President LeBron

Jon Chait was so in awe of Obama's commanding awesomeness that he described the healthcare summit as follows:

President Obama is so much smarter and a better communicator than members of Congress in either party. The contrast, side by side, is almost ridiculous.

Update: Good example of what I'm talking about: Lamar Alexander contradicts Obama, says that the Congressional Budget Office found that premiums would rise under the Senate's plan. Obama points out, correctly, that Alexander is just wrong.

But most the time, this is like watching Lebron James play basketball with a bunch of kids who got cut from the 7th grade basketball team. He's treating them really nice, letting his teammates take shots and allowing the other team to try to score. Nice try on that layup, Timmy, you almost got it on. But after a couple minutes I want him to just grab the ball and dunk on these clowns already.

Hmm - let's watch that dunk again on videotape!  The AP Fact Check ran the transcript and concluded that both Obama and Alexander were correct but misleading. 

James Taranto explains Chait to the rest of us:

The Great Condescender

No one holds a candle to Barack Obama when it comes to making smart liberals feel superior.

...

Chait actually makes two distinct claims about Obama: that he has a superior intellect and that he is a superior "communicator." The first claim could be true, although it is far from indisputable. But the second claim is so absurd as to be delusional.

Obama has spent the past year trying to sell Americans on ObamaCare. He has failed utterly, as Podhoretz notes. Now, maybe Chait is right that opposition to ObamaCare is a product of stupidity. Maybe ObamaCare would be popular if a majority of Americans were as brilliant as Jonathan Chait. But in a democratic republic, elections are not limited to the elect. Shockingly, half of all Americans have below-average IQs. They vote too.

By no imaginable standard can a politician be considered a great "communicator," or even an adequate one, if he is unable to persuade voters of average-or-below intelligence to back his policies.

I think maybe Mr. Taranto is being a bit unfair here.  After all, on his side Chait's Great Communicator only had the White House bully pulpit, Congressional chairman, leading academics, and NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, the NY Times, and the LA Times.  Sarah Palin had a Facebook page, Glenn Beck had a television show, and Rush Limbaugh had a radio show, so really - how could Obama hope to break through?

Mr. Chait leaves us with other puzzles in his defense of the Great Communicator.  I like this from the lead of his explanation of "Why You Can't Talk Discuss Health Care With The GOP":

Most of the Republicans have relied upon scripted talking points and generalized denunciations of big government and a "government takeover." Numerous Democrats in the room have explained why it's not possible to ban insurance companies from discriminating against those with preexisting conditions without also covering everybody and subsidizing those who afford it. (Short answer: people would just game the system, going without insurance until they get sick.)

Wait a second!  Mr. Chait may have forgotten, but back in the endless Democratic primaries we sat through debate after debate in which Obama argued that mandates were not necessary.  And he won both the nomination and the election!  Was Obama an idiot conservative back then, or a disingenuous liar?  And whence sprang any sort of a public mandate for these new mandates?

The Great Communicater shared his new-found philosophy about mandates at the summit:

When I was young, just got out of college, I had to buy auto insurance. I had a beat-up old car. And I won’t name the name of the insurance company, but there was a company — let’s call it Acme Insurance in Illinois. And I was paying my premiums every month. After about six months I got rear-ended and I called up Acme and said, I’d like to see if I can get my car repaired, and they laughed at me over the phone because really this was set up not to actually provide insurance; what it was set up was to meet the legal requirements. But it really wasn’t serious insurance.

Now, it’s one thing if you’ve got an old beat-up car that you can’t get fixed. It’s another thing if your kid is sick, or you’ve got breast cancer.

As of today the State of Illinois requires drivers to have third party liability in order to register their car; as a believer in regulatory creep, I doubt they had a broader requirement including collision back in the 80's, when a young man drove a beater from New York to take his job as a community organizer in Chi-town.

So what does this anecdote from the Great Communicator tells us?  Well, it might tell us he is as dumb as a bag of rocks for not understanding the difference between liability and collision insurance.

But let's give him the benefit if the doubt!  I am trying to think like a Lib here, so bear with me - the moral of the story seems to be that even Barack Obama, future editor of the Harvard Law Review and President of the United States, found simple insurance decisions utterly mystifying and had no idea what he had actually purchased. 

Now, that flies in the face of the Illinois injunction to "Understand what you are buying.  Ask for a detailed explanation in layman’s terms".  Furthermore, despite his utter confusion Obama apparently blundered to the common (and thriftier) conclusion, since no one buys collision on a junker. 

However, months later he realized that paying more for collision would have been a great idea, so history is re-written.  It is now due to ACME's rapaciousness that they are unwilling to right this wrong and write him a check.  And they laughed!  Surely Chait can hear the racial overtones there!  After the laughter died they should have explained to the college grad that he could file a third-party claim against the other driver, assuming Obama was not at fault, but that also may have been too confusing.

Well.  If even Obama can be duped by greedy insurers into saving his money and taking a sensible risk, what hope do the rest of us have?  Surely we need these new health insurance mandates to make sure both that we buy policies and that the policies we buy have everything we need, not just everything we (stupidly think we) want.

This is classic, generic Democratic paternalism - people can't be trusted to make their own decisions and they certainly should not be expected to endure the consequences of those decisions. 

Young Barack should never have been allowed to buy liability-only insurance that didn't cover damage to his junker.  Barack, Nancy and Harry will protect us from our own deplorable decision making on the health care front.

Comments

[anduril]

This is a nice explanation of our whole health benefit/insurance system--if you want to call it a system: What Didn't Get Said at the Summit. More evidence that Obama and the Dems are so blinded by ideology that they can't see the facts. Also explains why Obama's numbers are tanking further after the Stunt Summit: ordinary people have a sense for this, even if they may not be able to explain it in detail.

[matt]

pig, meet poke.

The aroma of BS has risen so high on this thing it has carried across the country.

[Clarice]

I was going to write up that insurance gaffe myself,TM, but I figured there's be lots of people doing that. Once again, however, you are the only one to catch this. What a whiny nincompoop Obama is.

[Matthew Crandall]

Obelisk Obama: My God, he's full of stars crap!

[anduril]

Speaking of dumb as a "bag of rocks" (apparently they bag rocks in the NE--I always say "box of rocks"), apparently the Mossad miscalculated in thinking that that was an accurate description of the Dubai police. Some new info re the continuing investigation is out today.

First, the WSJ explains what's going on with the financial investigation, Dubai Seeks U.S. Aid in Assassination Probe :

Dubai police say some of the credit cards in question were issued by banks in Europe, Dubai police said. But Dubai authorities said most of them were issued and distributed through two U.S.-based companies: MetaBank, a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., of Storm Lake, Iowa, and Payoneer Inc., based in New York.

In an emailed statement Friday Metabank declined to comment pending a "factual review of this issue." Payoneer, in a statement, said it is "cooperating with the bank and the authorities to explore the matter."

Dubai police didn't explain details of how they suspect the cards might have been issued and distributed. But the two companies have partnered in the past to provide prepaid debit cards to payees, such as employees, of client companies, according to press releases issued by the companies. The client can then transfer funds to payees via the prepaid cards.

Part of the focus of the probe, the person familiar with the situation said, is to determine whether the cards were issued and used in this way, and if so, where the funds that would have been funneled into the cards originated.

...

Meta Financial is a Nasdaq-listed thrift holding company for MetaBank and Meta Trust Co. Along with taking deposits and making loans, its Web site also details an electronic payment-system division.

Payoneer was founded in 2005. It is a closely held company, based in New York but with offices outside Tel Aviv. The company has been seeded by several high-tech venture capital funds, including American and Israeli investors, according to the company's Web site.

The company's chief executive, Yuval Tal, described himself as a former Israeli special forces solider in an appearance as a commentator on Fox News during the 2006 Lebanon war.

That's pretty amusing. Imagine taking a random sample of 26 people to check their credit cards and discovering that "most of them" had cards issued by MetaBank, a unit of Meta Financial Group Inc., of Storm Lake, Iowa. Beyond coincidence, I think.

And this via ABC: Dubai issues warrants for suspected assassins:

Dubai police say they have found DNA proof of the identity of at least one assassin responsible for killing a senior Hamas commander last month.

Dubai's police chief Dhahi Khalfan says investigators have recovered DNA evidence and fingerprints from the hotel room where Mahmoud Al Mabhouh was murdered just over a month ago.

He says it will prove the identity of at least one of the 26 people suspected of involvement.

Authorities in Dubai have now issued the first arrest warrants through Interpol.

[Danube of Thought]

Excerpt from the AP article today:

"In fact, Democrats following the legislation say House Democratic support for the legislation has sunk to 200 votes or less in recent weeks, following the stunning GOP victory in last month's special Massachusetts Senate election and the bill's modest showing in polls."

If they really were under 200 before the summit, it's not gonna pass.

[Cecil Turner]

I actually think Chait has the better argument here. Polishing a turd is not easy, and the Prez came off about even. Just think how good he'd be if he had some decent material to work with!

[Clarice]

I looked up Payoneer--it provides a decent service for companies that have employees around the globe--a prepaid master card against which to charge expenses around the globe.

I wonder how many other companies there are that do this.

[Ignatz]

--President Obama is so much smarter and a better communicator than members of Congress in either party.--

Considering how gawdawful awkward this opening sentence by Chait is I'm not surprised he's impressed by Barry's communication skills.

We've all watched schmoozers like Barry at carnivals and county fairs.
Peabrains like Chait invariably swoon over the glib rote answers and the polished inanities. Guys like Barry are practiced at stoking the confirmation bias for the true believers, but have a pretty tough time with the sceptical.
That's why the more Barry talks the more the doe eyed Chaits of the world eat their cotton candy and lick their all day suckers in wide eyed wonder not even realizing the rest of the crowd is wondering off with one hand over their wallets just as a precaution.

[Thomas Collins]

Obama is so smart that he can cut overhead for all by reducing profits.

If Chait thinks Obama is a great intellect, he should check out the YouTube videos of Paul Ryan's statements. Chait might learn something from Ryan that Chait could use in his own intellections.

[anduril]

I wonder how many other companies there are that do this.

Just a guess, but off the top of my head I'd say: lots. And your point is...?

NOTICE: Clarice gets to respond to my OT posts anytime she wants, but don't anyone else think YOU can. The rest of you second class posters have to clear your replies through her.

[Gmax]

We are back to getting Chaitmail from Jonathan?

Can we introduce this moron to Ezra Klein and let them one up the other with their fawning prose?

[anduril]

As Taranto says, if Obama is such an all fired Great Communicator, how come he can't sell his Obamacare snake oil to a bunch of rubes clinging to their Bibles and guns? Maybe he's not so persuasive after all. Look at his polls today.

[Porchlight]

Even if he did have collision coverage, why would Young Barack expect *his* insurance company to pay for repairs caused by being rear-ended? The other person's insurance pays for that.

Maybe the other driver was uninsured, but he doesn't mention it.

All his personal anecdotes have the same otherworldly quality - it's almost like the guy isn't from around here, or something.

[Al Asad]

'unable to persuade voters of average-or-below intelligence to back his policies.'

"Sarah Palin had a Facebook page, Glenn Beck had a television show, and Rush Limbaugh had a radio show, so really...."

'Nuff said.

[Gmax]

Porch if he were driving in Michigan that is exactly what would have happened. I dont know Illinois law, but Michigan many years ago adopted with great flourish and fanfare, " NO FAULT" insurance. When I lived there, we generally called it YOUR FAULT insurance. And that was one of many straws that ultimately convinced me the Camel that was Michigan was going to stumble under the progressive's many layered weight.

[Danube of Thought]

Two lads asked a grizzled old gent to settle a bet: who was the better general, Lee or Grant? The old man said "I understand they done paid off on Grant."

Regardless of what Chait may think about who fared better, Raz strongly suggests that the voters done paid off on the GOP.

[narciso]

Our 'beloved and wise' governor, sigh, in the LUN

[Gmax]

"no-fault" states include Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and Utah.

So despite my best Rob Gibbs impression, I am unable to explain Zero's faux paus alack and alas.

[Captain Hate]

Chaits of the world eat their cotton candy and lick their all day suckers in wide eyed wonder not even realizing the rest of the crowd is wondering off with one hand over their wallets just as a precaution.

Well stated, Iggy; Chait is such an obvious mark he could be fleeced by grifters-in-training and they still would have a long way to go.

[Ignatz]

--Two lads asked a grizzled old gent to settle a bet: who was the better general, Lee or Grant? The old man said "I understand they done paid off on Grant."--

I'm putting that one in the files.

[MarkO]

What, exactly, is the life experience of those who think Barack is so smart? Have they ever sat in a meeting? Have they ever been part of an organization attempting to solve a problem? Have they ever had to unpack two arguments to determine which was better for a company or a business?

Have they ever listened to a real law professor?

I remember the mocking of GWB for his use of nicknames for his friends. Yet, Obama calls all the senators by their first names---clearly an insulting power move most likely to be used by a middle manager---while he insists on being called Mr. President and reminding us that he won the election.

His speaking skills hardly rise to the level of Bill Clinton, who was clearly much more facile in his intellect and speech than Obama. It must gall him to hear this fawning over the second black president.

Moreover, I never thought I would long for the days of Bill Clinton.

[MarkO]

What, exactly, is the life experience of those who think Barack is so smart? Have they ever sat in a meeting? Have they ever been part of an organization attempting to solve a problem? Have they ever had to unpack two arguments to determine which was better for a company or a business?

Have they ever had a real law professor?

I remember the mocking of GWB for his use of nicknames for his friends. Yet, Obama calls all the senators by their first names---clearly an insulting power move most likely to be used by a middle manager---while he insists on being called Mr. President and reminding us that he won the election.

His speaking skills hardly rise to the level of Bill Clinton, who was clearly much more facile in his intellect and speech than Obama. It must gall him to hear this fawning over the second black president.

Moreover, I never thought I would long for the days of Bill Clinton.

[hit and run]

Gmax:
Can we introduce this moron to Ezra Klein and let them one up the other with their fawning prose?

And off we go...can you guess which writer blogged this about the health care summit today?

The room fell quiet, and people turned to President Obama, expecting a fight. Instead, he took his seat, looked at everyone gathered, smiled, and proceeded to lecture Republicans about the folly of big insurance, the promise of efficiency in centralized state control, and the universal health care rights of man. “The Republicans felt so bad when Barack was finished,” our reporter would say, “that they reached into their pockets found a pen and gave Barack a signed bill on the spot. They signed cap and trade too – and promised to support Obama’s other major legislative efforts as well.

By the time the article hit the wires, I’d grown skeptical of this story’s veracity and had set it aside with the rest. Until I received a phone call, later, from a Republican Senate aide who said he had been at the summit … during the course of our conversation, he repeated the same story that our reporter had told, about the Republican who had tried to purchase voters’ forgiveness for their opposition. “I’ll never forget that,” the man said to me over the phone; and in his voice I heard the same note I’d heard from our reporter so emphatically, that note of disbelief – and hope.

Trick question. That’s not an actual report from the summit. That’s a bastardized version of the story about Obama's father being "so much smarter and a better communicator" than a racist in http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=ZDVkZmYzM2FmYjM0NDYxYzFjOWIyMTBlZDFmMTMzMGM=>Dreams from My Father.

So the answer to my original question,of course,is Bill Ayers.

[Ignatz]

--Well stated, Iggy--

Picture painted itself, CH. After reading Chait's stuff the image that it produced was Buster Brown in short pants and a propellor hat licking his sucker in amazment at watching Barry in his yellow vest, striped pants and straw hat barking at the passing rubes: President Harold Hill.

[Al Asad]

"Tomorrow, Tea Partiers in North Texas plan to celebrate the first anniversary of their anti-government movement with an anti-taxes-for-social-programs rally in front of the Dallas city hall. The scheduled speakers of the event are—surprise!—young-ish people of color.........

Which is likely a calculated move to counter statistics that suggest this fringe conservative movement is primarily comprised of middle-aged white rural males.(and their smattering of un-enlightened she-males).........

DTP leader Katrina Pierson makes several appearances in the ad and was also featured on Fox Business Channel this week. After receiving praise from the Fox host for being a Latina from a single-parent home and for going to college without government assistance (totally false), Pierson made the usual conservative resources-over-government-handouts statement:

"I'm a firm believer that all it takes is one positive adult influence in a child's life to make that difference. If no one had ever told me I could go to college, I probably never would. But that's the kind of thing that Americans need. They need tools and resources and encouragement. Not handouts or welfare or the redistribution of wealth."

Pierson never goes into detail on what type of resources (or social safety-net programs) are needed to help Americans during the Great Recession, or where these resources should come from. Regardless, it's pretty unlikely that more minorities will join a movement that opposes a public health option, stimulus aid, and Good Taxes—like the ones that enabled people like Pierson to attend a government-funded community college."

Notwithstanding Tea-Bagged intellectual prowess.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/02/17/cnn-poll-who-are-the-tea-party-activists/?fbid=Cjw7-IYiNh3

[Captain Hate]

But most the time, this is like watching Lebron James play basketball with a bunch of kids who got cut from the 7th grade basketball team.

This is so incredibly wrong headed by that dumbbell; the proper simile is "this is like watching Hasheem Thabeet, who the Grizzlies wildly overrated when they chose him as the #2 player in the entire draft despite not really knowing much about his ability, being sent down to the NBA Developmental League to try and fill in the massive holes in his offensive game".

You're welcome, Chait.

[Captain Hate]

Moreover, I never thought I would long for the days of Bill Clinton.

I'm not willing to go so far as to pine for the return of an unconvicted rapist and complete lowlife.

[bgates]

Sen. Lamar Alexander said premiums will go up for “millions” under the Senate bill and president’s plan, while President Barack Obama said families buying the same coverage they have now would pay much less. Both were misleading. The Congressional Budget Office said premiums for those in the group market wouldn’t change significantly, while the average premium for those who buy their own coverage would go up.

According to the WSJ (in 2009), the number of people buying their own coverage rose to an estimated 18.4 million last year from 17.9 million in 2007, and is expected to grow to 19.6 million this year and 20 million in 2010, according to an analysis by McKinsey & Co.

If I had a correction alpaca, I could get TM to fix his post.

[Past the Claricensor.]

I can't get no intellections.
===============

[bgates]

back in the endless Democratic primaries we sat through debate after debate in which Obama argued that mandates were not necessary.

Tom, we're not in campaign mode anymore.

[Mike Myers]

Per Chait:President Obama is so much smarter and a better communicator than members of Congress in either party. The contrast, side by side, is almost ridiculous.

The Chaits of this world whined all day long about how Dubya was "just so dumb!" They kept on whining each time Dubya ate the Dem's lunch--and that happened more frequently than the Dems will ever acknowledge.

"Great communicator?" There's a reason why Obama did not become a trial lawyer. He lacks the communication skills to persuade a jury (more than half of whom in the demographic scheme of things will be of average, or below average intelligence). Communication is not simply being able to read things off a teleprompter in a speech full of faux profound things. Communication and rhetoric are about persuasion. Obama was able to sell a half baked person with no experience as the change we've all been waiting for. But that was his last--and maybe only--sale to the American public.

It's been said that a good trial lawyer can make people believe that bull shit tastes like vanilla ice cream. There are guys who can do that stuff--Obama is not one of them.

[bgates]

Tea-Bagged

I wonder how many cities we'd have to burn down to get people to start using the phrase "the T-word".

PS into the Narcisolator, Bashaar.

[PaulV]

There are still TV newseaders who confuse state requirements for auto liability insurance while not requirend collision insurance and GOVCO requiring Obamacare. State wisely do not require collison insurance or same reasons they do not requre health insurance.

[narciso]

Didn't they kill him off in the 6th Season of 24

[JM Hanes]

Ignatz:

"Guys like Barry are practiced at stoking the confirmation bias for the true believers, but have a pretty tough time with the sceptical."

Truer words were never spoken. Found myself thinking of David Brooks' Thursday recap:

Going in, I was as cynical as everybody else about the Blair House health care forum. I was planning to watch for a half-hour and then write about something else.

But the event was more meaningful than that. Most of the credit goes to President Obama. The man really knows how to lead a discussion. He stuck to specifics and tried to rein in people who were flying off into generalities. He picked out the core point in any comment. He tried to keep things going in a coherent direction.

Moreover, he seemed to be trying to get a result. Republicans had their substantive criticism of the Democratic bills, but Obama kept pressing them for areas of agreement.

Yes, I read Brooks so you don't have to. If I were the NYTimes' conservative I'd have spent more time on the unintended results, myself.

[JM Hanes]

Numerous Democrats in the room have explained why it's not possible to ban insurance companies from discriminating against those with preexisting conditions without also covering everybody and subsidizing those who afford it.

LOL! Talk about slow on the uptake! Contra Chait's apparent self-esteem, he sure can't be the brightest bulb in the room, if he hasn't figured out that's precisely why Republicans object to the Dem's game plan.

[FatBaldnSassy]

I am still agog that President LeBron doesn't understand liability and collision differences with respect to auto insurance. Back when I first started driving, even the dumbest kid in high school understood proof of financial responsibility. No parent would let a kid behind the wheel of a car without it.

How in the world is this guy going to convince us that his health care boondoggle will work when he can't even understand third party liability? Where did he go to law school?

[Danube of Thought]

It might help Chait's argument if he knew how to spell "LeBron."

[MikeS]

Numerous Democrats in the room have explained why it's not possible to ban insurance companies from discriminating against those with preexisting conditions without also covering everybody

This is misleading. Pre-existing conditions can't logically be insured against. Repubs propose that those people should be put into high risk pools that are then subsidized. Isn't that discriminating in FAVOR of those with pre-existing conditions?

If pre-existing conditions have a separate risk pool, doesn't that negate the reasons for mandating that everyone must have health insurance?

[hit and run]

DoT:
It might help Chait's argument if he knew how to spell "LeBron."

Not capitalizing that "B" is clear evidence of his racism. Srsly.

[matt]

the president also has the ego of LeBron James.

[JM Hanes]

Speaking of confirmation bias, there's a job at the IPCC waiting for anyone who cites Al Asad's CNN poll as a source for "statistics" on Tea Party demographics. If you're looking for a little weekend amusement, check out the PDF.

CNN designates people as "Tea Party activists" if they say they've done even one of the following:

Given money to any organization associated with the Tea Party movement

Attended a rally or meeting held by any organization associated with the Tea Party movement

Took any other active steps to support the Tea Party movement, either in person or through email of on the internet

Out of 1,023 adults (including 954 registered voters) CNN managed to come up with a grand total of 124 "activists," a subgroup with a sampling error rate of +/- 9 percentage points. Now that's definitive!

The further afield Tea Party critics go, the bigger the surprises to come. That's a pretty good looking silver lining, IMO.

[PD]

I continue to stand in wondrous amazement that people still consider Obama ("no, no, uh, let's, you know, uh, uh, what's, what's, it's, we need to,...") some wonderful orator.

[hit and run]

From JMH's pdf quote:
Took any other active steps to support the Tea Party movement, either in person or through email of on the internet

Well. Seeing as how his inane ramblings "on the internet" would drive any sane person toward the tea party movement - an active step to support it on the internet - CNN would count Al Asad as a "Tea Party activist".

While I'm not terribly thrilled at the common association,it amuses me to no end.

[bgates]

Hit - under that definition, we've finally found the leader of the Tea Party movement.

It's Obama!

[MPR]

Excellent post TM.

I watched this debacle myself and couldn't help but wonder WTF when BO gave us this sob sister anecdote about Acme car insurance folks laughing him off the phone.

By the time he moved to Chicago he was not a kid anymore and a Harvard grad to boot. How stupid must you be to not understand the concept of liability as insurance against risk and collision as insurance against your property damage.

If any of the Republicans would have grown a pair and explained to him the difference on national TV, it would have made for great entertainment!

So much for his superior intellect.

[Danube of Thought]

"How stupid must you be to not understand the concept of liability as insurance against risk and collision as insurance against your property damage."

I renew one of my recurring questions: what was his grade in the first-year torts class?

[Greg Ransom]

It's easynto be "brilliant" when your BS can spill out unconstrained by facts or the truth of the matter.

Obama is a practiced b*llsh*tter, who has is well practiced at tennis with the net down -- there is no factual check in leftist one party Chicago, no net in leftist academia, no check in the leftist media.

It's all b*llsh*t all the time -- there's no smart here, other than smart b*llsh*tying of the willingly or easily b*llsh*tted.

[Greg Ransom]

Note well. Obama is also ignorant of how insurance pooling works.

See Arnold Kling's econlog blog.

The "smart" guy is clueless about the most primative basics of insurance ....

[HayNonnyMoose]

Shocking fact: Half the American population is below average intelligence!!!

Math literacy is a problem in this country. The definition of "median" is that half of a sample is above that value and half is below. Assigning the label "100" to the median is a convention. Thus exactly half the population is below the median IQ of 100. It's simple math, not a reflection on our society. The average IQ is not exactly the same as the median, but it's quite close.

[hit and run]

bgates:
Hit - under that definition, we've finally found the leader of the Tea Party movement.

It's Obama!

Egads. Now I get what Klein was getting at with this: "I want him to just grab the ball and dunk on these clowns already."

And I'm thoroughly repulsed.

[Greg Ransom]

Obama was an affirmative action case all the way through -- he's admitted this.

And most of his class work was graded on a political curves -- he took leftist class after leftist class, were grades are rewarded for cheer leading the political biases of the instructor.

The "smart" here was telling instructors whatever BS they wanted to hear.

[Thomas Collins]

The poster formerly known as kim complained:

"I can't get no intellections."

Doesn't matter, kim. Because, as the song instructs, when you meet the new intellections, they'll be the same as the old intellections.

[The stats seep in by way of the logic.]

Hey, Nonny Mouse, we are all statisticians, now. See LUN to bring anyone's math literacy in from beyond the pale.
==========================

[Ignatz]

--The average IQ is not exactly the same as the median, but it's quite close.--

I question that. It only takes a few andurils and TCOs to outweigh thousands of we poor benighted knuckleheads on the wrong side of the line. Just ask 'em.

[w]

Ed Morrissey also covered this.

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/02/26/obamateurism-of-the-day-218/

[jd]

The BS meter is red-lining as it so often does when Obama speaks.

This fable is almost as silly as the tall tale that John Edwards told in his fairy tale about his climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro in a blinding snowstorm.

[Cecil Turner]

A minor point, but I thought 100 was assigned to the mean IQ (with a standard deviation of 15).

Just ask 'em.

Or just wait . . . they'll tell ya.

[PaulL]

The Real Clear Politics number for averaging polls of Presidential approval is now at 0.10, by far the lowest Ibama has ever been.

One-tenth of a point! My how he has fallen, except in his own eyes.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

A sign at our last Temecula Valley Tea Party, which is having an anniversary rally today. I think it relevant to this discussion:

[Gmax]

I blame those racist bitterly clinging to their guns and religion...

Otherwise they would recognize a solid B+ performance when its on display.

[Thomas Collins]

Looks as if Massachusetts may have to put up with more intellections of a Kennedy running for office. See LUN.

[Rick Ballard]

Gmax,

It's a Laurence Tribe B+, AKA - prog and breathing.

[Jane]

I renew one of my recurring questions: what was his grade in the first-year torts class?

Not that I would ever defend The WOn, but they certainly didn't teach insurance coverage in my torts class. The concept of liability - yes, but the difference between property damage and collision coverage, no.

But I bet you anything, he was far too good for torts. Yeah he had to take it, but hell, he's black, give him an A.

You know as well as I do, if he had actually been rear-ended he would definitely had suffered severe whiplash and the pain and suffering award alone could have funded his first campaign.

[Ken Jackson]

Actually the AP Fact Check is wrong on the Alexander v Obama issue. Or at least misleading.

With respect to the specific issue they were referring to the CBO said that most people will pay on average higher premiums for their insurance. But the reason is because people will be buying superior insurance packages. Later these packages will be minbar.

Thus Alexander is right that they will pay more for premiums. But Obama is also right that for the same insurance you have today, it will cost less -- and the reason your premiums go up is because you're getting more.

Alexander was wrong in that for the same apples to apples insurance, you will indeed pay less, not more.

Obama was incomplete in that while apples to apples insurance will be cheaper, at some point in the future some lowgrade insurance will no longer be available.

I'd personally give the nod to Obama. I think he understood the subtlety of the apples vs oranges nature of this issue, that seemed lost on Alexander. With that said, Obama should have been clear that at some point there will be an increase in premiums for some people as they'll have to upgrade insurance.

[Danube of Thought]

But Obama missed the fundamental point that the people who will be paying more but getting "better" coverage will no longer be buying what they choose to buy.

[Danube of Thought]

"...they certainly didn't teach insurance coverage in my torts class."

No, but anyone who studied the law of torts and didn't come away with a well-grounded notion of risk, and providing against risk, is no intellectual heavyweight. He clearly didn't bother to understand what it was he was insuring against.

[MayBee]

I'd personally give the nod to Obama.

As things currently are, people have every opportunity to go out and buy more insurance than they currently have, for more money.

Yet they opt not to. Why is it better if the government tells them they have to?

[bgates]

Alexander was wrong in that for the same apples to apples insurance, you will indeed pay less, not more.

Alexander didn't say "you". He said "millions". According to the Associated (with the Democratic Party through longstanding ties of shared political beliefs and mutual affection) Press Fact Check, the CBO said that "the average premium for those who buy their own coverage would go up". There are indeed "millions" of such people.

[bgates]

Obama is also right that for the same insurance you have today, it will cost less -- and the reason your premiums go up is because you're getting more.

But he describes American health care as in "crisis", because you pay more for it now than you did 50 years ago. I bet that you could get absolute world-class, state-of-the-art (by 1960 standards) medical care for a pittance.

[Clarice]

I have no doubt that Tribe and Ogletree and Gates saw that he didn't have to bother with the same classes and tests everyone else had to. He was, as Tribe explained, more like a "colleague", a colleague too stupid to know the basics about car insurance..or constitutional law for that matter.

[MayBee]

Plus- how ironic that insurance will go up because millions will be getting "more", but cadillac health plans must be taxed- because people are getting too much.

[Rick Ballard]

"Why is it better if the government tells them they have to?"

I believe the President's illustration of a jackass too dumb to know the difference between collision and liability was meant to show the necessity of government intervention on behalf of the feeble minded. It's a rather compelling story if understood in that light.

[hit and run]

MayBee:
Why is it better if the government tells them they have to?

The Universal Right Of Man Not To Be Laughed At For Being A Dumbass Who Doesn't Understand The Difference Between Collision And Liability is an idea whose time has come.

[Clarice]

I heart hit and run..

[Gmax]

how ironic that insurance will go up because millions will be getting "more", but cadillac health plans must be taxed- because people are getting too much.

Ironic, I think not. You have just stumbled onto the genius of the Democrat plan, make everyone a cadillac plan holder and then swoop in and tax it, so they can pay for their other nefarious schemes! Why didnt I think of that, as John Dillinger would no doubt have said...

[MayBee]

Hee!

[Captain Hate]

He was, as Tribe explained, more like a "colleague"

Tribe no longer has even the dwindling amount of respect I grudgingly gave him. If his colleague is a dense idiot......

[MayBee]

Seriously. When it's some evil corporation trying to take money away from people who work, Democrats support the workers striking.
But when it's the government separating people from money, it's all good because they are doing it for the common good.
Ick.

[hit and run]

MayBee:
But when it's the government separating people from money, it's all good because they are doing it for the common good.

I've been told before that I'm uncommon,so I guess this makes sense -- in that when the government separates me from my money it never redounds to my good.

[hit and run]

Ok, "never" was too strong a word there.

There is a lot of good my tax dollars have done for me.

I mean,the ROI ain't exactly compelling to say the least,but "never" is overstating the case considerably.

And,honestly,I haven't been laughed at by any insurance adjusters in God knows how long,so the government must be doing something right.

[daddy]

"this is like watching Lebron James play basketball with a bunch of kids who got cut from the 7th grade basketball team."

I seem to remember Michael Jordan got cut from his high school Basketball Team. I'll take him over LeBron/Obama any day.

[Extraneus]

Can a complete moron pass the bar exam? Face it, he may not be as smart as these fools think he is, but he can't be as dumb as he seems. Can he?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I wonder if our politicians even begin to realize how powerful the new media really is. They can't get away with anything without someone catching it and blogging or tweeting corrections.

As an example: I'm monitoring a live tweet from a buoy off Hawaii. Imagine how powerful a single individual can be when we've advanced to the point of tweeting buoys.

[Christopher]

Chait's focus on (and aggrandizement of) Obama's intellect is telling. The modern left is obsessed with "intellect," with smarts, and with their public display. It has become their primary frame on the world, and it's an inevitable byproduct of an ideology that is about running society, "handling" the economy and ruling people's lives.

Conservatives and libertarians aren't as hung up on smarts. That's not because we're dumb; it's because intellect doesn't present itself as an essential condition of our worldview, as it must with the left. We don't disdain intellect. We simply don't think to exalt it above all, because it isn't a prerequisite for our particular lens on the world: liberty.

In other words, the smartest person in the world doesn't give a rat's patootie about assorted politicans' intellectual credentials -- if he's a conservative. It's not something he thinks to give credence to.

If, on the other hand, you view politics foremost as the mechanism by which society will be ordered, with all the complicated wonkery and central planning that entails, then yes -- intellect will necessarily be the trait you value above all else. It becomes the most important political currency by definition.

This is a thoroughly modern phenomenon. Read the Ezra Kleins and Jonathan Chaits and Matthew Yglesiases. Notice how much of their political commentary, both explicitly and implicitly, is about smarts. It's so essential to their thing that they take it for granted, this notion that high intellect is fundamental to good politics -- even to being right.

I wonder if it ever dawns on them to question why American pundits of the past didn't bother to frame it all this way.

[armadillo]

@ Posted by: Porchlight | February 27, 2010 at 12:04 PM ***********

I had a little different interpretation of what Obama actually said:...they wouldn't repair his car.

It would be common for Obama's insurance company to total out the junker under his collision coverage because the repairs exceeded the value of the car -- the policy would only obligate them to write him a check for the total value of the car. They are not obligated to repair his car.

Even if the other driver's insurance company was on the hook, they are not going to pay him more than the car is worth if the repair cost is higher. They'll give him $xxxx and tell him to buy another junker.

Note that Obama doesn't say his claim was denied, he says they laughed at him because he wanted them to repair the car. Probably because when he told some journeyman insurance adjuster with an associates degree from a community college that he was Editor of the Harvard Law Review, the adjuster asked him why they don't teach Contracts anymore.

[daddy]

Well sure you know Obama is you know smarter you know than everybody else because you know he married that genius Michelle who besides you know being a genius is you know another great communicator with you know that wonderful ability to you know speak well and you know express herself you know wonderfully.

[Clarice]

I read the parting words to their social secretary in today's WaPo..I wish I had the ear of presidential appointees when they first arrive--they all think they are so fine and what they do is so great and important and the Post flatters and butters them up only to have usable quotes a few years (or less) later when they are on their way home.

[Porchlight]

armadillo, that's interesting, I hadn't thought of that interpretation. You may well be right.

[daddy]

"but he can't be as dumb as he seems. Can he?"

Well for his Administration he chose somebody who thinks Global Warming causes earthquakes, somebody who thinks they can feel global warming riding in a passenger jet, somebody who thinks it's appropriate to tell grade-schoolers about 'fisting', and somebody who thinks Chairman Mao is a great Philosopher. Plus Joe Biden. I'd say that's a bit of a window into his intelligence.

[MayBee]

This video of Rachel Maddow is my favorite example of how liberal media outlets proclaim Obama superior despite all evidence to the contrary.

[Porchlight]

Read the Ezra Kleins and Jonathan Chaits and Matthew Yglesiases. Notice how much of their political commentary, both explicitly and implicitly, is about smarts.

That is partly because they all (well, Klein and Yglesias for sure) got hired for being whiz kids. Not for having proved their talent at reporting or analysis.

The reporters of the old school, who did not have journalism degrees and probably weren't even college-educated by and large, advanced by getting scoops, cultivating sources, writing well and generally working hard to get the story out. They got hired because they'd already produced results.

Kind of like the real world.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Well I was raised by someone classified as a "super genius," IQ over 170, and I can tell you from 1st hand experience that, yes she was super smart, but at the same time she couldn't find her glasses when they were on top of her head. She could have a laser-like focus on a problem, but when she was out of town and my Dad repainted the kitchen and her bedroom, she didn't notice for over a month after she got home, much to my Dad's dismay. Do we really want to be lead by a bunch of absent-minded professors who can't find their way out of a paper bag without help?

My Mom used to say that there is a vast chasm between a manager/executive and an inventor/entrepreneur. They can be equally smart, but they approach problems very differently. In advertising sales, the Wunderkind could sell ice to Eskimoes, whereas the Wunderkinds of credit/collections couldn't sell if their life depended on it, but they could get blood out of a stone when it came to getting someone to pay up.

[daddy]

Thanks MayBee,

That was painful to watch, but insightful.

[Extraneus]

Ha. Great link, MayBee.

[armadillo]

So why was Obama trying to collect from his insurance company when almost certainly the other driver is at fault in a rear end collision? In addition to the possibility that the other party was uninsured (as already mentioned), it's not uncommon for 2 parties to be insured by the same insurance company.

It's hard to know with Obama. He has so little in common with the real world experience that most Americans take for granted, it's hard to distinguish whether he's just clueless or lying. He may just be lazy with the facts since there's no danger anyone is going to call him on these anecdotes.

In any event, he doesn't seem to understand how ordinary things work. It reminds me of the MSM reporting on firearms or the military -- they may as well be trying to explain quantum physics they're so out of their depth.

[Christopher]

That is partly because they all (well, Klein and Yglesias for sure) got hired for being whiz kids. Not for having proved their talent at reporting or analysis.

Then substitute the names of some progressive writers who happen to be old and grizzled, and watch how the trait remains. Or substitute some whiz kids who happen to be conservative, and watch how the trait disappears.

The point is that progressivism intuitively considers intellect to be an important political trait, because intellect is necessary to the administration of complex policy, and progressivism is about the administration of complex policy.

Individual liberty is a lot simpler. It quite literally doesn't require a genius.

[Clarice]

The dumbest boy in my high school classbecame the first millionaire. Unable to get into college, he worked at his dad's hardware store in Wisconsin. A guy came in with his new invention, a snow blower--and voila, history and a new millionaire were made.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Obama and the D-baggers are of the school of give a man a fish so he can eat for a day. The right is more from the teach a man a fish so he can eat for a lifetime. It really is that simple, no?