Obama Un-teleprompted Comments Reveal a Basic Misunderstanding of Capitalist Principles

Some great points by Caroline Baum in her article Obama Goes Postal, Lands in Dead-Letter Office: Caroline Baum Aug. 18, 2009 (Bloomberg)

■ “UPS and FedEx are doing just fine. It’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.” -- Barack Obama, Aug. 11, 2009

■ "Impromptu Obamanomics is getting scarier by the day. For all the president’s touted intelligence, his un-teleprompted comments reveal a basic misunderstanding of capitalist principles."

■ "For example, asked at the Portsmouth town hall how private insurance companies can compete with the government, the president said the following: 'If the private insurance companies are providing a good bargain, and if the public option has to be self-sustaining -- meaning taxpayers aren’t subsidizing it, but it has to run on charging premiums and providing good services and a good network of doctors, just like any other private insurer would do -- then I think private insurers should be able to compete'.”

■ "The proliferation of Obama’s gaffes and non sequiturs on health care has exceeded the allowable limit. He has failed repeatedly to explain how the government will provide more (health care) for less (money). He has failed to explain why increased demand for medical services without a concomitant increase in supply won’t lead to rationing by government bureaucrats as opposed to the market. And he has failed to explain why a Medicare-like model is desirable when Medicare itself is going broke."