Thursday, September 10, 2009

The Power of Oratory


Posted by Jake at 5:39 AM
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13 comments:

  1. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2009 at 6:14 AM

    I can't believe there are enough idots out there that are willing to believe every promise a polotician makes after all of the government failures. If they want to reform healthcare, they should reform Medacare, Medacaid, and any other currently private healthcare given to government employees (socialize gov't employees healthcare and see how great it is)

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  2. Jim DriscollSeptember 10, 2009 at 6:26 AM

    Ah, Anonymous, always such a fount of wisdom.

    Yeah, sure, reform Medicare, which covers every senior over 65. If it stinks so badly, surely they won't mind if we just remove it.

    What's that? They want to keep it? Oh, how tragic that every senior over the age of 65 is a communist.

    What? It's too expensive? Maybe that's because doctors are the highest paid professionals in the US. And drug companies are the most profitable. Think there's some room to trim there?

    Yeah, sure, let's just keep the current system, which pays megacorporations 20% profits to deny care to dying people.

    Good plan.

    I'm not fond of the gov't running things, but there is no evidence, as in none that they'll do worse than the current system, which is totally hosed.

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  3. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2009 at 6:59 AM

    Econompic;
    I would warn you off on that dumb poll; with a 58% democrat count and only an 18% republican count as the polling sample those numbers are worse than meaningless, they are manipulated to get a result. Sure the FED does not run CNN poll sampling?

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  4. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2009 at 7:02 AM

    Sorry, 45% democrat, 18% republican, and 37% independant which is of course just as the entire voting nation is comprised.

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  5. JakeSeptember 10, 2009 at 7:14 AM

    Sorry to break the news to you Republicans (http://tinyurl.com/cn38cb), but according to a Pew Foundation report:

    24 percent of people classify themselves as Republicans, the lowest it has been in 40 years.

    New York Times best-selling author and CNN international political analyst Fareed Zakaria sums it up... “The Republican Party is no longer a national party but rather a regional party with a base that is highly energized.”

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  6. AnonymousSeptember 10, 2009 at 7:36 AM

    Jake,
    good numbers to know. I guess we may see an independent presidential candidate soon. Can Perot still chart?

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  7. JakeSeptember 10, 2009 at 7:52 AM

    i don't see an independent winning anytime soon, BUT i am all about the rise of independent parties.

    at a minimum it allows for much needed debate rather than "whatever republicans say is wrong" by democrats vs. "whatever democrats say is wrong" by republicans.

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  8. Jack CrowwSeptember 10, 2009 at 8:05 AM

    Snake-oil salesmen had great oratory skills as well.

    I've always believed that percentage charts like this should always have the y-axis go to 100% to allow the viewer to visually compare the height of the bars to the maximum. Seems more honest that way.

    As to Mr. Driscoll's closing comment, compare the USPS to UPS and FedEx, public schools to private schools and private enterprise to public services and then tell me you want the gov't deciding how and when you'll be allowed to pay for health care.

    Real health care reform needs to start with tort reform and to allow insurers to compete across state lines.

    I'm neither a Republican or a Democrat. Both parties are corrupt to the core.

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  9. JakeSeptember 10, 2009 at 9:05 AM

    Jack Croww-

    With or without a 100% Y-Axis, the relative increase can be seen. If I had started at 40%, rather than 0%, I'd agree with your point.

    I agree to an extent about public vs. private, BUT the goals of the USPS is different than UPS and FedEx and the goal of public schools is different than private schools.

    The goal of each public option is to serve the mass public at a discount to the private versions. There is no way USPS can compete with UPS while charging a fraction that UPS does and handling multiples of the amount of mail, just as there is no way a public school can teach at the same level as a private school as they NEED to accept everyone and have a limited budget vs. selecting the most applicable candidates for private school (based on wealth, ability, etc...) and a broader budget.

    I don't think anyone believes that a public option will replace ALL private plans. It will just be in place for those without insurance and those on the fringe (i.e. the masses).

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  10. Jim DriscollSeptember 10, 2009 at 11:32 AM

    Hey Jack -

    Thanks for making my point.

    The Post Office will send a small package for less than a dollar from Florida up to Alaska.

    UPS does the same thing, for a LOT more than a dollar - but much faster, and with (slightly) greater accuracy.

    Similarly, Harvard is a better school than your local community college - but you pay a LOT more for Harvard.

    Why not have that same option for health care? Or do you think reading is less important than breathing?

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  11. Jim DriscollSeptember 10, 2009 at 11:34 AM

    P.S. Tort reform is a red herring. Completely disallowing lawsuits will save at best, at BEST, 10% - including eliminating defensive medicine.

    In return, doctors will be able to maim you without any recourse for you.

    That's how we currently run the military medical system, and I'm not a fan of that plan. At least in the military, we occasionally throw a doctor in prison - but I don't hear the tort reform people calling for that.

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  12. Flavius AetiusSeptember 11, 2009 at 3:48 AM

    Not only is the total sample size rather small (427), the sampling is quite skewed.

    At 45%D, 18%R, they're assuming there are 2.5 times as many Democrats as there are Republicans.

    According to Gallup, 34% identify as Democrats while 28% identify as Republicans (1.21 times as many Democrats as Republicans).

    Hence, this poll is garbage.

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  13. JakeSeptember 11, 2009 at 10:57 AM

    Well, here's another poll that says the same thing:

    http://tinyurl.com/leq85d

    Not surprising is the following:

    President Obama's speech was particularly successful in unifying Democrats. Now, 85 percent of them approve of his handling of health care.

    Approval rates also rose among independents and Republicans, but independents are still divided and only 17 percent of Republicans approve of the president's health care actions.

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