No sooner did I post some odd thoughts on Obamacare (here) than Ezra Klein prompts another one. He begins an article praising Jonathan Gruber for truth-telling by stating that the MIT economist is “under fire for saying the law passed in part because its unpopular elements were obscured.”
Obscured? OBSCURED? Is Klein not a native English speaker? The law’s unpopular elements were not obscured. They were intentionally misrepresented. To say they were obscured is like saying President Obama obscured the facts when he promised that if people liked their health plans if they liked their doctor, etc. He didn’t obscure; he flat-out and repeatedly lied.
Also note Klein’s responsibility obscuring passive voice: were obscured.
Klein’s verbal malpractice is both a complement and a compliment to Obama’s and Gruber’s political malpractice.
UPDATE
Perhaps I’m too harsh on the Great Prevaricator. After all, Politico has just reminded us that “the president has acknowledged that some of his own statements about the law were ill-advised, in particular his repeated promises that if Americans liked their health care plans they could keep them.”
Ill-advised? Can’t you almost see it now? Little Barry Obama bravely saying to his mother (his father being absent), “Mother, I cannot make an ill-advised statement.” He was probably already thinking of his affirmative action addition to Mt. Rushmore.