In the middle of the event, "Mom" stood up and was helped off the stage, at which point she yelled back at Claire, "I'm not leaving you, Claire. I'll be back. Like Harry Truman said, 'Give 'em hell.'" It was a nice Missouri moment.

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