One interesting development went completely unreported during or after the festivities at the health care summit last Thursday: for the first time, President Barack Obama referred to his own signature comprehensive health care reform initiative as “Obamacare”. Obama used the term Obamacare at the very end of the health care summit in his closing remarks. Here’s the Washington Post transcript of the history-making moment when Obama uttered Obamacare for the first time:
OBAMA: An interesting thing happened a couple of weeks ago, and that is a report came out that for the first time, it turns out that more Americans are now getting their health care coverage from government than those who are getting it from the private sector. And you know what? That’s without a bill from the Democrats or from President Obama. It has nothing to do with, quote-unquote, “Obamacare.”
Some on the left have attacked centrists and conservatives for using the term Obamacare, with some left wing bloggers going so far afield as to declare that Obamacare is the “new N word.” Others on the left claim that using the term Obamacare “demonizes” Obama somehow and is a personal attack on Obama. Urban Dictionary has several interesting definitions of Obamacare, one of which focuses on the allegedly inappropriate nature of the term:
obamacare
1. n. A term invented by impoverished, dumb-ass neocons to apply negative connotation to the bi-partisan, congressional health care plan.
2. n. A term created to align this struggling bill–being impeded by billion-dollar insurance industries and represented by “the people” organized by Fox News in a “grassroots” movement–with President Barack Obama.
3. n. A term used by dumb shits who watch Glenn Beck and oppose government-run healthcare and are more likely to follow a 7th-Day Adventist ideology over SOCIALISM!!!!
As no one in the mainstream media, popular political blogs or even little tiny blogs like this one has reported on Obama’s use of the term Obamacare for the first time Thursday, many on the far left who attack anyone who use the term are probably unaware that Obama used the term himself on Thursday at the summit. The term appears in the transcripts, but in no articles of any kind on the internet.
Hopefully, this post will serve as a starting point to reporting the news that Obama actually used the term Obamacare for the first time on Thursday and perhaps avoid continued hostility and attacks by those on the far left who (wrongly) view the term Obamacare as a slur. Indeed, if Obama himself used the term Obamacare to describe his plans on health care, it makes little sense to argue that the term itself is somehow an offensive slur.
All Out Media Assault on Eric Massa as Beck Interview Approaches
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
Former Democratic House Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) Is Under All-Out Assault from the Establishment Media Today
As the hours count down until Glenn Beck uses his 3-4 million viewer platform today to amplify now-resigned Democratic House Rep. Eric Massa’s (D-NY) sensational claims that the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress forced him out of Congress over his opposition to Obamacare, the left-leaning establishment media is engaging in all-out effort to completely destroy Eric Massa in the eyes of the public. A common beneficiary of Obama White House and Congressional Democratic leaks, the Washington Post, has just gone up with a new story alleging that Massa is under investigation for “groping” several male staffers:
CNN and MSNBC have been keeping up a steady hourly diet of attacks on Eric Massa all day long, at times asserting he is simply crazy, had “snapped” from the pressure, was “silly” or “ridiculous” or was just lying about the Obama Administration and Congressional Democratic leadership just to save his own skin. Considering Massa was fully embraced by such left-leaning media outlets in the recent past, the latest harsh, anonymously-sourced attacks are all the more jarring. The leaks from Democratic sources on the House Ethics Committee or perhaps the White House, published at 2:49PM today, up the ante somewhat as they attempt to paint Massa as a serial sexual harasser of male staffers based on anonymous sources. All told, the mainstream media appears to be reading directly from White House talking points on Massa, as repeated again by the Washington Post in today’s article:
It is unusual for specific details of Congressional ethics investigations to be leaked so widely, especially in seeming direct, immediate response to the member’s public comments, as the leaks to the Washington Post appear to be in response to Massa’s comments yesterday. Regardless, today’s interview on Glenn Beck’s show is certain to drive the news cycle this evening and perhaps into tomorrow as the Obama Administration and Congressional Democratic leadership struggle to find the votes to push Obamacare through Congress before the Easter recess.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Beneficiary, Campaign Office, Care Reform Legislation, Committee Investigation, Congressional Leaders, Congressional Offices, Eric Massa, Establishment Media, Glenn Beck, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Office Staff, Physical Harassment, Salty Language, Sensational Claims, Staffers, Villified, Washington Post, York Democrat
Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama, Beneficiary, Campaign Office, Care Reform Legislation, Committee Investigation, Congressional Leaders, Congressional Offices, Eric Massa, Establishment Media, Glenn Beck, Health Care Reform, Inappropriate Comments, Office Staff, Physical Harassment, Salty Language, Sensational Claims, Staffers, Villified, Washington Post, York Democrat
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