Big Mistake or a Big Lie

6 November, 2013. 384 words.

Lots of talk about Obama’s “keep your existing plan” gaffe. I’m not one of those people who thinks that “making a big mistake” is the same as “lying,” but in the political world, they pretty much are the same. When Obama said, “you can keep your existing plan,” he probably had somebody telling him that you could, or he meant you could keep your existing employer-based insurance. But now that plenty of people are losing their existing plans, he’s getting hammered for lying to us.

(Technically he didn’t lie to me though, because I do still have my existing plan. Of course it’s not up for renewal until Spring, so there’s still plenty of time for it to be discontinued.)

I think insurance companies are dropping plans deliberately to make Obama look bad, because they are ticked off about the new regulations, but that’s just my own personal conspiracy theory which has not a single shred of supporting evidence. But you’ve got to believe the insurance industry had no desire to change the racket they had going before Obamacare. (You know, where they would only insure healthy people and kick out the sick people as soon as they were discovered.)

I really don’t understand why people seem to have an automatic distrust of Obama when he talks. I hear people say this all the time, both on blogs and in real life: “I just don’t trust him. He’s so arrogant. You just know he’s hiding something.” I almost never get that vibe when I see him speaking. Sure he’s got a swagger about him, and he has that lawyer/politician demeanor that automatically inspires caution, but he’s the president of the frickin’ United States. He’s supposed to have some swagger. Generally speaking, we live in a culture which celebrates swagger.

If I were to rank politicians on trustworthiness based solely on their body language and speech patterns, I would put Obama fairly high. A lot higher than Joe Biden, who smiles way too much to be sincere. (I still think he’s funny, though.) I would probably rank George W. Bush somewhere between those two. Dick Cheney would probably have the lowest possible ranking on the scale. I would put Mitt Romney somewhere near Joe Biden. I’m not sure about Hilary though. She’s hard to read.

Related