Ed Driscoll:
That’s the question James Taranto is asking in his latest Best of the Web Today column at the Wall Street Journal:
“This is President Obama’s Mission Accomplished moment,” Sen. John Cornyn of Texas tells Time.com. “Jimmy Fallon Mocks ObamaCare’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Charade,” according to a Breitbart.com headline. While the host of “The Tonight Show” didn’t say “mission accomplished” in last night’s monologue, he was scathingly sarcastic about the White House’s declaration of victory. On Monday Commentary’s Jonathan Tobin observed: “It is entirely possible that we will look back on today’s deadline and administration celebrations about enrollment as Obama’s version of George W. Bush’s infamous ‘mission accomplished’ moment after Iraq.”
Much as this columnist enjoys blaming things on George W. Bush, we feel obliged to note that he did not say “mission accomplished” during that May 1, 2003, speech. Quite the opposite. He asserted, referring to the broader war on terror: “Our mission continues.” The mission to which the infamous banner referred was the deployment from which the USS Abraham Lincoln, aboard which the then-president delivered the speech, had just returned.
But Bush did open his speech with what turned out to be a premature declaration of victory: “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Obama’s speech yesterday included a similar assertion of triumph, albeit against the president’s adversaries, not the country’s: “The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay.”
More than a few Obama critics have taken offense at his declaration that “the debate . . . is over.” To them he sounded like a dictator commanding his subjects to cease dissent. But Obama is not a dictator, and few of his critics are likely to heed his implicit demand. What’s more, it’s difficult to imagine the likes of Mark Begich, Kay Hagan, Mary Landrieu and Mark Pryor successfully deploying the debate-is-over gambit in their re-election campaigns. Our guess is that the debate over whether the debate over ObamaCare is over will be over on Nov. 5.
As Ann Coulter wrote in October, “The most hilarious part of the ‘settled law’ argument is that it’s coming from the left, for whom nothing is ever ‘settled’ until they get their way,” along with numerous examples of the left neveraccepting any law they despise as “settled.”
Today, the president, once described by his zanier leftwing supporters as the second coming of FDR, JFK and Lincoln — and heck, God Himself — and the greatest orator since Cicero or Caesar all rolled into one, is hitting the road and taking the highroad in his follow-up rhetoric:
The president paid a visit to Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, Mich., today as part of his push to increase the minimum wage.
Zingerman’s he says, pays its employees “fair wages.” Whether they’re fair enough to afford the lunch the president had isn’t clear: He ordered a small Reuben for $13.99; larges go for nearly $17…
“If they tried to this sell [Paul Ryan’s budget] at Zingerman’s, they’d have to call it the ’stinkburger’ or the ‘meanwich,’” he said.
As Guy Benson warns at Hot Air, “If ‘stinkburger’ goes viral, which seems to be happening on Twitter as I write this, there will be more in this vein:”
When Obama was running for president he promised to lower the oceans rise, control the climate.
Later he made grand claims about ”his Administration,” and what he was going to do through it.
Still later, after getting his wings clipped a few times, he denied knowing about his own Administration’s actions until he read it in the papers or saw it on the news.
Even more recently Obama has claimed to only control ”the White House,” as opposed to his Administration, the nation or the seas.
Now Obama is claiming victory for the mere passage of time!!!
Yes, March 31st came and went…..victory!
No matter how many signed up……the enrollment period ended…..victory!
As if a small percentage of all the USA opening a web site and putting something in a shopping bag validated his entire ACA.
It does not.
And, yes, the ACA can be repealed whether Obama likes it or not.
The fact that an enrollment period ended and a few people signed up doesn’t mean it can’t.
Obama, ironically, worships a few people who overturned laws and customs seemingly set in stone: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, those colored students who went into the all white classrooms in the South, and more.
I wonder how he’s going to feel about the face of whoever gets the ACA out of here?