Cal: on name-calling

Hi Fred and company.  Certainly "liar" is too strong an indictment of President Obama.  But he is apparently not possessed of all the facts, though he can be forgiven since the health care bill is seemingly not to be understood as much as simply believed. There is nothing to refer to.  But it is my understanding that it was proposed that language that made it illegal to check on citizenship status existed and that Democrats refused to allow it to be removed.  Two days after Joe Wilson's rude and disrespectful outburst the language was quietly removed.  The President was apparently misinformed.
The President also continues to insist that we can keep the health care plan we currently have. (He should say "may" instead of "can".  I don't think we "can".  The bill evidently does not propose to force anyone to change.  But, if the government plan premiums or penalties are less expensive for me as an employer I will be forced to accept the cheaper alternative.  Thus, about 25 people will be forced to change. We have a first class plan that all are very happy with. Since the government can print money and doesn't have to make a profit the usual benefits of competition will cease to exist.  The government will ultimately win.  I don't know if the President knows and ignores this reality or not.

Name calling is juvenile and demeans the debate.  (Now, I'll just take a wild guess here that just a few of the 2003 protesters carried placards that called Bush and Cheney war criminals, or worse).  Nor do I believe that the President is "bankrupting the country". Congress is doing that.  The protest was held on their front lawn, not the Presidents (It's our lawn, anyway.)

I think any President needs to be uplifted by the people.  He can't do it alone.  That's why Christians pray for the President of the United States. As I saw it there was a collective wisdom present in that 9-12 throng.  We are all different and we all have our biases.  But what there is in the country is the growing sense that something is very wrong.  Spending money that we don't have 100 years into the future is scary to people. People want today's problems solved before embarking on more economic irresponsibility. I, for one, have not heard anyone explain why we are not headed for an iceberg.  I haven't even heard anyone assert that the progressives are not intentionally steering us into one. It is very troubling to people.  And we know perfectly well that both parties are guilty.

We are the tugboat that will help guide the ship away from the iceberg. We'll do it with votes in 2010 and 2012.  It appears that the administration is not making any group very happy.  He has begun to betray the Left by doing what a administration must do.  He has alienated the Right for obvious reasons, and he is fast alienating us Independents  By being way too far left.  He'll be forced to the middle like Clinton was for his own survival. The election cycle is the reason for the rush to get things passed without due process and deliberation.

The President is beginning the shift.  He is wise to distance himself from the "racial" accusations.  He doesn't want to be the Black President who allowed the "race card" to define his Presidency.  And neither do we.  We want him to succeed and be a great President, don't we?  But he won't be if he doesn't disassociate himself from the many destructive elements who claim to represent him.  We must help him raise himself above the fringe groups that cling and claw at his coattails.  Some of the more unsavory individuals have been jettisoned.  More will surely follow.

So I am not disheartened by what I saw and see in those photos.  I am uplifted.  People can see through the malarkey.  You know what Lincoln said about fooling the people.  And who in their right mind would call for a protest in January, anyway.  All right, I know it was the sense that war was imminent. God bless those souls for speaking their mind.  Though, maybe not the ones with the war criminal signs.

Peace.  Cal.