It's over, people. Move on. Nancy Pelosi has pivoted to job creation and stuff, so expect...well...nothing on that to happen. God, how that woman can drone on.
Oh, but wait, Jeffrey Young at Huffington Post has begun to question the numbers. Interestingly, they are the same questions that we have asked.
5 Things The Obamacare Enrollment Numbers Won't Tell You.
Hmmmm, I'm thinking that Mr. Young wont' be writing for HuffPo much longer...
This is my take. We should now change the word from "pivot" to "pirouette". With all the spinning and twirling and creative choreography, maybe it would be more appropriate,
Any thought?
Sorry this is short and not so sweet, but I am getting an new oven tomorrow and have to get ready. If you lived in a Manhattan apartment, you'd understand...
21 comments:
Okay, so I was watching the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Okay, he's not Johnny Carson, but Sarah Palin did a skit with Fallon playing Putin. It's was very funny. She was very funny and it wasn't too kind to Obama. At least the comedians are starting to hit Obama like comedians should.
If this president did any more pivoting, he'd be an irrigation system. The only problemis, for being all wet, Obama certainly is dry.
Bev, I don't think you have to worry about Jeffrey Young keeping his job. The article at HuffPo is only worrying that the Obamacare numbers might be better than reported, so people won't fully realize how wonderful and successful and life-affirming the program really is.
Palin's comments call to mind the Simpsons episode where presidential contenders Dole and Clinton are replaced by aliens, who then confuse voters by walking around hand in hand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSH88aE_ggQ
In fairness, intensely political types have a long and sad history of going all Waylon Smithers on foreign leaders who they identify as fellow travelers (think Castro, Mugabe, Bashar al-Assad, Pinochet and Kony).
Lucky for them most Americans don't care about much about anything that goes on abroad so long as large numbers of Americans aren't dying (which makes perfect sense and is a attitude much of the world lacks only because it can't afford it).
As for Obamacare I doubt anyone's opinion on wisdom of the policy is impacted by how many people signed up for it. Its jacking up some people's rates, parting them from their preferred carriers and causing heatburn in the medical (but not the insurance) industry. It is a lodestone around the neck of the Democrats in 2014.
If Republicans don't win big in 2014 (all signs seem to indicate that they will), it will be not because of Obamacare's enrollment numbers, but Republicans' infighting and muddled messaging.
I think they should use "change the conversation." Oh wait, ..... that boring buzz phrase has already been beaten to death by to hip by a half liberals. I did happen to see the Fallon/Palin skit. I think she was on plugging her new show. It was cute, and yes not totally kind to Obama, but it kind of makes Palin look a little like a ratings "ho." This is the same guy who wouldn't fire his music guy, and pretended he ws sorry about the "big lying ass bitch" song to introduce Michelle Bachman. Sorry, no soup for Jimmy.
Good luck with your oven
Bev, Don't you live on the 100th floor of a building with no elevator? I hope they know to bring a yak team and a Sherpa to get your stove up high altitude stairs! ;-P
Anthony, As for Obamacare I doubt anyone's opinion on wisdom of the policy is impacted by how many people signed up for it. Its jacking up some people's rates, parting them from their preferred carriers and causing heatburn in the medical (but not the insurance) industry. It is a lodestone around the neck of the Democrats in 2014.
Exactly. In fact, I keep seeing stories from the left in which they marvel that Obamacare can't seem to become popular. They're in the "finding excuses" phase, but you can sense the desperation behind it that no matter what they say or do, for reasons unknown, the public remains angry.
Of course, those reasons aren't unknown. They are (1) forced to buy something they don't want, (2) rate hikes, (3) loss of prior insurance, (4) loss of doctors, (5) doctors constantly complaining about the effects to patients (I don't have a single doctor who doesn't constantly mention it), (6) the sense that everyone else is getting subsidies, (7) employers dropping their hours or jobs or benefits, etc.
A couple of obviously false claims about success won't overcome that.
Don't you live on the 100th floor of a building with no elevator?
Why, yes, if by "100th floor" you mean 2nd Floor. Who do you think I am...David Koch? Anyways, he's eeeevil. He probably has his own elevator that he has people carry around for him wherever he goes...he is just THAT eeeevil.
Btw. still no oven.
Other topic - It's not that I think Palin wasn't on Fallon's show to hawk something, but it does show she has a sense of humor. Can you imagine any liberal being able to make fun of themselves? Even Lorne Michaels (SNL) admitted that one of the reasons they lampoon conservative politicians so often is that they have a sense of humor and can laugh about it and all the liberals do is get indignant and complain.
Update - The sherpa (minus the yak..sadly the yak didn't make it) made it up the 100 flights of stairs and I now have a new oven. (and an old oven)...but now I have to wait for the ConEd guy/gal to come and connect it...I hate being a grown up.
On anther topic unrelated to healthcare/insurance or Nancy Pelosi...
So remember that little kerfuffle we are having with Russia via the Ukraine? Well, a funny thing happened on the way to outerspace. You see, now that we pay Russia to send all of our astronauts and such to the space station and other places, well, that's kind of causing some rethinking around NASA. Oh the scientists say there's no problem, but don't we have astronauts currently one the space station? And how will they get home if this problem grows? Interesting. Does anyone else see a problem here?
maybe it is a small reason. i think Michael's main reason for primarily ripping conservatives is tat ever since Al Gore and the lock box, those people believe they can impact the political "conversation." (ouch, the c word again.) Hell, Tina Fey built a career by marginalizing Palin. One can argue she helped do that herself, but a lot of people credit SNL anf Fey also.
RIP the yaka
Bev, You live in a strange world. When we replaced our stove, two 20 year old dudes showed up with a dolly. They took the old one, inserted a new one, attached some stuff, and left with the old one... never to be seen again. Very easy.
We never had to wait for the power guy and we weren't left stuck with the old one.
Jed, Agreed. They think they are relevant and can swing voters.
I just read that some guy named David Letterman is retiring. Does anyone know who that is?
It's about time. You know the difference between regular people and comedians? Regular people retire before they die. *Ba-Dum!*
(Thank you, I'm here all week.)
I once saw the worst kids' show ever. Not only was it on at night, it featured a creepy gap-toothed mummy in an ugly suit counting to ten. But the worst part was that, even though he was counting, they called him the Letter Man. *Ba-Dum!*
Nyuck nyuck nyuck.
What I never could stand about Letterman is that he's a huge fake. He relies on hipsters not being willing to admit they don't get the joke for people to laugh. He says, "Cheeseburger" and then stairs at you. The hipsters look confused... then they laugh because they don't want to be seen as not hip... then they go swear that he's a genius. And the whole time he just said a pointless word.
Nyuck nyuck nyuck.
What I never could stand about Letterman is that he's a huge fake. He relies on hipsters not being willing to admit they don't get the joke for people to laugh. He says, "Cheeseburger" and then stares at you. The hipsters look confused... then they laugh because they don't want to be seen as not hip... then they go swear that he's a genius. And the whole time he just said a pointless word.
my theory about Letterman is this. When he first started out, he was good ....... and, apolitical. Then, he got tabbed to host the oscars. Suffice it to say, he was no Johnny Carson. He bombed and made the mistake of insulting "The Oprah." Now his job deepends on being "liked" by Hollywood, and with the success SNL had with their political humor, all these shows became more prone to trying to be hip and edgy (remember Dick Cavett anyone?) So, to get back in their good graces, Letterman went out of his way to be a political ass. Don't know how true any of that is, but it sure seemed like it over the years
These days, I'm really ashamed to admit that I was one of those last holdouts at the end of the 90's who still watched Letterman. I guess I was hoping that he'd find his mojo again, but it never happened.
In the end, he grew stale, was unable to laugh at himself (one of Leno's best traits was that he never took himself too seriously, if at all), and became a grumpy old man who used his stage to vent his frustrations at the audience's expense. Look at Letterman's expression at the start and end of this clip. LINK Regardless of your opinion of Mr, Dunham's act (which I personally like), I think we can agree Letterman looks like he's either angry, hates himself, or is just a self-loathing fake. Definition of a loser in just a few facial expressions.
On a related note, ABC and NBC are probably the most annoyed by this. Jimmy Kimmel has NEVER caught on with the late night audience. I have no idea how this bum is still on the air. Either he has a good agent, exceptionally good and high-positioned friends, or ABC has (or just believes it has) no one else. Maybe a combination. Who knows? Jimmy Fallon is a joke. (No, not a good joke.) Like his predecessor, Conan O'Brien, Fallon got the job because he's a former SNL writer and Lorne Michaels is "Late Night's" executive producer. And unlike the more seasoned version of Leno, Fallon will do whatever the execs tell him to do. (We used to have him on late at night at work. I couldn't wait for "Cash Cab," poker, or a rerun of "Wings" on USA to start.)
Letterman's a shadow of what he was, and it was a safe bet that late night was up for garbs with Leno leaving "the Tonight Show." Problem is, Craig Ferguson- who hosts the "the Late Late Show" after Letterman- is already popular, (his contract stipulates him as Letterman's successor) and could be more than the other two networks can handle. I haven't seen much of his show, but I've talked to people who watch regularly and say he's more relaxed, happier, and has a more inviting approach than Letterman. (And from what little I've seen, I'd add that, unlike Fallon, he's neither fake nor pretentious.) His claim to fame, BTW, was beating O'Brien in the ratings shortly before O'Brien's disastrous "Tonight Show" stint.
Let the late night drama begin again!
Rustbelt, "he became a grumpy old man who used his stage to vent his frustrations at the audience's expense"
That is the perfect description of what he became. I'm not sure when, but somewhere along the way, he suddenly morphed into this nasty old jerk.
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