The President Meets Wile E. Coyote

In the classic Warner Brothers cartoons, the Road Runner (and now and then Bugs Bunny) had to deal with a clever foe called the Coyote. He frequently introduced himself as Wile E. Coyote, genius. He even had it printed on his business card. Once in a while he called himself a "super genius." Of course his self-assesment left something to be desired on the accuracy front, but it made for a good joke.

We were repeatedly told during the campaign (and doesn't it feel like the President is still running for office instead of governing in it?) how brilliant Mr. Obama was. Hmmm. Not so sure about that one. The announcement this week of new recommendations by a government panel for the detection of breast cancer seems to me to be the kind of thing ole Wile E. would do. It's certainly a self-inflicted wound.

I think they figured it out pretty quick because they trotted out HHS Secretary Sebelius to calm fears by pointing out that this was a non-binding recommendation. (Of course she neglected to mention that under Obama's Health Care plan such recommendations would be binding, but that's probably to be expected.) This not only confirms Sarah Palin's assertion that "death panels" will be making your health care choices for you in the future, but it undermines the support of the key remaining constituency that has been supporting health care reform--women. In a single stroke, they managed to give ammunition to their critics by proving the most pointed accusations true AND hack off their biggest supporters by undermining their future health care and even their lives.

Yep, super genius...or maybe it's more like the Coyote's confession at the end of Operation: Rabbit, "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is MUD!" To which Bugs replied: "And remember, Mud spelled backward is Dum!"