Jon Stewart To Obama: Why Can't You Guys Just Stay On Message? (VIDEO)

Jon Stewart came down on the Obama administration last night for going off message when talking about health care reform. The president has taken heat from protesters and pundits alike over the past several weeks for his "public option" plan which would provide a government-run alternative to private health insurance. On Saturday Obama's message wavered when he responded to a question in Grand Junction, Colorado by saying, "...The public option, whether we have it or we don't have it, is not the entirety of health care reform. This is just one sliver of it, one aspect of it."

The next day Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of Health and Human Services, made a similar statement on CNN saying the public option is "not the essential element" of the administration's plan. But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and Linda Douglass, communications director for the White House Office of Health Reform, still insist the public option is necessary.

Stewart suggested that the health care debate is getting to the president and that he should learn from the Bush administration who got us into a war no one wanted by staying strictly on message.


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Comments

[Eric8]

Well at least someone in the media world is doing there job and un-covering hypocrisy. Obama has two faces. One is the public persona that he puts on at town hall meetings and off the cuff interviews: he acts dumber, and more like a used car salesman, something I am guessing he learned from former Illinois Governor Rod Blagovich. The Second face is a intellectual persona which every once and awhile we get a glimpse of; here he acts like someone telling the truth, about Insurance Greed, or Single-Payer Interview from 2003, or the lobbyists controlling the White House. I voted for the Second Face, the Obama behind the mask. Unfortunately all we are getting is the First Obama, the one with a mask, the hypocrite one. Stewart points out the difference between Bush and Obama's message strategy: the real difference is that Bush surrounded himself with seasoned political liars, experienced washington hands, who were in the game for decades. Obama, meanwhile, surrounded himself with rookies from Chicago and elsewhere, who have no discipline, constancy, or understanding, of how politics works. Fundamentally looking back: Clinton would have done a much better job using her seasoned political hacks, and had a point that team Obama was too in-experienced to now how things get done.

[AhnAmuru]

Ba loney!

We'd now be scraping up whatever'd be left of Clinton were she POTUS.

What most folks seem not to realize is that healthcare can't be, or seem to be, forced on anyone. Let 'em have their say - once the chatter fizzles out, we'll see.

You're probably the Santelli / Cramer type ... where're they now?

[Char59]

Fundamentally looking back.... then why don't we have health care reform already?

[SunlightAndShadows]

Char59: Maybe because it wasn't as much of a hot button issue as it is now.

I love how media can make any topic a "hot button issue". The war in Iraq was one, yet, even when it was an issue, there was still the need for medical reform, but the focus wasn't on that. It was on "Thuh war in Eye-RACK".

Michael Moore raised the healthcare issue with his documentary, even if it wasn't completely factually correct. Still, it's a good thing to have someone saying that, maybe, we should take a closer look at what's wrong with healthcare.
Now we have someone taking a closer look at healthcare again, and that's a good thing, too. But don't let it be a political issue. Don't let it be something that Faux News can hijack for a political agenda. Let it be something that is changed because it would benefit your country.

[teron678]

LOL .. Last Nov .... you chastised Obama for appointing political hacks ... now they are rookies .. LOL

[teron678]

Love Stewart

[teron678]

LAMO @ this NRA guy

[AhnAmuru]

To the extent that Obama yields on the public option, which he hasn't, that'd give rise to an "Et tu, Barack?" situation.

As some GOPer said, should Obama lose this it's Waterloo; should he win it, it's Austerlitz.

That said, we wouldn't want a pyrrhic victory.

[LemonMeringue]

Is there a contest for the most unrelated metaphors in one post?

[AhnAmuru]

Hehehe - can't handle the classics, can you?

[Marnieblue]

Jon Stewart acts too cute for me. Anyone agree. I don't find it very attractive. Colbert is funnier because he isn't being cute he is making an a s s of himself.

[Drjimmy72296]

I've always preferred Colbert's schtick to Stewart's. I'm not a big fan of cutesy voices. That said, I like both shows. Just prefer Colbert's.

[LemonMeringue]

Jon Stewart is a class act and I adore him and his act.

Colbert is too but he has a different schtick; of course he acts different.

[Vernon Brown]

Then let him move on and date others.

[KnowzyRowzy]

Thank God for Jon Stewart.

[Scrunch]

What's the comparison between the IQs of
Jon Stewart, Steven Colbert, and their teams
and Glen Beck, Sean Hannity, and their teams?

Generalize to comparing the left to the right.

There are plenty of sharp folks on the right, but where are they?

[JumpDownTurnAround]

"There are plenty of sharp folks on the right, but where are they?"

I think they BOTH died.

[Drjimmy72296]

You shouldn't confuse evil with stupid.

[wonketteRAWKS]

Follow the money! Which candidate received the most from the health insurance industry and Big Pharma???

[KnowzyRowzy]

Mr. Olordwhathavewedone.

[CaliGrown78]

Once again our good friend Jon is on the case

[communitarian]

Many of us hoped Obama would perform miracles during his first 100 days, or six months, or first year. We knew that miracles wouldn't happen, but we didn't except that in the name of an ever-unattainable "bi-partisan" relationship with Republicans that The Administration would just collapse. Republicans still want to "break" Obama. It has nothing to do with the good sense of health care reform. It has EVERYTHING to do with loonies showing up with guns and blowhards who use the word "bull" when asking a question of the president. It has to do with people who pretend they don't know where the President was born. These are deliberate insults to the presidency because yes, I'm saying it, they don't want a black man to succeed, or at least, not to succeed until they've let him know who's really "The Boss." The sort of blatant bad behavior and foolishness we've seen in the past weeks have proven that there is no real request for information. There are plenty of people who will be quick to throw in "race card, race card" as though it's some sort of overriding mantra. When did a bunch of threatening people ever show up in force with guns for a Presidential event before? When the President gives in, then he's insulting all of the intelligent people out there who know that volulme and truth aren't the same thing.

[polisci27]

so true, jon stewart.

[SteveL]

We have the billionaire-controlled news media featuring known liars telling known lies and calling it news. No wonder there are problems selling national health care.

[berrycooda]

How can they stay on message when they don't even know what
the message is...

Congress has one idea...Sebelius another and Pres. Obama another.

Beginning to sound like

WHO AM I AND WHAT AM I DOING HERE....

[Ohsherri]

LMAO!
So true.

"Uh...did I say strong and robust public option.....uh...uh ....er....scratch that"

[DestinationsUnknown]

Did you see Ed Henry at the news brief today- arguing over the word 'essential'

I told them to begin to expand their vocabulary-

Did they listen?

Cause msm got it wrong- I posted this when they first started this garbage-----

Obama voters- do the do nothings have any idea that will fulfill this mandate by Obama-

'What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market'

If not- then think of this when you have to fight the dumb down nation-

If it does not fit with this mandatory tool- 'What I am saying is the bottom line for this for the president is, what we have to have is choice and competition in the insurance market' then it will not fly with Obama!

It is the msm driving this - it is incredible their spin on a statement

[Americanium]

Because they want to be both Pianis and Vagilis at the same time.