by Jonathan S. Tobin
Commentary Magazine
During the 2008 campaign and throughout the subsequent debate over his health care legislation, President Obama used his mother’s experience as a cancer patient fighting to get coverage to pay for treatment for what her insurer said was a pre-existing condition as an emotional argument to sway skeptics. However, a new book by New York Times reporter Janny Scott has revealed this story appears to be a fabrication.
The Times reports today (in a story buried on page 14 rather than on the front page) that during the course of researching her book, A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother, Scott uncovered correspondence showing “the 1995 dispute concerned a Cigna disability insurance policy and that her actual health insurer had apparently reimbursed most of her medical expenses without argument.” In response to inquiries, “a White House spokesman chose not to dispute either Ms. Scott’s account or Mr. Obama’s memory, while arguing that Mr. Obama’s broader point remained salient.”
In other words, Obama lied in order to make a political point.
The early death of the president’s mother was a tragedy for her family, but Obama’s manipulation of the narrative about her life was utterly unscrupulous. While her battle for disability coverage probably was stressful, that has nothing to do with her son’s subsequent efforts to impose a government health care plan on the nation. Moreover, it should also be pointed out the president is in no position to claim his untrue account of his mother’s problems was the result of a misunderstanding about a matter in which he was not involved. According to Scott, the correspondence says his mother referred to her son as her attorney in these matters.
For those with short memories, it’s important to recall that Obama has used this story repeatedly, including during one of the presidential debates with opponent John McCain. During that debate he said:
For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they’re saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don’t have to pay her treatment, there’s something fundamentally wrong about that.
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posted July 15, 2011 at 9:03 pm
It’s kinda tough getting caught in a lie and maintaining the appearance of integrity.
posted July 16, 2011 at 5:48 am
I am not rushing to defend Obama, because, heaven KNOWS, he has, at times, made me furious….however, sometimes, when our (true) recollections are just too painful for us, we defend by simply changing the story to a fantasy in order to survive….so our heart will not break….His granny raised him for a good part of his life, because, as professional student, his MOM could not do so , without sacrificing her educational goals….would be safe to assume he felt rejected by Mom…..and, in death, she would be “leaving ” again….before he could ever get the prior rejections from her resolved….always leaving him….and, so divert our eyes from his real pain (what he perceived as maternal rejection) as a Leo, ruled by the LARGEST planet, the Sun (meaning HUGE ego) he diverts attention from the honest and true issue of his pain….He cannot blurt out that he is innately mad at his mom….does not want us to know that he has an inner little boy inside, hurting….Leo pride….must always be a strong man to others….and, so he , instead points to the (criminal, immoral, pain-causing ) insurance company….probably told this “story” to himself so many times (as a defense) that his mind begins to “believe” it….and, so a liar ? I really think it may have been a defense mechanism….as the survival instinct is very strong, overpowers reality sometimes…He has a SS card which was issued in CT. a state which he never lived, nor held a job….No expert here, but his (original) SS number was OBVIOUSLY replaced with a substitute card when young, or at some point….so, there are 2 reasons I can think of…there may be more…but here are the 2 I know….A. The numbers on the original card, or origin of such card were unacceptable, or tainted, and he pulled strings (in high places) to receive a card which would not draw such attention….(somebody in government agengy “fixed” a problem for him… or B. He was a child of a CLOSED adoption…and, due to certain state laws on CLOSED adoptions (where the natural mother gives the adoptive parent(s) and said child privacy to assume their new lives free from interference from birth mother, in some states, issuing a NEW and FRESH SS card is the norm….(example=Florida, for one)….perhaps more explanations for the CT SS card (proven to be NOT his original) but the one which I think ties to the mother lies, and fantasies is that he was ADOPTED….and it was a CLOSED adoption….lots of pain there for him, if true….and perhaps the reason for his coverups, fake birth cert and the wild fantasies which he spins about his mom….Leo, huge PRIDE and HUGE ego….(Rejection is his Achilles heel, I am guessing) makes him crazy…and, so he must be in a tizzy now….cause he is not too popular with his wife, nor the American public…..poor guy…needs counseling….anyways, I am not defending him, like I said….I am just trying to understand…and I see a hurting little boy…and it is hard for Leo to admit they are NOT perfect GODS…I feel bad for him…fakeness simply adds to pain…
posted July 16, 2011 at 7:31 am
Even if it didn’t happen to his mother, it’s happened to many others! Taking it upon his mother (if this even is the case) is “poetic license,” not falsification!
posted July 16, 2011 at 1:37 pm
What a bunch of nonsense from the “lets kick Obama” crowd.
posted July 16, 2011 at 3:39 pm
seriously, lying to the American public for agenda = “poetic license”?
posted July 17, 2011 at 11:45 am
obumble lied and his mother still died?
posted July 17, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Lou, I am wide open to your astrological reasoning, but I would also want a cross-check by a palm-reading … if you could obtain that from our hurting Leo…