Old and new jokes

Old: How can you tell when a politician is lying? If his lips are moving.
New: What is the difference between a used car salesman and a politician? The used car salesman knows when he's lying to you.

As it turns out, Obama's speech to congress last week struck out. The third strike came to light today.

Strike 1: He deliberately called conservatives liars when he knew there were loopholes in the healthcare legislation that would allow benefits for illegal aliens. He went out of his way to call those claims "bogus" and "scare tactics."

Strike 2: His claim that his plan wouldn't cost any new money left everyone scratching their heads, and for good reason. They frankly don't see that kind of money in the form of "savings from waste."

Strike 3: His tear-jerker example went like this: "One man from Illinois lost his coverage in the middle of chemotherapy because his insurer found that he hadn’t reported gallstones that he didn’t even know about. They delayed his treatment, and he died because of it...That is heartbreaking, it is wrong, and no one should be treated that way in the United States of America." That would be sad except it didn't happen that way. Here's the truth about the case from Fox: "Otto S. Raddatz, didn't die because the insurance company rescinded his coverage once he became ill, an act known as recission. The efforts of his sister and the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan got Raddatz's policy reinstated within three weeks of his April 2005 rescission and secured a life-extending stem-cell transplant for him. Raddatz died this year, nearly four years after the insurance showdown." The mix-up came because the White House took the story from a news report and didn't check the details. In fact, they souped it up a bit.

Pretty sad that he claimed from the start of the speech that he wanted to clear things up. Instead of adding light he blew smoke. But unlike the used car salesman, Obama is so determined that he wants to get something done this first year that he doesn't even know when he's lying.