Chris Matthews is the most egregious practitioner of gotcha journalism in the MSM. Pence was unwise to provide Matthews a target.

Curious how few of 'these people' appear on TRMS.

Maybe it is because she is an actual, working Journalist. . .

What I'm most struck by is how people who do this for a living (Pence, Mathews, Obama) are held to such a low standard.

Mathews later went on about how well Obama had mastered the details. I believe the guy does understand the details and is quite smart, but what I saw on display was Obama demonstrating knowledge of the Powerpoint version of the issues, Mathews considering that to be the detailed version and Pence not even capable of understanding the conversation.

This is the forst clear explaination of what "selling across state lines" means to the buyer Two Points First what about states rights insurance has always been a state rules and reg concern Second selling insurance like credit cards is a real downer why not explain that to the consumer do you really want your health insurance to go the way of the credit card industry make that equation somebody PLEASE

What Obama/Matthews should have said: "So, Senator Pence, you're in favor of allowing insurance companies to sell policies across state lines but you don't want any regulation of abuses at the federal level. Does that mean you're in favor of giving insurance companies a blank check to charge whatever they want and provide substandard coverage? Wouldn't that be the position most favored by the big insurance companies?"

He didn't really say he was in favor of selling across state lines, he said he said "The Republicans stand ready to talk about it."

Just like they were ready to talk about every other piece of the legislation. They aren't going to vote for it, or for that matter, allow a vote.

Faced with shit like Mike Pence dispells from his piehole, I am in disagreement with Melissa Harris-Lacewell's sane, and honest approach to the flourishing of democracy under Obama.

I think we've seen this approach: Weimar, between the great wars of the twentieth century. It didn't work against the criminals, thugs and monsters brewing in Germany's political culture at the time. It won't work here for the same reasons. I think.

I don't know what will result, but I think Obama is on the way to major fail, and the Repugnants are on the way to regaining power, and that dynamic will destroy what is left of this country, and will threaten serious danger to the entire world...

After us, my friends, the deluge...

No allowing purchase across State lines w/o corresponding deal to demand removal of anti-trust exemption!

Matt Yglesias had some kind words to say about Mike 'dumb as a brick' Pence, but the definitive put down is from John Cole:

If Mike Pence really is regarded as one of the deep thinkers for the GOP, I’m beginning to understand why they refused to admit Terri Schiavo was brain-dead.

Most Republicans today are tools of Corporate America. Wind them up and watch them go. Infomercial salesmen pure and simple.

I don't know if anyone else saw it, but I was flipping channels last night and saw Pence on Campbell Brown. I doubt it comes through on a transcript as much of the power was visual, but Brown -- wife of a Republican operative, no less -- made Pence looks absolutely stupid. She called him once on his lies, and when he kept going anyway she could not have been more dismissive, literally rolling her eyes at one point.

Yglesias description of the "across state lines" insurance scam promoted by Republicans is exactly right. It's unfortunate how few people understand how the insurance industry (and health care in general) works.

Don't the Republican spokesmodels resemble more and more those losers who try out for American Idol who think they're the best thing since Pavarotti but who actually can't sing a note and make themselves look totally pathetic when they try and convince the judges otherwise?

Yeah, looks like that to me, too.

Actually the race to the bottom is even worse than it looks. The Republican health care proposal deliberately defined 'state' in a way that included territories and dependencies including by name the notorious home of 'Made in USA' clothing sweatshops the N. Marianas, i.e. Jack Abramoff's favorite client. The Boehner Amendement would allow every health insurance company in the country to claim their plans were based in the N. Marianas and so only subject to the jurisdiction of the Insurance Commissioner of the N. Marianas. Boehner and his former Chief of Staff were neck deep in Abramoff's lobbying for the N. Marianas and it is hard to think this was an accident.

Shit it would be bad enough if the Republicans were just willing to sell us out so that S. Dakota could reap a windfall, but they were going for the whole ball of wax.

http://mydd.com/users/bruce-webb/posts/sweatshop-insurance-oboehner-care-amp-the-northern-marianas

"This is what's been done with the credit card industry and it's the model that Pence wants to extent to health insurance."

Can somebody please get that idiot an editor? The hard part about quoting Matt Y is that you'll basically always get at least one typo or grammar error.

"What I'm most struck by is how people who do this for a living (Pence, Mathews, Obama) are held to such a low standard.

Mathews later went on about how well Obama had mastered the details. I believe the guy does understand the details and is quite smart, but what I saw on display was Obama demonstrating knowledge of the Powerpoint version of the issues, Mathews considering that to be the detailed version and Pence not even capable of understanding the conversation.
Posted by: jhe on January 30, 2010 at 9:08 AM"

JHE, have you ever tried to hold forth extemporaneously on everything from the size of the deficit in 2012, to the stimulatory effects of state budgets, to the number of jobs lost in December 2008? It's harder than it looks.

I agree: here's a concise example of why basic "safety-net" federal regulation is necessary.
Beyond that, there's plenty of room for competitive, innovative, yadda-yadda, profits. But will we see this easily-understood explanation turned into a talking point for tomorrow's Sunday shows? Probably not.

It's the kind of issue that Repub's turn into "Big Government" stifling business with regulations. This is when it's time to defend the entire concept of regulation as a difficult but necessary function of good government. Maybe start with auto safety standards such as seat belts.

More easy explanations please! More bullets for the PowerPoints.

Not the sharpest Pence in the box.

The R's keep repeating this (especially Hannity) and no one challenges them. I know, there is no bullhorn like Fox on the left, but the "across state lines" has not been honestly debated. Why won't the networks explore this issue?