Coulter 8/19/09

Left's Healthcare Lies - Part 1

My take on Ann Coulter's latest. Her column was published on Townhall.com.

Summary: She lists a number of Administration talking points and then refutes them. This installment's discussion concerns the insurance companies.

List: The New National Health Care Plan will:

1. Punish the insurance companies.
2. Increase competition and keep insurance companies honest.
3. Stop insurance companies denying legitimate claims.


4. Give Americans "basic consumer protections that will finally hold insurance companies accountable."
5. Be the only way to provide coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Quote:

You want to punish insurance companies? Make them compete.

My Views: There's been a lot of coverage of this issue and I fear that I am over-doing it myself. I can't help but notice that it has a number of dimensions: 1) The importance of the issue itself; 2) the political calculations involving the emphasis on the shortcomings of the insurance industry and not others such as the law firms; 3) the elitism towards public concerns expressed at town hall meetings and elsewhere; and 4) Obama's Administration imploding.

If I were Obama, I would at this point shift attention away from townhalls by challenging the Republicans to a debate - a real one - face to face using something like the old Buckey Firing Line format. Two teams line up and take turns banging away at an issue. D's vs. R's. Or else go one on one with a prominent R - like Sarah Palin. Presuming she would score badly, he could recover momentum.

Of course, there's the danger that the R's concerns aren't as bad as the D's and their amen corner in the media make it out to be - and that people like SP aren't as dumb as they're portrayed as being, either. Danger, yes but at this point if I were Obama, I would take the chance.

Series Summary

Part 2

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Anybody who is as hated as Ann Coulter is must be doing something right. She is very right-wing but every left-wing blogger would love to write like her. I hate rants; opinion pieces must argue from the facts. Pay attention to how she uses facts and draws politically incorrect connections among them. People would do well to think and not just be outraged.

Here's her Wiki bio. Her latest book is at the right.