EDITORIAL: Manchin's Inconsistencies May Even Elude Him
Our therapy culture has taught us to be more sensitive, less judgmental as we all strive to muddle through an increasingly more complex life. So many changes have taken place at work and in society that it's understandable that we get perplexed, even confused about it all at times.
But surely none of us would want to elect a leader who demonstrates such a great degree of confusion that he no longer makes sense at all. Governor Joe Manchin is increasingly becoming just such a man.
On a recent interview on Metronews's "Statewide Talkline" program, our Governor tried to say with a straight face that he is running for the U.S. Senate to help retrieve the American dream, a goal only to be achieved by us getting accustomed to less help from the government.
Sounds like Governor Manchin is trying to steal a few pages out of Republican John Raese's playbook there. We hadn't heard him steer clear of big government plans like this for several years.
In fact, this whole year we have been subjected to Manchin's high and constant praise of the most liberal, big government Presidential Administration we have ever seen. When President Obama's wildly unpopular health care reform plan was in trouble, Manchin went to every national news outlet who would hear him, praising this costly, big government plan as if it were the cure to heal all ills with our health care delivery system.
So does Governor Manchin intentionally try to fool us when he says that we must wean ourselves from big government, even as he promotes vigorously the most costly big government health care plan to ever hit the country?
Perhaps Manchin simply isn't sharp enough to realize that the two positions he's holding are incompatible. Manchin appears to grab without thinking whatever idea seems to work to his advantage every 24 hours.
But Obamacare is not working towards Manchin's advantage anymore. West Virginians fear the huge costs and possible rationing involved in it, and pro-lifers in both parties are alarmed that provisions of the bill have already given Pennsylvania $160 million in taxpayers dollars, some of which will be used to pay for abortions there.
Taxpayer paid abortions and Joe Manchin. This was one we never thought we'd see, but here we are. Manchin has tried so hard to get on President Obama's good side that he has sold out his more conservative friends in both parties.
He's all about Joe, all the time. And frankly, the rest of us need a better cause than that.