Joe Wilson calls Barack Obama a liar
The big news that came out of Barack Obama’s speech on healthcare reform to a joint session of congress was Senator Joe Wilson calling the president a liar. When the president said that it was untrue that his plan would grant illegal immigrants healthcare insurance Joe Wilson yelled out “you lie.”
The question today that is being asked is, was it appropriate for the senator to call the president out in this way? The short answer is that no it wasn’t appropriate but in today’s world with 24-7 news coverage the short answer is no longer sufficient so we must look into this a little deeper.
I would argue that the president calling for a joint session of congress so that he could give a speech in an attempt to bolster his sagging poll numbers and drum up support for his floundering healthcare reform bill was inappropriate in the first place. Possibly even unconstitutional. The constitution says that the president “may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses.” Certainly this was not the type of “extraordinary occasion” that the founders had in mind when they wrote the constitution. The fear-mongering that the president used during his speech (Americans will die it we don’t do anything) in order to control the American people is something that the founders feared. But I heard somewhere that two wrongs do not make a right so I will give him a pass on this issue. But we must go further still.
The president took the opportunity to speak before a joint session of congress that was constitutionally suspect to call everyone who opposed his healthcare reform proposal liars. Is it any wonder that Joe Wilson finally had heard enough and decided to fire back? The president stood there in front of the American people and spoke in an arrogant and condescending manner to all of those who do not agree with him on this issue. He said it was time to “stop bickering” and fall in line with what he wanted. In doing so he continually called the opponents liars, so was it really inappropriate for Joe Wilson to state his opinion?
With the media in bed with the administration and unwilling to investigate what is actually in the healthcare reform bill the president is able to say whatever he wants and is never called to the carpet for it. Joe Wilson really believes, as do I, that the president is lying his ass off and he knows that the president will get away with it in the media. He also knows that if he were to wait until after the speech to make his remark it would not be covered, as is evident by one network which actually missed the first minute of the Republican response, and so this was his one chance to make an impact.
And he has made an impact. A light has been shone on the issue of illegal immigrants getting free healthcare that would never have come into the public’s view and that cannot be a bad thing.
The time for “bickering” is not over. What Barack Obama calls “bickering” is what most people call debate. Debate on an issue is a good thing, it is necessary. Yet the president wants everyone to stop debating and to just accept what he tells us is for our own good.
When the president uses the term “bickering” to delegitimize political debate as if he was talking to his children it is demeaning to the American people. We are adults, we are not little children waiting for daddy Obama to tell us what is good for us.
I, for one, am glad that Joe Wilson called out Barack Obama.
America's Watchtower 
I was very proud of Senator Joe Wilson! And, YES, it was appropiate to call him a liar. Obama & his whole gang of misfits are a lie. Obama has disgraced his office….not Wilson.
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I am disappointed in the conservatives coming out of the woodwork to excuse Wilson’s lack of protocol. You certainly are willing to jump all over BO if he makes an error in protocol. Why not hold your guy to the same standard rather than applaud him?
It is amazing how every conservative is a constitutional scholar. Everything that BO does is unconstitutional. He can’t do this, he can’t do that. Yet, similar and same policies are used and those policies are excused for some reason or another. For example, Bush had czars; 13 of them to be precise. One of these czars was a “faith” czar. How was that even constitutional? But when it comes to BO… czars are not constitutional. March 2001, Bush held a joint session of congress for his budget. That was not a state of the union address (not required for first year). I guess that one was not constitutional. Yet, conservatives let that one slide.
Heavens forbid if BO calls on the GOP and conservatives on the lies that they have been spreading (Death Panels and government is going to take over Medicare). The text of HR3200 explicitly has a clause addressing that issue. So… Joe was lying about BO lying. Of course, the spin from conservative media is working on fixing that annoying fact.
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Eh, Terrant have you gone off your meds? You’ve done a 180 here. And you were doing so well there for a while.
By the way, what conservative media? There is no conservative media anymore. If you are refering to Fox news, well, they do lean right but only enough to pander to the right.
Maybe we have a different idea of the term “Conservative”?
As for Bush’s czars, we have been ever critical of that issue since it’s inception.
As for Senator Joe Wilson’s breach of protocol, maybe he was out of order but he certianly was not wrong. We conservatives have been trodden upon for decades because we behave like civilized adults while the liberals behave like a bunch of children having a tantrum and the media supports them while ignoring the conservatives.
And the point that BO attempts to deligitimize disent of his agenda by calling id bickering is valid and insulting.
You can not ligitamatly accuse Mr. Bush of surpressing debate or those that dissagred with him. He simply over powered them.
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Yea, please forgive the spelling above. I am using a new browser and apparently the spell check feature doesn’t work well.
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Fox is not conservative media? Certainly, you jest. When they give a soapbox to the likes of Glenn Beck, that has to be a joke. Ever consider the fact that maybe they lean left only to pander to the moderates?
Maybe I am expecting too much from a group that claims to be more enlightened and mature than the opposite end of the spectrum. As of late, that is not what I am seeing. When Bush was in office, I distinctly remember people who disagreed with him as being labeled unpatriotic and in some cases traitors. The Hillary quote above is from that time. What I don’t remember is democrats heckle him during a joint session of Congress as Wilson did.
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That is what makes the Hillary quote so good. It was patriotic to disagree with the president when Bush was in office but now if you oppose the president you are not called patriotic, you are called an evil-monger by one of the leaders of the Democrat party.
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It is as true now as it was then.
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I find it hard to come out against Joe Wilson for calling President Obama a liar after eight years of the name calling on the part of the Democrats.
Harry Ried called Bush a liar and claimed that he betrayed his country and Nevada at one point:
MR. RUSSERT: When the president talked about Yucca Mountain and moving the nation’s nuclear waste there, you were very, very, very strong in your words. You said, “President Bush is a liar. He betrayed Nevada and he betrayed the country.”
Is that rhetoric appropriate?
SEN. REID: I don’t know if that rhetoric is appropriate. That’s how I feel, and that’s how I felt. I think to take that issue, Tim, to take the most poisonous substance known to man, plutonium, and haul 70,000 tons of it across the highways and railways of this country, past schools and churches and people’s businesses is wrong. It’s something that is being forced upon this country by the utilities, and it’s wrong. And we have to stop it. And people may not like what I said, but I said it, and I don’t back off one bit.
And wasn’t it Harry Reid who in response to a question said something to the effect of “ask the idiot in the other room” in reference to Presdent Bush? It might have been Dick Durbin I don’t remember off the top of my head. But a top Democrat did utter those words.
Recently Harry Reid called the American citizen who were protesting healthcare reform evil-mongers.
But now the same party that used such language is upset when it is used against them so I feel that Obama is just getting the same treatment that Bush did. I can’t feel sorry for this and I cannot feel bad about it.
Joe Wilson said nothing that hasn’t been said by the left in the recent past, and while two wrongs do not make a right I still feel that Democrats show some balls by daring to condemn the same type of speech that they have been using so recently.
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I think it is safe to say that you are well aware of what I think of that lot. That is what has got me so annoyed; the finger pointing, the lies, the mudslinging,…. Nobody has the guts to hold their side to the same standard they hold their opponents. Intellectual honesty is something in short supply.
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Protocol shmotocol. THe POTUS was L-Y-I-N-G. Why is that OK? OOOhhh it’s so horribly rude for some to shout out when the president is talking, so that means it is OK for him to”misrepresent the facts”? THey will stop asking illegals for ID, give them lisences, a quick “path”, and guess what? not “technically” illegal anymore. Then they will get ins coverage for “free”. President Bush had SHOES thrown at his HEAD. THat was OK? Oh yeah, I know the lib, Bush-bashers thought that was hilarious, huh? Did Joe Wilson oh-ffend Pres. Obama’s delicate sensibilities?
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Oh yeah, protocol is important when it is BO is the one breaking it. When it is a republican breaking it, he is a hero of the people. Plus, you’re saying that shouting out is rude only when it is a democrat that does it? Wilson made a poor choice; he should have done what Shimkus did (walked out).
Let’s be honest here… I know it and you know it that immigration reform / amnesty is not going to happen especially if health care goes through. (a) If successful, health care will be a Pyrrhic victory. (b) I don’t see him having any more success than Bush on that front. It’s in black and white, they will not get “free” insurance.
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I hope that you are right about immigration reform. When Bush tried this horrible idea is was stopped by the people, just as we are trying to stop this immigration reform bill. However if the Democrats use reconciliation to pass this version of the bill against the will of the people I fear that immigration reform will also pass against the will of the people.
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I don’t see how they can use reconciliation to pass it without grossly overstepping the boundaries or passing something that is a patchwork of *censored*.
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Was it wrong for Joe Wilson to shout out as he did? Yes, however this President cares not about the Constitution, nor the will of the people.
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It was wrong for Joe Wilson to Yell out during the Presidents speech. However, I’m sure it was spontaneus. I don’t believe that illegals should have any rights in this country. They broke the law and should be sent back to their countryu of orgin.
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I’m standing by my statement. Did the MSM fault any of the people who disrupted Pres. Bush’s speeches, etc? I don’t remember it. It was Ok for him to get booed in 2005, the Code Pink shenanigans, oh ya, this was freedom of speech. Of course it is basic common courtesy not to shout when someone is speaking, but this is being put out there from the media like it was a personal affront to Obama. And you may be right, T, about the illegal immigrants, b/c President Obama changed the number of uninsured Americans from 47 mil. to 30 mil.
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He is my new Hero! he he. I joined his fan club on Facebook. I also heard he raised more than 100,000 shortly after his outburst of truth! he he
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I think he is up to $1 million raised since the outburst. He voiced on national television what so many of us have believed all along
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1 million! Holy Cow! If that doesn’t reflect the mood of the country, I don’t now what does!
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If money raised since the incedent is the indicator of the public’s mood then it is about even for and against, Rob Miller’s boost in fundraising is on par with Wilson’s.
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I am so glad Joe Wilson called out Obama…Before free heathcare goes out to any illegal alien..it must be given to American citizens first..It is the working class that will have to pay for illegal aliens and if they can’t become citizens..they should not have the same rights as American citizens…So much of our government money is in post office boxes near the border and our schools cater to illegal aliens before our own children can attend pre-school..and we are the ones paying the taxes..What is wrong with this picture..
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