The Mandate Flip Flop
Obama was at his oratorical best tonight. Just off the charts.
But seriously? A health care mandate?
This is a flip flop of Romneyan proportions. Was the whole fucking umpteen month primary campaign in which Obama argued passionately — and I daresay persuasively — against a mandate to purchase health care all just posturing?
Here’s what Obama once had to say about Hillary Clinton’s plan in a health care mailer:
“Hillary’s health care plan forces everyone to buy insurance even if you can’t afford it… and you pay a penalty if you don’t”
“Punishing families who can’t afford health care to begin with just doesn’t make sense”
“Barack Obama believes it’s not that people don’t want health care it’s that they can’t afford it.”
This, the mailer said, was the essence of Change We Can Believe In.
So WTF happened? Where was the come-to-Jesus moment on mandates?