Earlier today, I gave you a report card you could use to grade the President’s speech tonight on healthcare reform. By my count, the president failed (with a grade of 30 out of 100). Early returns showed others agreed with me. He graded 0% by 28% of voters, 10-30% by 50% of voters, 40-50% by 13% of voters, and 60-70% by 3% of voters. In other words, only 7% of voters gave him a passing grade. However what was most shocking was when South Carolina Republican Rep. Joe Wilson shouted “You lie!” during the President’s speech. Not the most polite thing to do. But, who was telling the truth? The President? Or, the Representative?The editors of National Review Online also graded the President’s comments. It looks like they sided with Joe Wilson (although they waited until after the speech to post their comments):

President Obama began his speech tonight by noting that liberals have been trying to foist “comprehensive health reform” on this nation for nearly seven decades. (He did not use these exact words.) These decades of failure have not led liberals to reconsider their basic assumptions about the proper role of government in American health care. It was thus overly optimistic to expect a few difficult months to make Obama rethink his health-care initiative.

Neither the government-heavy substance nor the dishonest and demagogic tactics have changed. Here are just a few examples:

• • The president denounced “scare tactics” — in a speech that warned that failure to go along with his plans would cause people to die.
  • He pretended that preventive care will “save money,” even though this claim has been authoritatively and repeatedly debunked. (See: Health Myth #10: Preventive Medicine Saves Money)
  • He claimed, in defiance of every independent assessment, that the legislation before Congress will reduce costs.
  • He denied that the legislation he supports will spend federal dollars on abortion, which can be true only if he has some private and novel definition of “federal dollars.” (See my blogs: Abortion Funding Mandate IS in Obama’s Health Care Reform; Taxpayer-Funding of Abortions Now the New Roe v Wade of the Abortion Debate; and Congressional Research Service says Obama Bearing False Witness)
  • He denied that it will cover illegal immigrants, even though Democratic congressmen have specifically voted not to require verification of legal residence.
  • Obama told people with insurance that “nothing in our plan requires you to change what you have.”
    • Note the careful formulation, which is technically true but deliberately misleading.
    • The president knows full well that his plan will cause millions of people to lose their current coverage and that they are not going to catch the fact that his statement does not quite deny it.
    • Obama said that “what Americans who have health insurance can expect from this plan” is “more security and stability.” Many of them can, in fact, expect to lose their coverage while paying higher premiums and taxes. Many other Americans can expect to lose their jobs thanks to Obama’s “employer mandate.”

President Obama said that “the time for bickering is over” and that he will not “waste time with those who have made the calculation that it’s better politics to kill this plan than improve it.”

You would not guess it from his speech, but it is possible sincerely to believe that it is better policy to scrap this plan and start over. If by “bickering” Obama means opposition in principle to his plan to vastly expand the federal role in health care, then there has never been a better time for it.

Amen.
According to an AP poll out earlier today, 52% of American adults now disapprove (43% strongly disapprove) of the president’s handling of healthcare.
Only 42% approve.
When asked about the healthcare reform proposal under debate in Congress, only 34% support the congressional package, while 49% oppose it.
A strong plurality (42%) believes the best option is for Congress to scrap this plan and start over.
After the facts are discussed, I believe these numbers are going to shift away from the President. He could have, tonight, saved healthcare reform. He could have proposed the common ground upon which the polls show most of us agree (left, right, and middle; Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent; young, old, middle age)
Instead, he may have sunk the ship upon which his presidency is sailing.