Watching the president doing his ObamaCare victory lap in the Rose Garden the other day made me feel so sick to my stomach I had to call my doctor.
But seeing the mainstream media join the celebration like a pack of liberal lapdogs made me wonder if I was watching a channel from North Korea.
The uncritical reaction of the New York-Washington Axis of Journalism to the announcement that ObamaCare had miraculously hit its magic sign-up number was a new low for a profession that is already a national embarrassment.
It’s not a newsflash that passing along the propaganda of the Obama administration to the American people has become the main job of the media.
But come on. Are there no Sam Donaldsons and Helen Thomases in the Age of Obama?
An assistant editor of a high school paper could have seen through the White House smoke on Tuesday.
And the freshest intern on the “The Daily Show” could have been ready with better questions when Obama started boasting that 7.1 million Americans had signed up for his mandated government healthcare fiasco.
Questions like:
“Excuse me, Mr. President.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your high-fiving session with Dr. Emanuel and the editors of the New York Times, but could you break down that suspiciously vague 7.1 million number for us?
“Does it include people who used to have their own insurance until your program took it away from them -- after you promised them they’d always be able to keep it, I mean?”
“Can you tell us how many of those ObamaCare signees previously did not have health insurance?”
“Have they all paid their first premium? And a follow up question, please: How can you tell?”
“What happens if someone never pays or stops paying their monthly premiums? Will they still get their eye exams, birth control pills and vasectomies paid for by the government if they’re in jail?”
“Can you explain, sir, why you think that signing up 7.1 million people for a mandatory healthcare plan in a nation of 315 million is a great victory for America?”
“No disrespect, Mr. President. But can you provide us with proof that your 7.1 million number is, ah, really true and not a dumb April Fools joke your administration is playing on the 99 percent of Americans who live on the wrong side the information gap?”
Don’t hold your breath waiting for questions like those from the MSM.
It will take until after the fall election before the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and Rachel Maddow stop cheering for President Obama.
And they’ll start investigating Rand Paul’s cousins’ catering business or Jeb Bush’s gardener’s immigration papers long before they find time to look into which Solyndras of the insurance industry are getting the biggest bailouts for collaborating in Obama’s shell game.
In the meantime, from now until November 4 the ObamaMedia will be telling us 7.1 million upbeat stories about how their hero has saved lives, improved health care and made America a better place to get sick in.
Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter.