The National Black Journalist Association held its annual conference in Las Vegas this week. Clinton like Barak Obama made their stump speech and then answered questions from the audience. Kiara Ashanti, a black free-lancer and admitted Republican asked the following:

Senator Clinton, at a time when the world’s two biggest examples of socialized medicine, Britain and Canada, are moving away from the system and the people who are in those countries on the lower economic rung, those systems hurt them most, why are you still insisting upon moving that system in here, particularly when it will hurt African American communities more than anybody else?

Ashanti, a brave fellow, cut to the chase with the comaprisons to the failing policies of Great Britain and Canada and labeling Clinton’s policy as socialized medicine. Nothing in the manner in which Clinton responded will help her with the political center or with undecided.

Here’s Degree of Madness’ cover of Clinton’s response:

Oh, man says Hillary.  That’s a string of “misrepresentations about me and about, ah, ah, the systems in other countries….I have never advocated socialized medicine”.  Hillary asked Ashanti if Medicare is socialized medicine.  His answer, “To a degree, it is”.  Watch the video for Hillary’s response.   Apparently Hillary thinks socialized medicine simply means the government tells you which doctor or hospital you have to go to.  And since, presumably, her plan doesn’t do that then it’s not socialized medicine. See?  It’s an “attack by the right wing” against her, for 15 years!

Hillary ends her comments by telling Ashanti to “come introduce yourself to my staff and we will try to give you come information if you’re interested in being educated instead of being rhetorical”.  How freakin’ arrogant.

Arrogant indeed. But where should we start?

Lets start firsrt with the video. I’m sure Clinton’s handlers are not happy a video exists of the way she handles the question-not only in her responses but in her tone. It indicates that she has not learned to control her temper  and is extremely vulnerable to the tough question. While Ashanti was rude and did interrupt her, she demonstrated she wasn’t prepared. It was a friendly crowd. She blew it.

Now on facts. Her response to Ashanti’s assertion that socialized medicine in other countries were misrepresentations is troubling. All Ashanti said was that those countries are moving away from their sysytems and that the systems in place hurt those in the lower economic rung the worst. As Clinton responded that they were misrepresentations, she either feels that these events are not happening in those countries or more diturbingly, she is advancing a false narrative.  If President Bush or Cheney were accused of similar statements, she would probably say they were lying to the American people.

Now on to Medicare. Ashanti when asked by Clinton said that yes, Medicare was socialized medicine to a certain degree, Clinton disagreed. Medicare itself has little to do with actual care, although it does by law include all Americans over a certain age. Any healthcare provider will tell you its guidelines are burdensome and is a money loser. If a provider provides care to a Medicare patient by law thay have to abide by all Medicare guidelines with all of their non-Medicare patients.  Adminstrative costs are heavy and often overwhelming to many providers. Essentially Medicare is dictatorial in the application of healtcare in the US.

Its hard to see the monster that she and Ira Magaziner designed during the first term of her husband’s presidency as anything other than socialized medicine. She and Magaziner were smart enough not to call it that. Anything program the government totally administrates, controls and pays for is socialized. The great late stateman from New York, Senator Pat Moynihan called it fantasy. When the Congressional Budget Office ran the numbers, it gave congressional dems the cover they needed to let the proposal die.

Finally, Clinton again demonstrated that anytime she gets backed into a corner she’ll  trot out the right-wing conspiracy mantra. Only the most radical of the liberal base-maybe 10% of all voters buys into this. And they were there in force among the NABJ Las Vegas when they cheered Clinton’s arrogant condesending dismissal of Ashanti.

Senator Clinton’s Healthcare policy is a loser for her and she knows it. Here failure in a simple debate with a contrary voice in Las Vegas. She and her handlers will continue to keep this under their hat for as long as they can until even her allies in the MSM will force her hand. The Republican candidate will certainly flush her out during debates on it. But one must remember former Hollywood supporter David Geffen said, “the Clintons lie with such ease, its troubling.”