Comments on: Getting out of Dodge

By: Mark Shiffman

Mark Shiffman — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 10:28:49 +0000

I think the President’s rhetoric is important to note here. He smilingly said he had become fond of the name “Obamacare”. This in my opinion was one of the moments in which the old Obama reappeared on the stage, trying to project the image of a kind of greatness of soul, as being so far above the insults of his enemies that he can turn their term of scorn into a monument of his (only) big achievement.

By: James Stephens

James Stephens — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 16:12:17 +0000

If they did, I stand corrected. Hadn’t caught that. You know, the more you whine about a colloquialism being a pejorative, the more it becomes one. Why not just stop complaining about how insulting the term Obamacare might be and just use it?

By: Ceaser

Ceaser — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 15:44:59 +0000

Thanks John, I completely missed that. It sets the record straight. The question is answered!

By: John Presnall

John Presnall — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 15:32:48 +0000

Didn’t the administration embrace the term Obamacare last March?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/president-obama-embraces-obamacare-label-but-why/2012/03/25/gIQARJ5qaS_blog.html

By: James Stephens

James Stephens — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 03:01:53 +0000

I was struck with the President’s adoption of the term Obamacare, and you’re the first person I’ve come across raise this question. I think Mr Obama was just shell-shocked and went along with Mr Romney.

By: sara

sara — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 01:16:41 +0000

Why would Obama own “Obamacare,” a term born of derision? The high-handed manner in which the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was pressed on and steered through the legislature was certainly a sign of the President’s narcissism. One of the things “Obamacare” does is to call him on this narcissism. I think his (somewhat reluctant, in my view) acceptance and approval of the term has a lot to do with his trying to make the best of being continually outed in this way. “Yes, I am in fact the providential savior I took myself to be when I initiated this deeply divisive legislation. But you should start to love me for it!”

By: CJ Wolfe

CJ Wolfe — Sat, 06 Oct 2012 20:02:33 +0000

My answer is that Obama accepted Romney using the term “Obamacare” in a feeble attempt at humor. Romney used the term in a feeble atttempt at humor too, in his own corny way (do you think might have been drinking milk even before the debate started?!). It wasn’t really that funny when Romney or Obama said it. Most people just use the term since it’s a good shorthand for the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act”- which is a mouthful. P-PACA sounds stupid too; “Obamacare” is just the best name we’ve come up with.

It was a striking point in the debate though