Matt Drudge vs. Barack Obama
A video-clip battle breaks out online over Obama's health-care reform plan
Barack Obama, left, and Matt Drudge
(EPA/Pool/Corbis/Roger L Wollenberg, Sygma/Corbis/Larry Downing)
The Obama administration is wading into a war of words with Matt Drudge, said Mike Allen in Politico. The White House has posted a three-minute video "punching back at an old clip of President Barack Obama that was featured on the Drudge Report with the headline 'Uncovered Video: Obama Explains How His Health Care Plan Will 'Eliminate' Private Insurance'" (watch Obama's response to Drudge). In the White House clip, Linda Douglass of the White House Office of Health Reform says the Drudge post was an example of "disinformation" aiming to scare people so they'll reject health-care reform.
Is this "the best the White House can do to rebut the Drudge-linked video"? said Scott Johnson in Power Line. Linda Douglass played clips showing Obama making a bunch of fuzzy ObamaCare promises, but didn't really refute the president's past statement, shown in the Drudge clip (watch the video Drudge linked to), that Obama thinks employer health coverage could be eliminated 20 or 30 years down the road. It sounds like Obama's "sales pitch" amounts to telling Americans what he thinks they want to hear, even if it goes against "deeply held views" he has expressed in the past.
The "sliced up" video Matt Drudge "hyped" is supposed to prove that Obama wants to eliminate private health care, said Mark Murray in MSNBC, but a transcript of the 2007 event at which he made the comments "suggested no such thing." Drudge was never "a fan of Obama," but it looks likes Obama coverage on his site, the Drudge Report, is becoming "even more negative" as Obama's poll numbers decline.
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10 Comments
Posted by Sean, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 3:51 pm And you know Mr. Drudge is loving all the free advertising. Not only that, but isn't the Obama Administration's reaction to this a bit strong? If this were really a completely fabricated story with nothing to it whatsoever, why go to all the trouble of filming a response and thereby drawing more attention to the video in the first place. I think it's either bad strategy on the part of the White House, or the video hit closer to the mark than they'd like.
Posted by jerry25, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 7:17 pm I am a Democrat but as a health care provider I strongly disagree with the Public option. It WILL eventually lead to a singlepayer system.In fact, just Friday, Rep. Barney Frank said on camera that the Public Option would lead to a single payer system by crushing competition. It doesn't make any difference if noone would force you to give up your private insurance. Your employers would do it on their own.This is just a fact. The alternative Regional CoOp plan would be designed to pay for itself and WOULD compete fairly.
Posted by jerry25, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 7:22 pm In the prior comment, please delete crushing competition in Barney Frank's quote he didn't actually say how it would happen.As a Democrat, the best way to help Obama and Democrats would be to pass a Bipartisan Healthcare bill, such as the one that will eventually come out of the Senate's finance committee.Even if only a handful of Republican Senators support it, it will help much more with the 2010 elections and Obama's popularity. Progressives will be unhappy, but who are they going to vote for: Sarah Palin??
Posted by venicementor, Tuesday, August 4, 2009, 9:07 pm I can't believe anyone would still consider Barney Frank as a viable part of this POS government. Haven't we had enough with his contribution in the whole housing debacle. Jesus, what is a person going to have to do before they throw the bum out! Barney, STFU!!!!!
Posted by Brett, Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2:52 pm Why is the Obama administration responding to misinformers like Drudge? Because too many people are easily, willfully for some reason, buying the scare tactics that the misinformers are putting out there, as indicated by some of the other comments I see here. If the government is so incompetent that it can't do anything right, then how is a public option supposed to drive private insurance out of business? Funny how the government goes from the Three Stooges to James Bond in some people's minds, depending on how it serves their hysteria!
Posted by Brett, Wednesday, August 5, 2009, 2:52 pm Why is the Obama administration responding to misinformers like Drudge? Because too many people are easily, willfully for some reason, buying the scare tactics that the misinformers are putting out there, as indicated by some of the other comments I see here. If the government is so incompetent that it can't do anything right, then how is a public option supposed to drive private insurance out of business? Funny how the government goes from the Three Stooges to James Bond in some people's minds, depending on how it serves their hysteria!
Posted by Mike, Thursday, August 6, 2009, 8:56 am Why respond to a lie? Because unchecked lies are believed. That is the entire premise behind FightTheSmears.com Even the quote Drudge used doesn't say what he claims. ..employer health coverage could be eliminated 20 or 30 years down the road.. That doesn't mean insurance companies would be gone NotThatThatsABadThing it just means your insurance would no linger be tied to you job.
Posted by Mike, Thursday, August 6, 2009, 9:04 am Drudge is the supermarket tabloid of the internet. I had a coworker who swore by the tabloids. ..Youl read something in the tabloids weeks before it will be in the mainstream papers.. she would say. Then I pointed out to her that with their dismal accuracy track record she didn't know if it was true until she got it from a REAL news source. Drudge might get something right once in a while but so much of the rest is just made up and twisted BS that you don't know which is which until you get it from a reliable source. Stick to better sources.
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