The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
News You Can Use
“How to Build Your Own Bedbug Detector.”–headline, Time.com, Feb. 5
Bottom Stories of the Day
“McDonalds’ McItaly Burger Fails to Impress Italian Critics”–headline, Daily Telegraph (London), Feb. 5
Accountability Journalism
“President Barack Obama, who insisted he would succeed where other presidents had failed to fix the nation’s health care system, now concedes the effort may die in Congress,” reports the Associated Press’s Erica Werner. Here’s the quote in question:
“And it may be that . . . if Congress decides we’re not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not,” the president said. “And that’s how democracy works. There will be elections coming up, and they’ll be able to make a determination and register their concerns.”
This is kind of a nonstory, isn’t it? While it’s true, strictly speaking, that Obama is acknowledging the possibility that ObamaCare will die in Congress, he is not resigning himself to that eventuality but rather issuing a warning to lawmakers. The worst thing about Werner’s dispatch, though, is the editorializing at the end of this paragraph:
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Friday that there was no meeting set for the president to talk over health care strategy with Republican and Democratic lawmakers. The GOP has shown more interest in opposing Democrats on the issue than in working with them.
The AP’s Liz Sidoti, meanwhile, reports from Nashville, Tenn., that “Sarah Palin, in a speech that was short on ideas but big on enthusiasm, took aim at President Barack Obama and the Democrats, telling a gathering of ‘tea party’ activists that America is ripe for another revolution.”
“Ripe” is Sidoti’s word, not Palin’s, but in any case “another revolution” seems like quite a big idea. Above all, though, does “short on ideas but big on enthusiasm” tell us anything other than that Liz Sidoti disdained the Palin speech?
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.
