That’s Called a Leopard

The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.

That’s Called a Leopard 
“Mountain Lion Spotted in Southeast D.C.”–headline, CBSLocal.com (Washington), Oct. 3

So Much for the War on Drugs 
“Woman Says She Fought Off Attacker With Pot”–headline, Eagle-Tribune (North Andover, Mass.), Oct. 2

Billions and Billions Served 
ObamaCare’s first day was not quite the success story it was made out to be, the Los Angeles Times reports:

California’s health insurance exchange vastly overstated the number of online hits it received Tuesday during the rollout of Obamacare.

State officials said the Covered California website got 645,000 hits during the first day of enrollment, far fewer than the 5 million it reported Tuesday.

The state exchange had cited the 5 million figure as a sign of strong consumer interest and a major reason people had so much difficulty using its $313-million online enrollment system.

Dana Howard, a spokesman for Covered California, said the error was the result of internal miscommunication.

“Someone misspoke and thought it was indeed 5 million hits. That was incorrect,” he said.

Well, they were only off by one order of magnitude.

Heritage’s Prescient Haislmaier
[On Wednesday] we reported on Brendan Mahoney, the 30-year-old dude transformed by ObamaCare from a medical insurance ratepayer to a welfare case. It turns out Edmund Haislmaier, the Heritage Foundation’s resident health-care expert, anticipated Mahoney in a May op-ed:

Today, half of all Medicaid beneficiaries are poor children. But for states that adopt the Obamacare expansion, the new face of Medicaid will be a 28-year-old graduate student hanging out in a coffee house, writing his dissertation, and working the other side of the counter a few days a week.

We haven’t always agreed with Heritage on health-care policy, but we’re happy to acknowledge when they’re spot on.