Maybe it is time for the president to finally release his college transcripts. Away from the teleprompters and speech writers, when left to his own intellect Barack Obama misspelled Ohio in such a personal way that he created the viral picture of the day that is raging across the internet like a towering inferno of ignorant hilarity. Obama spelled Ohio wrongly which his critics are seizing upon as further evidence that our lovable president may not be as bright as advertised.
Photo: Obama Spells Ohio Wrong
This photograph was taken on the campus of Ohio State University on August 21st at the campus mess hall. The president inserted himself in the wrong order much to the confusion of the students around him. A bright undergrad snapped photographs and sent them to the local Romney’s campaign. Within hours this picture was tweeted by Christopher Maloney, who is the communication director for Romney’s election campaign in Ohio. And in case you are suspicious, multiple pics exist. It is not photo-shopped.
This image shows several students and Obama spelling Ohio with their arms, hands and fingers. The guy on the left is making an O with his arms, while the guy on the right is making the other letter O with his two hands. The second guy was waiting with the letter I in the group before Obama jumped in line. His campaign staff were dumbfounded as President Obama considered where he would go in the line, made a letter H with his arms and then carefully stepped into the wrong place. They quickly moved the president but not in time for this wonderful image.
They say that a picture speaks a thousand words and perhaps none more wordy than this one. Superficially we can all note that anyone is capable of misspelling the name of a state. Minds slip after all. Even Dan Quayle could not spell potato correctly, famously insisting in a grammar school classroom that a letter E should be on the end.
But in Obama’s case the O-I-H-O misspelling of Ohio feeds a growing narrative for this president that he just isn’t very smart away from his speech writers, choreographers, and teleprompters. Historian have noted curiously that the president speaks at only a 6th grade comprehension level, which is the most illiterate of all the presidents in our history. Whether the dumbing down of Obama is part of a strategy by his handlers or a reflection of the man himself has been an open question. This writer believes it is a little of both.
Which brings us to his college transcripts. Renewed heat has been placed on the campaign to produce Obama’s Yale and Harvard college transcripts. He is the first president in our history who has refused to release his college transcripts and the public is probably right to wonder why. Clearly his latest gaffe will bring a little more unwanted attention on Obama’s fabled educational background from an inquiring public.
August 23rd, 2012 at 3:21 pm
I am doing a presentation right now for an obesity system and another for anxiety and depression.
The difference is they make me money.
So, I don’t think I will be doing any presentations for this site.
You get my drift.
However, here are a couple of surprising figures for the whole “government can’t do anything like private business” argument.
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, administrative costs in Medicare are only about 2 percent of operating expenditures. Defenders of the insurance industry estimate administrative costs as 17 percent of revenue.
Medicare administrative cost figures include the collection of Medicare taxes, fraud and abuse controls, and building costs.
Additionally,
Medicare Advantage, which enrolls seniors in private health plans, has failed to deliver care more efficiently than traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Both the CBO and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the commission which advises congress on Medicare’s finances, have calculated that Medicare Advantage plans covering the same care as traditional Medicare cost 12 percent more.
Karen Ignagni, who heads America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry’s trade association, has admitted that private plans cannot bargain down provider costs and has asked Washington to intervene.
August 23rd, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Why does everything cost so much?
Latest example from my specific area of the industry.
A drug urine test for a patient on Workers’ Compensation varies from state to state. They test to make sure the patient is taking the drug (for example OxyContin) rather than selling it.
Wholesale cost of administering and reading the test? $24
How much is billed? (To be split up between physician, salesman and testing lab?) $2445.
August 23rd, 2012 at 4:38 pm
“Karen Ignagni, who heads America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the insurance industry’s trade association, has admitted that private plans cannot bargain down provider costs and has asked Washington to intervene.”
With all due respect, gimme a fckin break.
The private sector is rejecting Medicare participants because reimbursement is ridiculously tedious.
Name me one government operated healthcare system that is not 100s of times over predicted budgets from 1960 til now.
Fraud, abuse(illegals),bloated administrations and waste are the biggest problems these programs face.
Any other approach is sheer bullsht intended to leave people dependent on Democrats.
Dont tell me you cant see that.
(and yes, I hold both the left and right accountable for the 12 million illegals qualifying for American taxpayer funded healthcare)
When you can do that we’ll have an honest conversation.
I beat cancer a couple years ago.
My bills were phenomenal only because I could not work for 9 months.
My wife and I have never taken an entitlement in our lives, I only took a month of unemployment insurance in the 80s.
My wife and I decided we were justified in asking for assistance in the form of food stamps which free up grocery funds to help pay the bills.
We were rejected and instead offered medicaid.
WHY ?
All I wanted was a couple, maybe three months of food stamps but instead was referred to a much more costly solution as I’d be able to supplement my private insurance for years eventually costing more than the original 1000.00 (ballpark figure) I was asking for.
I know why.
Do you ?
Its simple, so very simple.
The left wants to eliminate competition in the private sector, or eliminate free enterprise totally so we must answer to and vote for Democrats every 4 years.
Anyone who allows government to intervene in religion, capitalism, and their own bodies, is quite frankly, stupid.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Good example Buzz. Are you including R%D costs, liability insurance, lab equipment, building overhead, and human resource costs in your example?
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:22 pm
“Fraud, abuse(illegals),bloated administrations and waste are the biggest problems these programs face”
I think I just stated that fraud was a big issue with my Workers’ Comp example.
As to the left trying to make you dependent on them? You are giving credit where it is not due.
There are numbers that you need to fit into in order to be eligible for government programs. Flawed? Of course, as any such program is.
The “real” gap right now in health care is the people that used to be the middle class. Most of us know many of them. They had a good job and a regular life just ten years ago, but now they are poor, but not “poor enough” for full benefits.
Why? They may still have too many assets (perhaps home equity, a running car etc.) so they don’t fit the square peg.
These are the people that will benefit from Obamacare.
It should have been single payer as eliminating insurance companies simply removes a profit-taker and the economy of scale that accompanies that volume of “new’ patients would lower costs.
Insurance companies want to cover healthy people. I don’t blame them, it is a good business plan. For example, a good friend of mine worked at Chrysler. He was let go, his COBRA elapsed and 10 days later he had a heart attack.
He recovered, but is now, in reality, uninsurable. By law, in Michigan, they have to offer some plan and they do, at $3500 a month. Not very realistic.
If everyone was on one plan, (something similar to the members of Congress) it provides immense bargaining power with drug companies, hospitals and medical equipment companies. Larger volume, smaller margins.
Eliminate fraud and you have an affordable system.
I am in the business of finding loopholes in reimbursement and exploiting them. If my business has to change I can find ten other areas where I can buy a product, mark it up and get paid by insurance, Medicare or private insurance with no problem.
Eliminate me and everyone like me.
Since I live ten minutes from Canada I spend a lot of my summers there. If you have torn knee cartilage, yes, you have to wait for a few months to get it fixed, but everyone will eventually be eligible for that surgery.
In the U.S. those people “in the gap”, which is ever-expanding, don’t ever get that surgery.
Emergency room? Nope, as it is not an emergency, 2 Motrin and see you later.
Ask people in Canada if they like their healthcare system. The answer is yes. Would they like it to be faster? Sure, but that is human nature.
I know, the best care in the world is in the U.S., but it is not available for everyone.
Do some people from Canada come here for superior care? Sure, there are a few such stories for those that can afford to hire the best.
As for the argument that doctors need to make money. Sure they do. Look at the pay in England or Canada for physicians, it is not bad.
Look at most family physician in the U.S.
Average education debt? $400,000. What do they make out of school? $80,000 and a 60 hour work week.
The system is broke and most of what the GOP wants to do is maintain the status quo.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:26 pm
“Good example Buzz. Are you including R%D costs, liability insurance, lab equipment, building overhead, and human resource costs in your example?”
Include it in what? R and D costs? This was in reference to administrative costs.
August 23rd, 2012 at 5:29 pm
Insurance companies create obstacles to healthcare access and then charge you 20% for providing that “service”.
If anyone else did that they would charged under the RICO Act.
Next time you are in the hospital take a look at the twenty people working at the main station of any department.
3 working on trying to improve your health, while 17 are trying to figure out how to get paid.
Not very efficient.
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:15 pm
“Why? They may still have too many assets (perhaps home equity, a running car etc.) so they don’t fit the square peg.”
Thank you.
You hit the problem on the nail with that sentence.
The requirement was that my wife quit her job.
The solution or make assets disappear, or intentionally decrease your standard of living in order to qualify.
No thank you.
I’m trying to get ahead and not remain middle class.
Which is exactly the Liberals/Socialist/Progressives intention.
The left is only trying to blind people with math so they dont see the danger of the ideology.
The math is simple. It doesnt add up no matter how many exceptions you make.
The answer is the same answer to the question you refuse to answer.
Name me one government operated healthcare system that is not 100s of times over predicted budgets from 1960 til now.
Better yet, never mind the civil rights movement and all its luggage, lets look as far back as the 30s when progressives drew up a host of dysfunctional safety nets.
“Insurance companies create obstacles to healthcare access and then charge you 20% for providing that “service”.”
Obviously you’re a very poor shopper.
I’ve had the same policy for 20 years now without any such problems.
Matter of fact they pay 100% of all my follow up/preventative care.
Government does in fact dictate and block healthcare access and its gotten worse in the last couple years.
I volunteer and donate with market contributions at two food pantries. All these old folks and my friends in lines that get longer every week cant be lying about having to divert parts of their household budgets to pay for co-pays and drugs.
If they’re lucky to be prescribed enough of the ones they need.
Answer the question please
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:24 pm
“3 working on trying to improve your health, while 17 are trying to figure out how to get paid.
Not very efficient.”
Bullsht.
I show my insurance card and a month later I get billed in a proximity of 20%
I can even get a copy of my cost, what “HMSA” covers the same day I leave.
My policy as most other private policies are very clear what they cover.
All you or I have to do is ask, or read.
17 people ?
Why dont round up these ghosts and see if they can do something about Medicaids impending doom in 2020
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:29 pm
” I live ten minutes from Canada I spend a lot of my summers there. If you have torn knee cartilage, yes, you have to wait for a few months to get it fixed, but everyone will eventually be eligible for that surgery.”
Thats nice, I can be a gimp on disability (more government dependency) for God knows how long.
Are you serious ?
Methinkso
August 23rd, 2012 at 6:30 pm
Face it.
Gubermint cheese loses every time
August 23rd, 2012 at 7:21 pm
I meant they take a profit margin, I was in no way referring to what your coverage or deductible may or may not be and the 17 people were an example. I don’t know or care if your insurance is 10, 20 or 40% as it is irrelevant.
I have been in the healthcare industry for over 30 years in all areas, but I am not going to spend two days trying to convince you that the current private system does not work and puts our country at a huge competitive advantage.
Oh, I’m sorry, once there is competition the rates will plummet.
My friends in the insurance industry have almost died laughing about that one. It is an offensive statement that I keep hearing from people on television.
I explained how buying power reduces cost and that is why single payer was the answer, but the Democrats (who merely wanted to keep their job) sold Obama out and demanded the inclusion of insurance companies.
Since you missed my point and I am in no mood to spend two days trying to explain my industry I will simply agree to disagree.
Even better yet. You win, everything I have learned about the industry is flawed, our American system is truly the best and any attempt to change it is misguided.
It is getting late anyhow and I am playing golf with executives from Blue Cross Blue Shield tomorrow (it is based in Michigan), but at least I will make them pay since they make $350,000 a year at a company that is listed as a non-profit. That’s right, Blue Cross Blue Shield is a non-profit.
I will tell them to send you a thank you card for your premiums.
I have a vague idea of your age, so I hope that you never lose your coverage and have anything happen to you, because you will then be uninsurable, a pariah to the industry.
It is truly health insurance, in other words, they cover the healthy.
August 23rd, 2012 at 8:02 pm
“My friends in the insurance industry have almost died laughing about that one. It is an offensive statement that I keep hearing from people on television.”
Sounds like they’re victims of gubermint cheesy healthcare.
Wise up.
Rates, including mine, have increased exponentially since Barrycare came into the picture because of the uncertainty it poses.
Keep your Canadian crap care waiting forever bs and answer my question
August 23rd, 2012 at 8:12 pm
“I meant they take a profit margin, ”
Thank God.
Otherwise, like socialists, there’d be no reason to not waste other peoples money.
Not to be too personal, but what trips me out is how you brag about being paid to be part of a problem, bringing shtty drugs to the market, and then project some moral high ground as if you care about peoples health.
Sorry, its hard to take you seriously
August 23rd, 2012 at 11:34 pm
Buzz, I worked in the healthcare industry for fifteen years. You don’t actually know what you are talking about because you let your partisan political philosophy blind you to what is going on around you. We had a great system when the people paying into it got the benefits from it. The rape of our healthcare system finances is the great scandal of an entire generation of liberal robbing from Peter to pay Pedro.
August 24th, 2012 at 8:08 am
@ Buzz #36
What I pay is as relevant to me as your supposed concern for the costs to everyone.
You can get as snotty and condescending as you like and throw grandiose ‘golf with bigwigs’ scenarios at me that make you like nothing more than a hypocrite, but that wont change the fact that you cant answer my question without looking like you’re incredibly bigoted in your perceptions.
When in any debate you fail to answer clear easy questions, you usually lose.
In the last 20 years I’ve ran about 200 addicts and alcoholics to hospitals and detox facilities in search of emergency care or treatment.
Sounds to me like you’re just some dude in a little bubble made up of nothing more than numbers that suit your very flawed argument.
Your use of Canadas flawed system as a supposedly good example of state managed healthcare is very telling of what you deem acceptable and what folks should come to expect.
I’m 55, hopefully by the time my wife and I retire, and if they havent moved the eligibility up to 95, we’ll be able to receive some of what we spent almost our whole lives being forced to invest in without bending over one or two entire generations.
“Non Profit” doesnt mean people dont need to take a paycheck home.
You’re in the business, and you know that, so spare me.
Salvation Army is non profit. But like most large non profit organizations they have administrative costs.
Your being in the business trying to convince everyone how great gubermint cheese is, is about as the same as myself, a professional chef/rest. manager, trying to convince a customer that sht is yummy.
August 25th, 2012 at 12:49 pm
He probably thought they were spelling Oahu.
Give the guy a break. How many of you can spell the names of all 57 states correctly?
August 25th, 2012 at 4:52 pm
I could spend the next week and 100 pages to make a point, but to what end?
Charts, graphs and statistics would make no difference, now would they?
I am convinced that if someone was fire and a Democrat had a hose they would merely say, “Forget it, let me burn to death”.
It is the same reason that Akin will probably win.
Anything short of putting a bullet in someone’s head (and that is limited to someone they like) will prevent him from winning.
So for all of the pretend hand-wringing (because he really doesn’t deviate from the GOP platform) he will be an important component of a Senate majority.
God help us (you know, if there was such a thing).
August 25th, 2012 at 5:24 pm
“We have the best health care in the world”.
Then why does the WHO rank us as 37th in the world, right ahead of Slovenia?
ANSWER MY QUESTIONS?
I”m sorry, that is a “Is it true you beat your wife?” type of question and that is no way to make a point, because it doesn’t make a point.
August 25th, 2012 at 5:32 pm
“I could spend the next week and 100 pages to make a point, but to what end?”
Oh please, give it rest. A hundred pages would only result in you going in a hundred circles.
You could end this with one word.
Answer my question.
Sorry to put it this way.
But its really stupid to question ones ability to grasp a flawed argument when you wont even answer your opponents question.
You beech about 17 hospital employees trying to figure out billing when the truth is that government employment has increased 65% under Barry and will turn into a clusterfck of bureaucracy and red tape once/if Obamacare kicks in full bloom.
Original drafts for the fiscal path of all government issued programs since their conceptions are 100s of times over original estimates.
And you’re defending the biggest one shoved down our throats ever.
I dont want to tear my cartilage here or in Canucksville and wait a couple months being on disability and eating pain killers before I get looked at.
You’re being dishonest by not admitting you understand this simple rejection of crappycare.
You’re not an idiot. You’re just being a stubborn partisan hack
Its over, you lost, you’re wrong.
August 25th, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Out of the story about golf, you gathered that it was about playing with wealthy people?
I will make a note of that…change to fishing. Got it.
I never said, nor inferred, that a non-profit does not pay salaries. What I was pointing out was that there are a countless number of them making $350,000 a year and more. In other words, it is an industry that has a lot of chips and they spend an incredible amount of them on lobbying (on both sides of the aisle).
Oh, well, we may very well see a GOP health plan, which is “maintain the status quo”.
That is, private health insurance for some, Medicaid for the extremely poor, Medicare for seniors and nothing for a growing group of people in the middle and lower middle class.
Oh, that’s right, they can go to the emergency room where the sniffles cost $500 (which is passed on to, well, you).
Meanwhile there are now more auto factories in Ontario, Canada than Michigan.
Why?
Could no health care costs have something to do with it?
You mean, corporations see the United States as a poor place to establish a business because they are expected to provide health coverage?
By the way, if this was about the hospitality business I would defer to you.
August 25th, 2012 at 5:52 pm
I’m an idiot?
You see, I never do that, Micky.
And you have often wondered why people leave this site.
I also love how you make your point, declare yourself the winner (I am pretty sure you are undefeated) swear at people you disagree with and then move on. Kind of like when you called Ronald J. Ward a “wordy troll” (hello, pot), in addition to some other words, (I am pretty sure liar came up, it often does.)
This is why I feel pity for John Boehner. He initially tried to reason with the new freshman that came out of the Tea Party. Now I know why he cries so much.
Yup, we are 35th in health care, but you know what, I am pretty sure it is the liberal’s fault.
August 25th, 2012 at 5:53 pm
I am gone.
August 25th, 2012 at 7:01 pm
“I will make a note of that…change to fishing. Got it.”
Hell, at least you’ll be able to eat without stickin your hands in my pocket.
“I am gone”
Does that mean you wont answer my question ?
August 25th, 2012 at 7:07 pm
“By the way, if this was about the hospitality business I would defer to you.”
Yeah, I dont do it for free.
Healthcare is a business. You cant afford it theres medicaid/care. Get the rid of the illegals and that’ll free up money for better gubermint care
Everyone here knows I volunteer at two foodbanks. I fed 60 people with my donations today and no one made me do it.