President Obama’s selling skills are questionable. He says things that aren’t true and acts as if we won’t be able to figure that out. A minor case in point: On 60 Minutes tonight, he says that he will “own” Obamacare and be held politically accountable if it doesn’t work. From the story:
I have no interest in having a bill get passed that fails. That doesn’t work. You know, I intend to be president for a while and once this bill passes, I own it. And if people look and say, ‘You know what? This hasn’t reduced my costs. My premiums are still going up 25 percent, insurance companies are still jerking me around.’ I’m the one who’s going to be held responsible. So I have every incentive to get this right.”
Except: Obamacare, if it passes, conveniently won’t go in to effect until after the 2012 election. So, unlike say, the success or failure of the stimulus bill or his policy toward Iran, President Obama will never be directly accountable to the voters if his version of health care reform doesn’t actually work. Indeed, it would not be until the 2014 Congressional election—at the earliest—that the policy’s real world impact on the public could influence their votes.
