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Truth, lies, and the Republicans

Three quick observations on health care and Joe Wilson:

1. Obama wasn’t being honest about illegal aliens, the cost of the bill, and much else besides. A lot of this has come out already, and more will.

2. It was still wrong to insult him. Under the rules of parliamentary procedure, one is never supposed to address anyone else in the second person, let alone interrupt the President. Calling him a liar is particularly egregious—even if it was, in your opinion, true.

3.  he Democrats are in a weak position to raise this issue. Their treatment of Bush was not much less rude than the Republicans’ treatment of Obama, in some cases, worse.  I’ve seen signs and T-shirts about Bush that I wouldn’t feel comfortable printing.

The speech and response have given Obama a modest bounce in the polls, but Republicans continue to have a sizable lead in a generic congressional ballot, which—since the Democratic vote tends to be more geographically concentrated—could lead to an even bigger advantage in actual districts.

Perhaps all of these voters are as uncouth as Joe Wilson was on Wednesday. But telling them so is unlikely to change their minds.

September 14, 2009 at 7:27 am

--Michael Livingston

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