Lulling the Crowd Into a Daze

Now that Obie's health care program is safely passed the MSM, which has been dutifully carrying water for our fine young President, feels free to distance themselves from him so as to establish some credibility as objective journalists and to dispel the widespread suspicion that they are little more than mouthpieces for the liberal wing of the Democrat Party.

Not that they would ever criticize in any substantial way the President's agenda or the despicable tactics used to enact it. No, they confine themselves to superficial snark pieces such as this by Anne Kornblut in the WaPo.

Asked at a public meeting about whether it was wise to raise taxes in order to fund his new healthcare program, Obama, speaking without a teleprompter, answered in a less than coherent fashion.

Obama started out feisty. "Well, let's talk about that, because this is an area where there's been just a whole lot of misinformation, and I'm going to have to work hard over the next several months to clean up a lot of the misapprehensions that people have," the president said.

He then spent the next 17 minutes and 12 seconds lulling the crowd into a daze. His discursive answer -- more than 2,500 words long -- wandered from topic to topic, including commentary on the deficit, pay-as-you-go rules passed by Congress, Congressional Budget Office reports on Medicare waste, COBRA coverage, the Recovery Act and Federal Medical Assistance Percentages (he referred to this last item by its inside-the-Beltway name, "F-Map"). He talked about the notion of eliminating foreign aid (not worth it, he said). He invoked Warren Buffett, earmarks and the payroll tax that funds Medicare (referring to it, in fluent Washington lingo, as "FICA").

Read the whole thing here.

OK, the point has been well established by conservative observers -- without a script Obama neither speaks nor thinks very well. Even when scripted he is at best a mediocre speaker who inspires only his ideological fellow-travelers. It may be of marginal significance that now members of the MSM are willing to concede the point, but don't be fooled. Camp followers that they are the MSM will be reliably in Obie's camp when needed to advance the next point in his agenda.