TEAM OBAMA NEEDS FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISORDER CURE

Team Obama suffers extreme foot-in-mouth disorder in its health care reform campaign.

The president undermined government competence when he tried to argue that the public option would not be the end of private insurance.

UPS and Fed Ex are doing just fine . . . it's the Post Office that's always having problems, Obama told a New Hampshire town hall audience.

He played into the public's fear that government never does anything well and always requires more money than originally budgeted.

At an AARP meeting, Obama mocked seniors who don't understand Medicare is a government program. He told of a woman who pleaded "Don't touch my Medicare." He got laughs. He went for the joke instead of the teachable moment. He should have described Medicare's success as a government program.

However, he also told the New Hampshire meeting, Medicare and Medicaid are on an unsustainable path. Medicare is slated to go into the red in eight or ten years. "I don't know if people are aware of that. If I was a senior citizen, the thing I'd be worried about right now is Medicare starts running out of money."

Why isn't he telling them how his health care reform will strengthen Medicare?

Then Rep. John Conyers (D. MI) appeared at a National Press Club luncheon mocking the idea he should actually read the health care legislation: "What good is reading the bill if it's a thousand pages and you don't have two days and two lawyers to find out what it means after you read the bill?"

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) likened challengers to Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists. Brian Baird (D-WA) saw Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in the town hall protests. The Democratic National Committee, among others, described protestors as Nazis.

As Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) told a woman who threw the Nazi tag his way, "It is a tribute to the 1st Amendment that this kind of vile, contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated." Gentleman Frank then compared the woman to a dining room table and asked her "on what planet do you spend most of your time?"

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD ), one-upped everyone with a USA Today piece in which they wrote that drowning out opposition is simply un-American.

Three years ago, Pelosi told a group of anti-war protestors, "I'm a fan of disruptors. There's nothing more articulate, more eloquent for a member of Congress than the voice of constituents."

Why do these politicians think that insulting protestors helps?

By creating headlines this way, politicians take away opportunities to sell health care reform.

Democrats keeping shouting out Sarah Palin's Death Panels comment giving it the advertising holy grail of the most frequency and reach possible.

For all their communication skills, Team Obama should be able to keep their feet out of their mouths.

Right now Obama is not leading. He is flailing.

Recent comments by himself and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs regarding the public option were nothing short of mush.

The same can be said for dozens of other issues. That is what scares people.

If Team Obama wants real health care reform, it needs to get its act together, stop bashing voters who disagree, and clearly explain the details of what they propose.

Learn more about this author, John Dreyer.
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