Pimping Grandma

This seems far more objectionable than this.

[rquoter]To Promote Health Care Plan, Obama Talks About His Own Grandmother

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — As President Obama wages his public relations offensive to sell Americans on the need for overhauling health care, he is using a familiar tactic: trying to make the political personal by putting a human face on a complicated and sometimes abstract debate.

At a town-hall-style meeting in a high school gymnasium here on Saturday, Mr. Obama was introduced by Nathan Wilkes, whose family nearly lost their health coverage after costs to care for his 6-year-old son, Thomas, who has severe hemophilia, approached the $1 million lifetime policy cap.

On Friday, in Belgrade, Mont., Mr. Obama was introduced by Katie Gibson, who was dropped by her insurer after she received a cancer diagnosis. On Tuesday, in Portsmouth, N.H., Lori Hitchcock introduced the president; she cannot find insurance, she said, because she has a pre-existing condition.

“If you think that can’t happen to you or your family, think again,” Mr. Obama said here Saturday, adding, “This is part of the larger story, of folks with insurance paying more and more out of pocket.”

Mr. Obama used each of these families to make the case that, if his proposed overhaul goes through, insurers will be barred from imposing lifetime caps, dropping patients and refusing care for pre-existing conditions. On Saturday, he added a personal story of his own, citing the death of his grandmother to push back against unsubstantiated claims that he wants to establish government “death panels” that would deny care to elderly patients.

“I just lost my grandmother last year. I know what it’s like to watch somebody you love who’s aging deteriorate, and have to struggle with that,” Mr. Obama said. “So the notion that somehow I ran for public office, or members of Congress are in this so they can go around pulling the plug on grandma? I mean, when you start making arguments like that, that’s simply dishonest.”

The personal stories, however, also illustrate the difficult task the White House faces in convincing Americans that major change is necessary.

An estimated 80 percent of Americans already have insurance, and Mr. Obama must persuade them that overhauling the system will make it work better for them — as well as for the millions who stand to gain from an expansion of coverage. He is facing increasing skepticism from conservatives, as well as some independents, who question how he will pay for the overhaul and whether its central component — a “public option” to compete with private insurers — will prod employers to stop offering private coverage, pushing people who are already insured into a government plan.

Mr. Obama’s ability to reclaim the health debate may depend in part on whether he can use his platform to rise above the din. As Congressional town hall meetings have turned increasingly raucous, with protests and shouting matches, Mr. Obama is also trying to tamp down the anger, by criticizing the media and calling on Americans to “lower our voices,” as he said Saturday in his weekly address.

“You know how TV loves a ruckus,” Mr. Obama said, reprising a line he has been using in the town hall sessions. “But what you haven’t seen — because it’s not as exciting — are the many constructive meetings going on all over the country.”

Mr. Obama’s meetings have been among the constructive ones. While the White House said the majority of the 1,700 tickets to Saturday’s event were randomly distributed to people who signed up over the Internet, many were given out through local elected officials who are Democrats.

That was the case in Montana on Friday as well. The resulting crowds were largely supportive of Mr. Obama.

Even so, the president was twice challenged on Saturday on the public option. When a university student, Zach Lahn, asked how private companies could possibly compete with the government, Mr. Obama conceded that it was a point for “legitimate debate,” though he argued that there is ample precedent for the private sector to compete successfully with the government, citing the Postal Service as an example.

“The notion that somehow just by having a public option you have the entire private marketplace destroyed, is just not borne out by the facts,” Mr. Obama said, adding that “U.P.S. and FedEx are doing a lot better than the Post Office.” In introducing the president, Mr. Wilkes fought back tears as he described the birth of his son in 2003, and the first question the doctor asked: “Do you have good insurance?”

Mr. Wilkes told of how he “searched frantically” for a new policy when his son neared the $1 million cap, and how a social worker suggested that he and his wife divorce, so their son might qualify for Medicaid. Eventually they found coverage, with a $6 million cap.

But in the end, it was Mr. Lahn, the student, who got the final word. Television cameras rushed to him after the session was over; in interviews, he described himself as a conservative who had volunteered for Republican campaigns, and said he was not satisfied with the president’s answer. He also repeated a challenge that he had made to Mr. Obama directly, to have a one-on-one debate.

“If he would like to debate me,” he said of Mr. Obama, “I would debate him anytime.”[/rquoter]

 

"such language towards your dearest family members"

searched google maps, but could not find any such destination- could you direct me?

 

Which, Mathloon's malapropism, or Obama's pimping?

 

it's not the first time, he did it last spring as well. i don't find it especially objectionable, which was my point- folks have a double standard when it comes to Obama.

i did find his calling her a racist rather objectionable, particularly when he refrained from using the same language with his racist buddy, rev wright.

mostly, i think people are just disappointed- they thought they were getting MLK, and instead got the Rev Al.