The President v. The Pundit

Daniel Hernandez, President Obama and First Lady Michele Obama at the memorial event, 'Together We Thrive: Tucson and America', at the McKale Memorial Center in Tucson, Arizona, on 12 January 2011. Photograph: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images

I wish the media, including NPR and PBS, would stop comparing President Obama’s popularity to that of Sarah Palin. For example, many pundits compared reaction to his speech at the memorial service for the victims of the shooting in Tucson to her videotaped statement on the subject.
Barack Obama in the President of the United States. He has to triangulate the demands of Congress and its opposing parties, the international obligations of the United States to its foreign allies, national security, and many more concerns. The decisions of the President have real consequences, and he has to make sure things happen.
Sarah Palin was, briefly, a governor. Now, however, she is a pundit and nominal leader of an ill-formed political movement. Furnaces and air conditioning already work under pressure depending on the temperature. buy viagra without rx The generic india levitra US government does not regulate the prices of medicines. And the historic such as the Grosvenor Museum and the Museum purchase cialis online purchasing here of Contemporary Art have quite a delightful surprise that are sure to enchant you and come back for more. Ayurveda recommends the consumption of urad dal contains 189 calories, 13 gm of protein, 12 gm cialis online of fibre and just 1gm of fat. It is easy to snipe and criticize, when you don’t have to provide solutions. It so happens that her videotaped speech was highly criticized and damaged her popularity rating, whereas the Presidents speech was well received, but who cares how they compare. If the President’s comments are to be compared to anyone’s, it ought to be to John Boehner, Mitch NcConnell, or a prominent Senator. Essentially any national figure from the Republican party in a policy making role would be more appropriate, not Sarah Palin, whose opinions have no real consequences.

Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels

This is another good article from FactCheck.org that traces the origins of the “death squad” term and how it has been argued between Obama and Palin.

Like many disagreements in the digital age, it all started with a post on Facebook. Last Friday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin posted a note to her Facebook page and introduced a new term to the health care debate:
Palin, Aug. 7: The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s “death panel” so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their “level of productivity in society,” whether they are worthy of health care.
Unsurprisingly, the phrase “death panel” does not appear in the health care bill that passed House committees last month. And Palin’s post did not make entirely clear what she might interpret as a “death panel.” Nonetheless, the phrase stuck…
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via Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels | FactCheck.org.
It’s amazing how blatant falsehoods are defining the terms of the debate over one of the most important issues of our time.  And virtually no one is talking substantively about the issues.  The arguments are partisan, ad hominem, purely rhetorical, and completely devoid of substance.  Check everything you hear on this issue before you decide on anything.
There are falsehoods and stretches of the truth on both sides, by the way. Check out this excellent article, “Seven Falsehoods About Health Care.” But it has to be said, that it is the opposition to health care that is making the more outrageous claims, tossing around words like “death panels” and “socialism.”