Tuesday, July 3, 2012

Recapping the Obamacare Fallout

James Wolcott looks at the media and political "fails" on the heels of the Supreme Court's upholding the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"):
"[O]n its sister channel, Fox Business Network, Stuart Varney and company once again vigorously masturbated to every dip in the Dow, rooting for a stock market and economic downturn since bad news=bad for Obama=good for Mitt=good for Obamacare repeal. [snip]

"On the right wing blogs it was the Fall of Saigon and election night 2008 all over again, with much gritted grumbling about the need to stock up on ammo and get ready for the civil war and Spartacus slave uprisings about to break out in miniature golf courses all across this once sacred land. Intoned Protein Wisdom's Jeff Goldstein at the open stinking grave of Democracy: 'Small businesses just died. The free enterprise system just died. And worst of all, liberty just died. The SCOTUS has all but ensured either insurrection or slavery.' Americans are too fat to insurrect, give it up.

"Mitt Romney's statement in reaction to the Supreme Court ruling might as well have been delivered by a Mattel toy bot. His eyes rattle around too much in his head for him to pull off the Reaganesque pose of Pure Resolve and when he said he would repeal Obamacare day one in his presidency, he sounded vain, hollow, and deluded. Obamacare isn't a bandage or decal that can be pulled off with a single tug and no president has the ability to undo a leviathan program passed by a predecessor with a single pen stroke. You really shouldn't bluff like that if you can't back it up, especially when you already resemble a cardboard cutout whose convictions waver in the wind." (our emphasis)

The Stuart Varney line -- priceless.