Election Year Concession

All in all, it was a fairly good news conference (transcript, here) for Barack Obama on Thursday. The President was asked about GOP opposition to his appointment to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau of the well-respected Richard Cordray and he noted in part

We have a Congress right now, Republicans in Congress right now, who seem to have entirely forgotten how we got into this mess. And part of the reason was because we did not empower our regulators to make sure that they were ensuring fair play. That’s what the Consumer Finance Protection Board is designed to do.

We had Holly Petraeus, wife of General Petraeus, who’s been working to make sure that our Armed Services personnel aren’t taken advantage of. They get transferred to a base, and next thing they know they’re taking out loans that they think are a good deal, but it turns out that they’re paying 100-150-200 percent interest rates. Why wouldn’t we want somebody in place to make sure that doesn’t happen? It doesn’t make any sense.

So the bottom line is — you asked about the recess appointment — we’re going to look at all our options.

President Obama blamed Republicans, backed members of the Armed Services, and suggested the possibility of a recess appointment- a trifecta. And Thursday night there was a tingle up the leg of Ed Schultz (video below) when he recalled that Obama, queried about GOP charges of "appeasement," shot back "Ask Osama bin Laden and the 22-out-of-30 top al Qaeda leaders who’ve been taken off the field whether I engage in appeasement. Or whoever is left out there, ask them about that."

However, then there was Plan B, which the Food and Drug Administration recommended be approved by the Department of Health and Human Services for sale to females under the age of 17 without a prescription. Kathleen Sebelius, who believed in a woman's right to choose before she got tangled up with one Barack Obama, has turned down the request, relegating Plan B to a position somewhere behind the counter. Backing the HHS Secretary, the President rationalized

And as I understand it, the reason Kathleen made this decision was she could not be confident that a 10-year-old or an 11-year-old go into a drugstore, should be able — alongside bubble gum or batteries — be able to buy a medication that potentially, if not used properly, could end up having an adverse effect. And I think most parents would probably feel the same way.

So the expectation here is — I think it’s very important to understand that, for women, for those over 17, this continues to be something that you can go in and purchase from a drugstore. It has been deemed safe by the FDA. Nobody is challenging that. When it comes to 12-year-olds or 13-year-olds, the question is can we have confidence that they would potentially use Plan B properly. And her judgment was that there was not enough evidence that this potentially could be used improperly in a way that had adverse health effects on those young people.

So the President argued Plan B may be "not used properly" and referred to Sebelius' "judgement" (that) there was not enough evidence that this potentially could be used improperly." And he did so while noting "it has been deemed safe by the FDA." Not "could be used improperly" or "potentially would be used improperly"- but could potentially. It is as if Obama is sending one of his dog signals to the left: "I know it's safe but there is an election coming. So don't worry, after the election, I'll be the real Barack Obama!"

Worse yet, it will work, with the left expecting that if re-elected, Barack Obama will become that "yes, we can" president he promised the country.

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