We’ve all heard plenty about how the media is NOT allowed to exploit, report on, mention, photograph, etc. the Obama girls.
But if you’re the POTUS and the FLOTUS, exploiting your own children to promote the healthcare agenda is no big deal.
In a Friday speech to women’s groups, the First Lady told a story about Sasha’s meningitis scare (that means she didn’t actually have it). The NYT reported:
In her speech, Mrs. Obama also told the story of how her daughter Sasha would not stop crying when she was 4 months old. A doctor’s visit revealed she might have meningitis; she ultimately did not, but the illness produced a scare.
But according to the President, Sasha did in fact have meningitis when she was 3 (not 4) months old. Watch the video here:
When our youngest daughter Sasha was diagnosed with meningitis at three months old…
It was one of the scariest moment’s of the POTUS’ life. You’d think him and his wife would have the same story.
So we have a number of issues here. 1. Who is right- the FLOTUS or the POTUS? 2. Did she or didn’t she have meningitis? 3. Was she 3 months old or 4 months old? 4. Can the media exploit Sasha if it’s for the good of healthcare reform?
h/t: JWF
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considering he lies more than she does, I will take her side of the story. It is apart of the “fear mongering” that he claims he is not doing. Only those who oppose healthcare is fear mongering.
Now Britney, he was simply in TelePromter mode, he doesnt actually comprehend what he is reading he simply goes thru the motions.
Don’t forget, Sasha and Malia are private, not public figures… except of course, when they’re fulfilling their $800k J Crew endorsement requirements.
http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/0709/profiting_off_the_obamas_29066b65-8269-431d-93c7-98c4dcb777cf.html
$300 for a child’s coat? I do not even spend that kind of money on my jackets? And they are for the everyday family? Who can afford that kind of clothing?
Could he not have been mistaken? My dad can’t remember which wrist I broke or where I got stitches after a horrific game of tag but he knows I was hurt pretty badly in both instances.
But if you hold your baby who happens to have Down Syndrome, he’s a prop.
The really strange part for me is… what is their point? Why bring up the illness in the first place? Hear me out for a second here -
Anecdote: We took our small child to the hospital where we had a big scare, they correctly diagnosed her and everything was fine.
Alright, now please explain to me what business this story has in the health care debate if you’re trying to convince people we need reform? I’m sorry, but doesn’t this story kinda point out that the system, I don’t know… WORKS?!
They got their kid right in to be seen, she was properly cared for and diagnosed correctly, crisis was averted easily… and all without the help of socialized medicine.
Actually, I kinda like this story :~)
$300 for a child’s coat? I do not even spend that kind of money on my jackets? And they are for the everyday family? Who can afford that kind of clothing?
The same kind of family who shops for arugula at Whole Foods.
Another proof that the Obama administration is running on image over substance. I wonder how much time Obama got before he reaches “Lame Duck” status.
POTUS recalls they took the baby in, meningitis was mentioned, that’s all he can remember. FLOTUS is probably correct here.
Pam,
Shopping at Whole Foods for vegetables is actually cheaper than the supermarket. I don’t have a Whole Foods near me, but I do have a Henry’s Market and the prices for fresh produce are amazing. The people who shop at these stores know that a child will grow out of a $300 coat.
Scott F. – that was exactly what I was thinking…story is an odd choice
Regarding the girls, I have never heard of any president allowing his kids to be used to promote a clothing line. Seems like kind of an odd thing for him to allow. Not immoral or illegal just odd. If I am president and I want to keep my kids out of the spotlight then I wouldn’t let some company use them as a marketing campaign.
I’m going with FLOTUS because I don’t want her to use her Bat’leth on me.
It’s a better story than you realize Scott.
The Obama pediatrician most likely ruled out meningitis upon initial examination. Meningitis, while admitedly fatal is relatively rare here, especially in an otherwise healthy toddler with a private nanny and excellent living conditions.
But this is happened in the US where we take these sorts of things damn seriously, no matter the pricetag.
So the pediatrician promptly dosed the kid up with mass spectrum antibiotics, several steriods, plus an oxygen mask, and shipped her off to the nearest pediatric ICU via a roaring ambulance with a mandatory pediatric specialist on board. Upon arrival, Sasha would have been put into isolation, run through an MRI, given a lumbar puncture (spinal tap), and at least a couple dozen blood vials drawn through a butterfly rather than the normal arm stick. Every single test would have been fully rushed through the labs. The entire family would have been given preventative antibiotics as well, well before any diagnostic tests come back positive.
All of that for a cranky baby.
And that didn’t happen simply because both Obamas were well known lawyers, one a state senator and the other an administrator on the hospital board of directors. That happens each and every time meningitis is suspected, no matter what the economic or insurance status of the child in question.
I’m the world’s biggest nobody and when I took my croupy, teething toddler to an after hours clinic and Doogie Howser diagnosed her with an equally rare infection normally found in crack-heads, we got the full Monty and an ambulance ride too.
How much you wanna bet that Obamacare rations out this sort of precautionary treatment as over-reactionary waste?
So did the Obama’s have health insurance or was that when they were homeless living on the streets?
The point of the anecdote was that they could do take their child to a pediatrician and then to a hospital, they then posit the proposal that wouldn’t it be nice if everyone could do that because they would have healthcare thanks to the President’s (non-existent) plan.
How many kids do you think Doogie will be able to see under the new health plans? I’ve read that in several European countries, doctors and dentists are only allowed so many exams and treatments, and once their quota has been reached, they are legally required to stop offering the exam or treatment. So if Doogie is alloted 10 meningitis treatments, and he gives them all by August, he cannot legally treat another child for meningitis, even if he sees 20 more kids with the illness. If I recall correctly, doctors are not even allowed to do the extra treatments pro bono. Better hope you get sick early in the year.
The First Kid situation is like when the Clintons were in the White House. Don’t go near Chelsea unless Daddy messed around with an intern, then suddenly Chelsea’s going everywhere with her parents! I maintain that she probably could have offed someone or robbed a bank while at Stanford, and the press wouldn’t have said a thing. But you know, the Bush twins are the Devil incarnate. They acted like immature college students a couple of times and then worked with AIDS patients in developing countries and taught urban elementary school children. Clearly agents of evil.
If you’re going to pimp out (yes, I said it) your kid’s health issues, at least make sure you have your facts straight. And do you think the poor kid really wants everyone knowing her health history? Too bad HIPPA doesn’t cover families.
Since when is “health coverage” a requirement for treatment? I went to the doctor and to the hospital, had multiple expensive tests performed, and eventually had my gall bladder removed – all when I had no insurance at all.
And, I should add, I paid for it (over time).
THANK you, Jill! When I was sick in college, I was partially covered under my mother’s health insurance (because I was a student) but the things that were not covered we paid for. Sometimes $50 a month, sometimes more, but the hospital bills were paid off. It is amazing to me that a lot of people will put a $4600 Plasma HD/LCD whatever TV on a credit card, but can’t seem to grasp the concept that if you get sick and can’t pay right away, there are hospitals that will treat you, and let you pay it off over time.
I’ve been rushed to the ER before with pneumonia, at a time when I was unemployed and had zero insurance. By the time the $800 bill came in, I had a temp job and was able to work out payment arrangements with the hospital’s billing service, to the tune of $10 a month minimum. (Obviously, I paid it off earlier than that.) My point is that hospitals are legally required to take and treat emergency cases, and are also accustomed to working with people on the settlement of their bills. Everyone I’ve ever known who had serious trouble with credit ratings and bill collectors regarding medical bills, had been pretty slack about even trying to pay in the first place. The Obamas either don’t know, or know and think we don’t know, that their Touched-by-an-Anvil situation wouldn’t have turned out so well under the very plan they’re proposing.
The real point of universal healthcare is that people without insurance do not get regular checkups, they put off getting medical treatment until they are really sick and then have to go to the emergency room for help.
The problem is having insurance is not going to stop this behavior. The assumption that Obama, and other elitists, is making is that insurance = seeing a doctor regularly, which is not going to be the case. I know when I was younger and I had medical insurance I did not have a primary care physician. Why bother, I was rarely sick and occassionally I would end up in the emergency room bacause I put off taking care of myself (young and dumb).
D— Precisely. We lived in Canada and once we had a family we went to the Dr on a regular basis because of the socialized medicine. Prior to that – ‘young and dumb’ not so much.
Socialized medicine was fine for maintenance but I would sure not want to be chronically ill there or need a knee or hip replacement.
D— and jenn, if the new health plan only requires people to have catastrophic insurance, then people really won’t be going to the doctor because you’d still have to pay for it out of pocket.
Somehow the whole insurance system has gotten us away from the idea that health services can be billed to and paid for by individuals. My mother-in-law gave birth to my husband in the local rural hospital and she and my father-in-law just paid the doctor and hospital directly. OK, granted there weren’t any complications it was only $125 in the 60’s…
Ed – Then I amend my answer to:
The kind of people who think nothing of wasting tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars on a “date night” to New York City when they could have spent their own money on such an activity before The One was inaugurated.
POTUS + FLOTUS = SCROTUS
@Mermaid:
!
I can’t see “FLOTUS” without thinking “flatus”, and…yeah. Ew.
Actually, FLOTUS=flatulence. Whenever they open their moves, only stinky, hot air comes out of it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flatulence
lol – the scrotus is dangling in there somewhere near where the flotus comes out….
For others who’ve been seriously ill without insurance – YES. EXACTLY. You get yourself treated, and then you work out a plan with the doctor or hospital to pay off the bill over time. If you can go around maxing out your credit cards but are bitching about your medical bills, that’s you’re on freaking fault. I’m not responsible for covering for your irresponsibility.
if only the girls were dressed as innocently as their dolls ! the daughters are often wearing extremely age-inappropriate and highly sexualized clothing. their parents should be ashamed for them to be seen in public that way.
You know, I was thinking about something last night. Didn’t Saliin Palin get a lot of crap during the campaign because her daughter was carrying a Louie Vitton (?) purse, which was or was not a fake? The media went after her about not being a regular Hockey Mom, yet our First Lady wears $500 sneaker, has $1000 purses and her daughters wear $300 coats and items from J Crew that most families cannot afford.
Just sayin