General Discussion

kpete

(72,006 posts) Wed Oct 23, 2013, 03:28 PM Oct 2013

why you shouldnt compare obamacare to katrina or iraq, in one chart. cc: all pundits

Sorry, but Obamacare is not President Obama's 'Iraq war'
The media was quick to declare the Iraq war a success when it wasn't. Now reporters can't wait to label Obamacare a disaster

Here is how the ACA exchanges are not like the Iraq war (or the Bush mismanagement of the Hurricane Katrina aftermath), in one chart:

As offensive as Strong's analogy is to, well, anyone, it's perhaps more instructive than he intended: imagine if the ACA had the kind of blindly optimistic bipartisan support enjoyed by the Iraq War. Imagine if the Obama administration had been able to embed reporters in among enthusiastic and over-prepared participants. Imagine if the ACA's explosions had painted pretty colors in the night sky.

Instead, the ACA is the polar opposite of the Iraq war, not just in terms of aim (saving lives versus taking them), but in terms of a model for political cooperation and press coverage. The ACA created ruthless, even suicidal political opposition: if the Democrats had responded to even the rumors of disaster at the beginning of the Iraq war (and we were warned) the way that the GOP has dug its heels in on Obamacare – shut the government down until Bush admitted defeat and withdrew – then the chart of how many deaths each had caused might not look quite as tragic. Though it would still look pretty tragic.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/23/obamacare-website-glitches-not-iraq-war

3 replies

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why you shouldnt compare obamacare to katrina or iraq, in one chart. cc: all pundits (Original Post) kpete Oct 2013 OP

The Obamacare launch wasn't even a failure, the media up to their usual tricks. Argh! NYC_SKP Oct 2013 #1

Tip and Ronnie would have found a bargain! What would Lincoln do? Obama needs a team of rivals! kpete Oct 2013 #2

All I can say is that the ACA must be damaging the bottom line of........ wandy Oct 2013 #3

NYC_SKP

(68,644 posts)

1. The Obamacare launch wasn't even a failure, the media up to their usual tricks. Argh!

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Wed Oct 23, 2013, 03:31 PM

Oct 2013

K/R

kpete

(72,006 posts)

2. Tip and Ronnie would have found a bargain! What would Lincoln do? Obama needs a team of rivals!

Reply to NYC_SKP (Reply #1)

Wed Oct 23, 2013, 03:34 PM

Oct 2013

It’s all such crap, and to me, it demeans the entire human experience. Confronting complicated problems isn’t easy for anyone, no matter how much Churchillian resolve or Burkean restrain or Washingtonian patriotism or Lincolnian grit they have.

Sometimes things are just fucked up, and you could easily argue that we’re lucky to have people like Obama and, yes, even Boehner (he could be a lot worse) mostly trying to avert catastrophe. Who knows what Lincoln would do if he were in Obama’s shoes? All we know is how he handled the last southern uprising…and frankly I don’t think Bobo and Ron Fournier would find Sherman’s march to the sea so leadershipy and compromisy if it happened today.

It’s fun to imagine that the Great Americans of yore could solve all our problems if they came back from the grave. But pointless fantasizing is a retreat from reality. So is Niall Ferguson-style counterfactual historicizing.

It’s a mark of decadence and decline that so many elites waste their time wanking about things that didn’t happen and things that will never happen instead of reporting accurately on what is happening.

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2013/10/23/isnt-it-pretty-to-think-so/

wandy

(3,539 posts)

3. All I can say is that the ACA must be damaging the bottom line of........

Reply to kpete (Original post)

Wed Oct 23, 2013, 04:34 PM

Oct 2013

some GOP owner.
Disreputable as they are the GOP has given extra effort to find every thing and anything wrong with the ACA.
False equivalences, misrepresentation and out right lying are known "republican family values."
Should, a year from now, ACA prove successful and well liked it will be nothing less than the first step toward single payer.

That is what the GOP sponsors are most worried about.

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