Many Americans disagree with President Obama's politics and still like him as a man. After this unbelievable story, that might change. Politics and lies go hand-in-hand, but most politicians drawn the line when it comes to lies about family and friends. Not Obama. Not only did he lie about his own mother in the new mini-documentary, 'The Road We've Traveled', he lied about his mother's battle with cancer! In the documentary, the President talks about Stanley Ann Durham's battle with ovarian cancer, "When my mom got cancer, she wasn't a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all her resources." First Lady Michelle, adds, "She developed ovarian cancer, never really had good, consistent insurance. That's a tough thing to deal with, watching your mother die of something that could have been prevented."
The story might sound familiar to people, Obama often told a similar tale during his 2008 campaign. The Washington Post recalls a comment Obama made during a presidential debate with John McCain. "For my mother to die of cancer at the age of 53 and have to spend the last months of her life in the hospital room arguing with insurance companies because they're saying that this may be a pre-existing condition and they don't have to pay her treatment, there's something fundamentally wrong about that." Of course, if that was the truth, it would be disturbing. Lack of health insurance causes loved ones to die needlessly from cancer everyday. But it's not true.
Journalist Janny Scott wrote a biography about President Obama's mother, "A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's mother." In the book, she went over the letters between Durham and her insurance company, which was a dispute over disability coverage, not health insurance coverage. Scott wrote that Durham had health insurance that "covered most of the costs of her medical treatment...The hospital billed her insurance company directly, leaving Ann to pay only the deductible and any uncovered expenses, which, she said, came to several hundred dollars a month." Obama's claim isn't just misleading, it is a flat-out lie to garner support for Obamacare.
For people who have lost loved ones to cancer because of a lack of health coverage this is disgusting. Not just the lies, but the fact that President Obama would even discuss his mother's death in this context. Dunham died from cancer in 1996. She was earning $82,500 in 1995 (the equivalent of $123,000 today) and her son was an attorney, she was not desolate. This was done to mislead citizens into thinking this poor woman may have lived longer had she not been denied care. As always, if the story was about a conservative politician, they would be humiliated and ousted from their job. However, the story will be changed, the President's words will be just a 'simple misunderstanding' and those questioning the President will be ridiculed. The truth will eventually catch up with him.
Check out the Washington Post article for more details here.
© Margie Wilson-Mars 2012
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Comments: 24
I have but one question;
Do you actually believe the lies within the articles which you write here on Gather News or are you really so politically naive that you believe the BS which far right extremist put into print for you to rewrite as being truth ??? Either way, there is little doubt that you need mental help !!!
By the way, the story was in the Washington Post. Surely FAR from 'far right extremist' news, but good try.
As for suggesting I need mental help, I believe you are proving yourself to be the extremist. But hey..feel honored, I rarely reply.
Have a lovely day!
Another perspective, it's like Charles Manson decrying the Rodney King beating. Here is one you can understand, what if Bill Clinton asked that you treat women with respect? You want to talk about LIES as some of our troops are still getting used to their prosthetic limbs thanks to the LIES YOUR side sowed.
While I agree that the Iraq war was promoted with lies, I don't agree that distracting from Obama's lie about insurance is a good response. I don't know if Obama lied or not, but if he did, I think it's despicable. I'll wait for the response to this story, though, before I reach a conclusion.
I'd rather politicians just told the truth. I'd rather businesses told the truth. I'd rather small children told the truth. I'd rather organized religion told the truth. I'm old and jaded. I don't expect to get the truth any more. What I try to do is get a baseline of distortion and invention for whoever is asserting something. I don't think less of Obama for the story about his mom. He's a two to three Pinocchio guy. That's better than the four Pinocchio people that litter the political landscape. I'd prefer zero Pinocchios but I've given up on the hope.
Where to start? Goodness!
President stated that his mother was not wealthy you feebly announced to us all. This is a matter of perception and relatively once one goes through all your "facts". $82 000 is a decent wage but I am not sure that one would go as far as to say that such a wage or salary represents wealth without having first considered all the relevant facts (which you appear not to have bothered researching). Do we know what her outgoings were? Did you consider for a moment that her disposable income may have been measurable only in its hundreds per month depending on what her other needs may have been?
Don't bother, you clearly did not...
Obama went to great pains to remind us that much of her income went on hospital bills and yet you appear not to have made any effort to find out exactly how much she was paying per month. Anyway, lets leave it there for now and move on. (Geez I don't know why I bother with unsophisticated posts, I am surely better than this!)
Then you say that he mentioned that one problem she had was over the issue of pre-existing conditions and in so doing, you astonishingly, and in absence of evidence, imply that this was a lie and yet you have provided us with nothing to suggest that this was the case. You can re-read your post if you like but I see nothing in it to dispute what President Obama said.
The author you quoted appears to have had access to SOME letters to one of President Obamas mums insurance companies but are we to therefore assume that because those particular letters may not have mentioned the pre-existing condition issue that this is thus untrue?
And neither does the article (or the book apparently), furnish us with details of the total amount she paid for her insurance.
This post must surely rank amongst one of the most deplorable and disgracefully assembled offerings I have ever had the misfortune of reading in all my time on the blogosphere.
You may sit down now.....