[VIDEO] Kimmel: President's Visit 'Turned LA Into the Traffic Equivalent of ObamaCare'

As NewsBusters has been reporting for almost two months, the disastrous rollout of Barack Obama's signature piece of legislation has made him the butt of late night jokes.

On ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live Monday, the host repeatedly mocked the President's fundraising trip to California saying, "He basically turned the westside of Los Angeles into the traffic equivalent of the ObamaCare website" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

JIMMY KIMMEL: This is definitely a boost for President Obama who arrived here in Los Angeles today. He's here to congratulate Taylor Swift on her American Music Awards in person. [Laughter and applause]

As usual, the President’s motorcade made our normally miserable traffic even worse. He basically turned the westside of Los Angeles into the traffic equivalent of the ObamaCare website. [Laughter and applause]

The President is, I guess he's here for the same reason he's usually here: to attend a few Democratic fundraisers and to go to In-N-Out burger without his wife finding out. [Laughter and applause]

And I don't know what it is, but It seems like the only time the President comes to LA is for money. He’s like a college student who only comes home to do his laundry and steal leftovers from the fridge.

Via: Newsbusters

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[VIDEO] Obama Shifts: 'We've Always Understood' That Enrolling by Website Isn't for Everyone

(CNSNews.com) - "It turns out that purchasing insurance, for a lot of folks, is complicated," Obama told his supporters in a Monday night in an online conference call.

“What I want to do is make sure everybody on the phone call understands, we’ve always understood that we’re going to have enroll people by mail, we’re going to have to enroll people on the phone, we’re going to have to enroll people in person,” he said.

Obama said his administration has a "strong plan" in place, not only to "fix the website," but also to "make sure there are other ways that people can sign up."

Earlier on Monday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said the White House may let people sign up for Obamacare directly through the insurance companies.

"I certainly wouldn't rule that out," Carney said. "It's something that we've talked about and are working on. We're interested in engaging or opening as many channels for enrollment as possible because the goal here is, again, not to have the best possible website -- and we're far from that.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] NBC Touts President's 'To-Do List' for Containing Political Damage From ObamaCare

On Monday's NBC Today, White House correspondent Peter Alexander lifted talking points directly from an Organizing for Action email while reporting on the political fallout from ObamaCare: "With his signature law under fire, the President faces a daunting to-do list to resuscitate ObamaCare. Number one, fix the website....Number two, clear up confusion....Number three, keep Democratic allies on board....And finally, regain Americans' trust." [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]

In the OFA email, President Obama told his supporters: "I have just over three years left as president – and there's a lot left on my to-do list. That's why I want to talk with you....I want to cut through the noise and talk with you directly about where we're headed in the fight for change."

Co-host Matt Lauer introduced Alexander's report by declaring: "The Obama administration's taking some new steps to fix the troubled rollout of the new health care law." He frettted: "Can the website and the President's legacy be saved?"

Alexander began by observing: "This is new territory for President Obama, he's really never faced a crisis like this, a crisis of confidence in his very leadership. The flawed rollout of the Affordable Care Act now threatening to undermine the future of his second term and his presidency."

Via: Newsbusters

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Boxer: Obama’s Keep-Your-Plan Pledge ‘Absolutely a Fact’

(CNSNews.com) – Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) said on Thursday that President Barack Obama's oft-repeated pledge that under Obamacare people would be allowed to keep their health care plans if they liked them was “absolutely a fact”--so long as the plans “met the standards” set by Obamacare, that is.

CNSNews.com asked Boxer: “After President Obama signed the ACA he said that if you like your health care plan you will keep it. No one can take that away from you.”

“I think everyone knows he said that,” Boxer said, speaking shortly before Obama announced that he would let insurance companies renew policies for existing customers in the individual market through 2014, even if those policies don’t meet the law’s requirements.

“But is it true or false?” CNSNews.com asked.

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Brent Bozell Cracks Up Hannity: CNN, MSNBC Obamacare Spin 'Would Make Baghdad Bob Blush'

On Thursday night’s Media Mash on the Hannity show on Fox News Channel, Sean Hannity and MRC president Brent Bozell laughed about MSNBC’s Michael Smerconish, Ed Schultz, and Chris Matthews being the Three Stooges of Obamacare for attacking anyone (including the "so-called independent media") who’s admitting there was a rollout fiasco.

When they turned to how MSNBC’s Richard Wolffe and CNN’s Sanjay Gupta (who originally planned in 2009 to join the Obama administration to sell Obamacare) both used crappy-automobile analogies to disparage policies that were being cancelled by Obama, Bozell made Hannity laugh some more: (Video and transcript below)

MSNBC.com's RICHARD WOLFFE (MSNBC's The Last Word, October 30): This is a bit like someone saying, ‘I’m going to sell you a $500 car, and then that pesky government says this car has to be road-worthy.’

Dr. SANJAY GUPTA (CNN's Piers Morgan Live, November 12): The number one cause of bankruptcy in United States is medical bills. And a large part of that is because there are really bad plans out there. I mean, I think this is a little bit of a red herring and, if you look at the numbers, this is a relatively small percentage of the population that we're talking about, that fits into this idea that they have plans, they want to keep them because they are buying insurance already on the individual market. But we have regulations for cars that are unsafe! People say, "I want to keep my Pinto. I don't want to be forced to buy a Ferrari."

HANNITY: They just rationalize the president’s made promises when he was selling this piece of garbage!

BOZELL: This is spin that, this is the kind of spin that would make Baghdad Bob blush. (Laughter) Look – and again, they’re saying – The insulting nature of it. The insurance policy you bought for your family is a Pinto! It's a piece of crap in their mind’s eye! President Obama was doing the right thing by canceling it.

HANNITY: You said I could keep my Pinto. Let me keep my Pinto.

The segment concluded with a clip of Chris Matthews demanding a purge of the Obama-hating “right wingers” from the Republican coalition: “Not once has Boehner or McConnell ever stood up and said, 'Those people are unacceptable,' in the way that Bill Buckley in the 1950s said anti-Semitism is not allowed in the American conservative coalition. Nobody says it.”

Bozell, the nephew of Bill Buckley, quickly dismissed that bile: “For him to evoke William F. Buckley, what he is doing is saying that the Republican Party needs to throw out the beliefs of William F. Buckley.”

Bozell appears weekly on "Hannity" to bring the MRC's latest clips of outrageous spin to the Fox News audience across America.

Via: Newsbusters

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Woodward: White House Blames Me for Starting Media Criticism of Obama’s Lack of Leadership

The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward made an interesting observation Sunday.

Appearing on Fox News’s MediaBuzz, he claimed that the White House blames him for starting the media’s criticism of President Obama’s lack of leadership (video follows with transcript and commentary):

HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: You concluded in your book "The Price of Politics" that President Obama in the great budget battle had failed to lead. Now we're hearing that he failed to lead on NSA foreign surveillance, didn't know the details. We're hearing that he failed to lead on the ObamaCare rollout, didn’t know about the technical problems. Has it taken the media too long to reach this analysis?

BOB WOODWARD, WASHINGTON POST: Well, you've got to be empirical about it. In “The Price of Politics” I was being empirical, and that's not to take the Republicans off the hook for all the budget problems. But the President’s the CEO of the country, and has to find a way to work his will. As you recount all of this, and as I do, you see that the President is the one who calls people to the White House. They don't call him to the Congress. And…

KURTZ: But it's more than being empirical.

WOODWARD: …he’s got the hammer.

KURTZ: You as an author had to reach a conclusion.

WOODWARD: Yes.

KURTZ: And some people criticized you for that.

WOODWARD: That’s correct.

KURTZ: And I understand that even today some in the White House are not that happy with Bob Woodward's reporting.

WOODWARD: Yeah, because they said I started it. It was kind of the first time somebody said…

KURTZ: Started what?

WOODWARD: Started this idea of he's got to lead, and he's too passive at times on these budget issues. And…

KURTZ: Is the White House official who told you that accurate? Was the person angry? Are they blaming you for this?

WOODWARD: Well, they never, as you know, no one likes to be criticized and called out. But, you know, they deal with reporters. I think the temperature’s going up right now days as there is more and more criticism on the President's comments on ObamaCare, that, you know, if you like it, you'll keep it. And somebody’s found 29 times that he said that and…

KURTZ: Yeah, I've seen it at least 29 times on the air.

For those that have forgotten, Woodward wrote an article in February critical of the President's handling of the fiscal cliff negotiations at the end of last year while also making it clear that Obama was the one that first proposed sequestration.

Days later it was revealed that he received an email from a very senior person at the White House saying he would regret this article.

At the time, much of the media predictably took Obama's side and came down on Woodward.

With the disaster that has been the ObamaCare rollout, some are now singing a different tune.

Via: Newsbusters

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[VIDEO] Bob Schieffer on JFK Assassination: ‘Nothing Like This Had Ever Happened’

As we approach the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, it seems a metaphysical certitude there are going to be some really absurd statements made by the liberal media concerning this tragedy.

I suggest none will be as preposterous as CBS Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer actually claiming Sunday, “Nothing like this had ever happened” (video follows with transcript and commentary):

BOB SCHIEFFER, HOST: We want to turn now to a fateful day you're going to be hearing a lot about over the next month because November 22nd marks the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy, a day that many believe changed America forever. The first word of it for many of us came from Walter Cronkite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER CRONKITE: From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official: President Kennedy died at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHIEFFER: The nation was plunged into shock. Nothing like this had ever happened.

Yes, nothing like this had ever happened - as long as you ignore Abraham Lincoln being assassinated in 1865, James Garfield in 1881, and William McKinley in 1901.

Via: Newsbusters

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[VIDEO] Shutdown: Bush's Fault?

MRCTV's Dan Joseph had a question on his mind that he couldn't shake: who bears the brunt of the blame for the government shutdown? Who really is responsible for the mess we're in right now?  Is it President Obama or former President George W. Bush?  He decided to take these questions to the heart of our misery: Washington D.C.

Despite the fact that "Dubya" has been out of office for the past five years, most of the respondents said former President George W. Bush is to blame for the shutdown.

Why?  Well, he apparently did a lot of bad stuff and had policies that only Barack Obama can reverse, which is why the current president has added twice as much debt than economic output over the past two years.

As for health care, which is at the heart of the shutdown, one respondent said that, if Bush had proposed some sort of health care reform, all of this could've been avoided.  Well, he did.  In fact, there's a long history of Republican policy proposals to fix American health care.

The irony is that Bush's 2007 health care proposal is actually "superior" to Obamacare concerning universal coverage. As Chris Conover of Forbes noted last August:

Via: CNS News

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[VIDEO] Tavis Smiley: 'Black People Will Have Lost Ground in Every Single Economic Indicator' Under Obama

PBS's Tavis Smiley made a comment Thursday that every African-American as well as liberal media member should sit up and take notice.

Appearing on Fox News's Hannity, Smiley said, "The data is going to indicate sadly that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: My last question to you. You often do these seminars with the state of black America. I've watched them on C-Span and different channels, right?

TAVIS SMILEY: Right.

HANNITY: Are black Americans better off five years into the Obama presidency?

SMILEY: Let me answer your question very forthrightly. No, they are not. The data is going to indicate sadly that when the Obama administration is over, black people will have lost ground in every single leading economic indicator category. On that regard, the president ought to be held responsible.

But here's the other side. I respect the president. I will protect the president. And I will correct the president. He's right on this government shutdown. Republicans are thwarting the rule of law with the Constitution. If they let this debt go into default, they're trampling again on the Constitution.

Wow!

Now to be fair to Smiley, he has been hard on the president concerning how his policies are economically damaging the black community, but this is the first time I believe he's been this harsh on national television with such a large audience.

Sadly, he's right.

So why would this community re-elect someone doing so much damage to them economically?

Is it possible they're not aware of it because most liberal media members other than Smiley aren't reporting it?

Hmmm.

Via: Newsbusters

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