Krauthammer Echoes Palin

In August 2009 Charles Krauthammer wrote a bizarre article for the Washington Post on the topic of “death-panels” where he asked that Governor Palin “leave the room” arguing that there are no “death panels in the Democratic health care bill”. In the next paragraph of the same article he goes on to explain exactly why the bill does contain said “death panels”. C4P smacked this down here and here.

It seems that Dr Krauthammer has turned around and now agrees with most if not all of Governor Palin’s positions. During her appearance with Greta Van Susteren this past Thursday discussing the State of the Union address, Governor Palin made various statements in describing her views of the speech. Three days later Charles Krauthammer echoed the governor on Fox News Sunday:


ON BIPARTISANSHIP:

Greta: So if you were the president, would you call the Speaker and say, you know, Tone it down? Is that something that you would suggest that he do?

PALIN: Absolutely. And if I were the president, I'd say, You know, yes, you're right. We moved too fast. We did not do a bipartisan approach, as I had promised to do. And we're going to back up and we're going to do this right now. But we didn't hear that last night. We didn't hear that again today. So I don't think that it's kind of in their political DNA to even arrive at that point of being able to back up, be gracious about it, be humble about it, be sensible about it, and I'm talking about Reid, Pelosi and President Obama[.]


WALLACE: Do you see a practical, a realistic possibility of compromises with the two parties coming together on some of these great issues and do you sense any political will on either side to do so?

KRAUTHAMMER: No and no [...] I think he [President Obama] has not learnt I think he has not changed he remains an ideologue and I don’t see a pivot [.]


ON HEALTHCARE:

PALIN: The State of the Union address did not help. There was a lot of lecturing, a lot of finger-pointing. And obviously, it wasn't just to the opposition party in, I think, President Obama's mind.
But you know, there was finger-pointing, too, and against the Supreme Court Justices who were there in the audience, and to the American public, with kind of a condescending tone there coming from the White House that made us feel like we're not intelligent enough to have understood what the president was trying to explain about health care, when, in reality, no, we understand that one sixth of our economy being enveloped by government is something that we do not want. We don't want government takeover of our health care system. That's what we have been saying. But the president still disconnected, not getting it.


KRAUTHAMMER: The State of the Union address he explains healthcare in saying, well this is a very complex bill and he didn’t explain it enough. He gave 29 speeches on healthcare, it’s a condescending idea that somehow the electorate - truck driving God clinging electorate – doesn’t understand the complexities and sophistication of this new liberal agenda. It’s not that. It was rejected it wasn’t that it was misunderstood that’s why I think he doesn’t get it.


ON THE JOBS BILL

PALIN: How are jobs going to be created when you talk about cap and tax, which is taxing energy, which will prohibit more developments across our nation, when you talk about the second jobs bill, which is a stimulus bill, more spending, which is going to require tax increases to pay for these things. How in the world is that going to help the middle class? How will that help job creation?


KRAUTHAMMER: Again it was healthcare, it was education, federalising college education and energy, he said he wants a climate bill, after all of this and of course at the centre as you said the first half was what is now, what is a stimulus package he calls it now, its renamed, it’s called a jobs bill he understood that the PR last year wasn’t smart in jobs he had a stimulus last year he’s having another one this year [.]



This is not about going after Dr Krauthammer. He is a smart intellectual man, a staunch conservative and highly respected. But the fact that he lives in the beltway doesn’t necessarily mean he has to act like it. Smart people attract other smart people and it is obvious that the Governor and Dr Krauthammer agree on most issues and express themselves as such. I look forward to welcoming him and other smart and intelligent people back into the room.