NYT: Obama a Congenital 'Misspeaker'

Insurance Policies Not Worth Keeping

Congressional Republicans have stoked consumer fears and confusion with charges that the health care reform law is causing insurers to cancel existing policies and will force many people to pay substantially higher premiums next year for coverage they don’t want. That, they say, violates President Obama’s pledge that if you like the insurance you have, you can keep it.

Mr. Obama clearly misspoke when he said that.

Misspoke generally connotes inadvertently saying something you know is not true.  It's hard to argue that Obama misspoke when he said over and over, in many different settings that if you liked your insurance or your doctor, Obamacare, you would be able to keep them.  We use other words when you deliberately say things that are not true.  Those words include lie, prevaricate, canard, fib, jive or whopper.

I guess the New York Times has adopted the Urban Dictionary's definition of misspeak:

Clinton-speak. A euphemism used when you have lied and get caught out.

Derived from usage by ex President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, who have both been caught out lying.

1. Reporter: "Mrs Clinton, in order to look tough and courageous, you claimed you entered Bosnia under sniper fire, but there is film of you stepping off a plane and being greeted by a welcoming party - no gunfire anywhere."
Hillary: "I admit I may have misspoke."
2. Bill: "I did not have sex with that woman!"

It's interesting that English has 40 words for lie, similar to the Eskimos having 50 words for snow. Stacy McCain and Byron York have a little fun at the New York Times expense:

The new tact that the administration and their media henchmen are taking is that the plans were substandard, issued by cowboy insurance companies, etc etc.  This, of course, is the opposite of a free market approach, because these were the plans freely entered into by individuals and the same  insurance companies that will provide coverage under Obamacare, to the best interests of both parties, within the constraints of an already heavily regulated insurance industry. But I expect nothing less of this administration than to blame the victims.