The Mouth of SauronRobert Gibbs does what he does best, lies, in yesterday’s press briefing.
This administration has studied Joseph Goebbels well:
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
And reporter Jake Tapper nails the whole health care issue in his question:
Jake Tapper:
Q A couple questions. I don’t know if you think it’s unfair to say, but it occurs to me that if the President finds himself at a town hall meeting telling the American people that he does not want to set up a panel to kill their grandparents, that perhaps there, at some point, the President has lost control of the message. And I’m wondering if you — if what you’ve seen in the last few weeks is one of the reasons why it was so important to the President earlier this year to pass health care reform in the House and Senate before the August recess. Is everything that’s going on right now what you feared would happen?
The Lies from Robert Gibbs
Q Who decides which of the many applicants for tickets to the town halls is actually chosen?
MR. GIBBS: Randomly by computer.
Q Totally random?
MR. GIBBS: Yes.
Q What about who gets a question?
MR. GIBBS: The President asks people to raise their hands and picks on them.
Q Robert, what do you think accounts for the stark difference in the scenes, though? I mean, we saw — people were very polite with the President yesterday. They are, shall we say, less than polite with some lawmakers you saw –
Maybe Mr. Gibbs never saw THIS VIDEO FROM THE LOCAL TV NEWS CHANNEL. Watch it and look at all the buses in the video and Organzing Health Care signs. as the report said about the people in the buses – Surely they will go through strict security – maybe to make sure they were agreeable and properly medicated?!!!! And there certainly were no plants in the audience this time (unlike the plants in the Annadale town hall, right?
More lies misspoken words from Obama. Its amazing how hard it is to get the truth out of your mouth every day, isn’t it!
Q I want to go back to the earlier question about the AARP. What he actually said was “AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare.” What exactly — how did he — can you explain to me how he misspoke and what he meant to say?
MR. GIBBS: I think, again, what he’s conflating is, one — and I think if you ask AARP this — they have been supportive of comprehensive health care reform for a long time. They have not, as they said, endorsed a specific piece of legislation. They are supportive of health care reform and they are supportive of an agreement that the Finance Committee and pharmaceutical manufacturers have entered into that the White House agrees with that would use $80 billion to partially fill with reduced-price prescription drugs 50 percent of the doughnut hole that seniors fall into at a certain level as part of Medicare Part D, as well as some of that additional money for savings in comprehensive health care reform.
Q But he left the impression, twice, to anyone, at least to me, sitting in the town hall meeting that Medicare — that AARP supported this and he needed it to rebut the questions about Medicare benefits would be cut. So is he going to not do that in future town halls?
MR. GIBBS: Well, the President is going to continue to say the bill doesn’t cut Medicare benefits. I think, again, the President was talking about the agreement structured with the Finance Committee and the pharmaceutical manufacturers.
More lies about the nature of the People Protesting for their FREEDOM.
MR. GIBBS: Some lawmakers.
Q Some lawmakers, but –
MR. GIBBS: I don’t know that — I’ll be honest with you, Sheryl, I don’t know how many town hall meetings you’ve been to over the summer –
Q I haven’t been to that many, but I’ve watched the clips of a fair number of them.
MR. GIBBS: Right. But let’s just address that for a second. You’ve watched clips put up about certain segments of certain town halls in order to demonstrate the consternation –
Q I’ve watched enough clips to know that President didn’t get that kind of treatment that some lawmakers got –
MR. GIBBS: No, no, I understand.
Q — and I’m just wondering do you think –
MR. GIBBS: I’m just asking you to compare that to all the town halls that you’ve been to over the summer.
Q But aside from that, the President didn’t get that kind of treatment. And I’m wondering, do you think is it just that people are more polite when it comes to talking to the President? Is it something in your — in the way folks are allowed into your meetings, or what’s the difference?
MR. GIBBS: Again, I think, again, I’m sensing your disappointment that he didn’t get yelled at.
Q No, I’m not disappointed, I’m just wondering what the explanation is for it.
MR. GIBBS: I think people wanted to — I think what the — I can’t speak to what — again, I don’t want to speak to what other town hall meetings because I only go to the President’s. It’s hard for me to — I doubt we’re seeing a representative sample of any series of town hall meetings, despite the food fight on cable every day.
But my sense is that people wanted to take the opportunity to find out from the President — to have him answer their questions about why he’s doing what he’s doing, and the concerns they may have on the legislation. That’s why when he asked, let’s take some questions from those directly that have some concerns, at that point I think — do you want to take that opportunity to have a discussion with the President of the United States about what he wants to see on health care reform? I think most people took that opportunity as something that was positive. I think it was a good conversation. I think the President thought it was a very productive conversation about the issues that we were dealing with.
And as Jake said, we — the President went out of his way to bring up, in fact, some of the misinformation that churns out there in order to address it, because I think obviously he understands he has a pulpit that is large enough to deal with some of the misinformation that some people might not ordinarily ask or inquire about because they’ve read it somewhere and they just assume that it’s true, even if it’s not.
Well – we can at least agree the President brought up some misinformation. That’s for sure.
Cassandra Effect
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