It's even more outrageous when you remember that two anti-war demonstrators were arrested for wearing anti-Bush t-shirts to one of Dubya's speaking events back in 2004.
What if anti-Bush protesters had shown up with guns? Can you imagine the outrage we would have heard from Fox News and Rush Limbaugh about how they were unpatriotic, anti-American, domestic terrorists, crazy liberals, etc. etc.?? They would probably have been promptly shipped off to Guantanamo. The hypocrisy is just absolutely stunning.
And unfortunately, the Obama administration continues to be completely inept at selling healthcare reform. For the last time, stop with the bipartisan nonsense: the Republicans want, need, Obama to fail. Because if healthcare reform succeeds, then it will be the ultimate repudiation of conservative governing ideologies. Forget the Republicans, who have nothing to gain from your success, and just push through a strong public option already! Because if you just have more regulation about taking people with preexisting conditions, and eliminating lifetime coverage caps, it will backfire because insurance companies will make up their losses by just raising premiums even more. There MUST be a strong public option, and not some network of co-ops that can be easily co-opted by the insurance industry.
Obama did a terrible job of answering this college student's challenge. The kid wanted to know how private corporations could compete with a public option which isn't concerned about making a profit. Instead of selling out the public option as he did, this should have been Obama's response:
"Healthcare is a human right, not a commodity. The rest of the industrialized and post-industrial world recognizes this, we need to as well. It's not about making a profit, it's about providing care, treating disease, healing the sick. Those goals are at odds with profit. Insurers don't make money by providing payment and care, they make money by denyign it, and America deserves better."
