Isn’t Life Strange?

I know it is now considered blasphemy to call any Democrat, especially President Obama, a liar, but I just can’t let this one go. I’ll seek absolution later, if I must.

It seems President Obama was a little less than truthful when in his speech last week to a joint session of Congress, he told a story about an Illinois man who died of an unreported gallstone after his health insurance company stopped covering him. But, as today’s Wall Street Journal notes, this is far from the truth:

In fact, the man, Otto S. Raddatz, didn’t die because the insurance company rescinded his coverage once he became ill, an act known as recission. The efforts of his sister and the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan got Mr. Raddatz’s policy reinstated within three weeks of his April 2005 rescission and secured a life-extending stem-cell transplant for him. Mr. Raddatz died this year, nearly four years after the insurance showdown.

Facts are indeed stubborn things.

It is not surprising that those around the President are responding to criticism by saying he got the “essence of the story correct,” or by passing blame to the media from which the administration apparently received this information. Given the apparent urgency on the part of the political left to pass the health care bill, and the growing opposition to it, it is not a surprise to me that politicians are once again resorting to saying anything to convince people that the world will fall apart unless they get their way.

You can argue about the dropped coverage, Mr. President, but do not misrepresent the facts.