President Obama said something yesterday that, given the brouhaha over death panels and health care rationing, might not have been prudent. From the story:
A reader points out that President Obama’s call with the rabbis today — as recorded in Rabbi Jack Moline’s and other clerics‘ Twitter feeds — freights health care reform with a great deal of religious meaning, and veers into the blend of policy and faith that outraged liberals in the last administration.
“We are God’s partners in matters of life and death,” Obama said, according to Moline (paging Sarah Palin…), quoting from the Rosh Hashanah prayer that says that in the holiday period, it is decided “who shall live and who shall die.”
That comes off as a bit hubristic to me and will bring back the jokes about our president’s messiah complex. I’m not Jewish, but my understanding of that quote is that the Being doing the deciding is God, not us in partnership with the Almighty. In any event, the worry is that Obama wants government to decide who lives and who dies through rationing boards. I am sure he didn’t intend to, but I think he just added a small log onto that particular fire.
August 20th, 2009 | 11:12 am
Blasphemy — just a bit hubristic, I’d say!
August 20th, 2009 | 12:50 pm
[...] day, claiming a partnership with God. Hubristic? Yes, and clueless about matters theological. More over at Secondhand Smoke. Comments [...]
August 20th, 2009 | 12:52 pm
The fire not HR3200′s supposed death panels, but the smarts of a Prez to fumble like this.
August 20th, 2009 | 1:18 pm
I think that what Obama (The One) actually meant by that remark is that We (the rest of us mere mortals) are all His Partners in matters of life and death.
August 20th, 2009 | 1:57 pm
Politico’s source for this “hubristic” statement, Jack Moline, now says this on his twitter feed: “My lack of tech literacy results in a huge mistake — apologies to all for my tweets this afternoon. They have been deleted.” As for the corroboration from the “other clerics’ feeds,” I suggest readers try for themselves to find it. Wesley J. Smith will jump on any innuendo, any suggestion, to flog Obama for being a stark raving idolatrous lunatic, no matter how thin the documentary trail. Secondhand Smoke and Mirrors is a more apt name for this blog.
August 20th, 2009 | 1:57 pm
Terrifying. Is it 2012 yet?
August 20th, 2009 | 3:25 pm
Yes it does sound like Obama is being protected from his own mistakes by smoke and mirrors once again.
August 20th, 2009 | 6:45 pm
Was he using a teleprompter when he said this?
August 20th, 2009 | 8:01 pm
Charlie,
Yes, I saw that too. But it’s a stretch for me to imagine how a “lack of tech literacy” results in one saying, basically, that Obama thinks we’re demigods. Any chance he means the posts were accidentally deleted? I’m not a tweeter so I don’t know how it works.
August 20th, 2009 | 10:20 pm
I’d like to know what lack of “technical literacy” led to a “big mistake” that recorded what Obama said. Methinks the illiteracy led Moline to inadvertently let the cat out of the bag.
August 21st, 2009 | 1:54 am
[...] President Obama gave humankind a huge promotion the other day, claiming a partnership with God. Hubristic? Yes, and clueless about matters theological. More over at Secondhand Smoke. [...]
August 21st, 2009 | 7:48 pm
[...] President Obama gave humankind a huge promotion the other day, claiming a partnership with God. Hubristic? Yes, and clueless about matters theological. More over at Secondhand Smoke. [...]
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