… Opponents of Obama’s health care proposals raise the specter of a panel making decisions on who should receive health care. I am not aware of any proposed panel. However, an article in today’s New York Times, referring to a Senate bill, stated, “The legislation could have significant implications for individuals who have bought coverage on their own. Their policies might be exempted from the new standards, but the coverage might not be viable for long because insurers could not add benefits or enroll additional people in noncompliant policies.”

w w w.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2009/08/11/falling_out_of_love_with_barack_obama_97843.html

This is not the first place I’ve seen the caveat which Koch mentions.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/08132009/news/worldnews/hillary_clinton_utters_gaffe_regarding_2_184380.htm

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Professor Gutgold’s new book looks at Hillary Clinton’s bid for the U.S. presidency. Center Valley, Pa. — When Barack Obama accepted the nomination as the Democratic candidate for president in 2008, the media were quick to point out that Hillary Clinton lost. In her new book, “Almost Madam President: Why Hillary Clinton ‘Won’ in 2008,” Nichola D. Gutgold, associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Lehigh Valley, argues that Hillary Clinton gained more than she lost in her bid for the presidency.

“All around the world women are presidents and prime ministers, yet in America, we have yet to elect the first woman president,” said Gutgold. “Hillary Clinton won almost 18 million votes, and was the first front-runner woman candidate. I wanted this book to be a rhetorical journey through the 2008 primary and analyze the role communication played in how close Clinton came to being the Democratic nominee.”

The book, published in July by Lexington Books, is an account of Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, with special emphasis on her communication skills and media coverage, from her sophisticated YouTube-style announcement speech to her ardent campaigning on behalf of her rival, Barack Obama. It covers the stump speeches, debates and notable media moments in between. The book features several photos from Hillary Clinton’s campaign trail and offers an analysis of her public speaking and debate skills.

Gutgold teaches a variety of communication courses and advises for the student newspaper, State of the Valley. She also serves as the representative for the College of Communications and is liaison for part-time faculty. Her research examines the communication skills needed for women to be successful in male-dominated fields. Gutgold’s other books include “Seen and Heard: The Women of Television News,” published by Lexington Books in 2008; “Paving the Way for Madam President,” published in 2006 by Lexington Books, and “Elizabeth Hanford Dole: Speaking from the Heart,” with co-author Molly Wertheimer, professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State Hazleton, published by Praeger Press in 2004. Gutgold is a member of the International Communication Association, National Communication Association, Eastern Communication Association and the 2008-09 President of the Pennsylvania Communication Association. She serves on the Board of Directors of LifePath.

live.psu.edu/story/40899

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August 13, 2009

Was Hillary Clinton’s Answer in Congo the Right One?

By Robert Mackey

Two days after video of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was pummeled by American commentators from The New York Post to Jon Stewart for getting angry at an apparently rude question from a Congolese student during a forum in Kinshasa on Monday, two reporters who were at the event say that the much-reported idea that the French-speaking student’s question had been mistranslated is incorrect.

In the video of the event embedded below, from Britain’s Channel 4 News, Mrs. Clinton can be seen listening and then responding to a simultaneous translation as the student asked: “We’ve all heard about the Chinese contracts in this country — the interferences from the World Bank against this contract. What does Mr. Clinton think, through the mouth of Mrs. Clinton, and what does Mr. Mutumbo think on this situation?”

By the time this video made its way to the attention of most viewers in the United States, though, it was packaged in reports, like one from Kirit Radia of ABC News, stating that “apparently the translator made a mistake.” On Tuesday Mr. Radia reported: “A State Department official tells ABC News the student went up to Clinton after the event and told her he was misquoted,” and said that he had actually asked her to share President Obama’s views on Congo’s relations with China.

It always seemed unlikely to The Lede that a translator working for Mrs. Clinton would make such a large error with a question asked in French — or that an African university student would say “Mr. Clinton” when he meant “Mr. Obama” — and my colleague Jeffrey Gettleman reports in Thursday’s New York Times that “further inspection of the audio recording of the event indicated that the translation was fine; the student had indeed said ‘Mr. Clinton.’ ” A second reporter traveling with Mrs. Clinton, a friend of your Lede blogger’s who is a magazine journalist, said the same thing in an e-mail exchange on Wednesday night, that a French-speaking colleague who was in the room confirmed that the student “did ask the question that way: ‘the mind of Mr. From the lips of Mrs.’ ”

Given that it now appears that the question was translated correctly — and that the male student wanted to know not just what Bill Clinton thought of Chinese relations with Congo but also what the former N.B.A. star Dikembe Mutumbo, who was present at the event, thought, too, but expressed no interest in the perspective of America’s female secretary of state — is it possible that Mrs. Clinton has gotten a raw deal from commentators in the United States for her angry reply?

More to the point, while most of the derisive commentary on Mrs. Clinton’s flash of temper contextualized it by noting that her husband had just been lauded for his trip to North Korea, few noted that she was in the middle of a trip to Congo, where the plight of women, many of whom suffered violent sexual abuse during recent fighting, is a major issue.

As Mr. Gettleman reported in a post on The Caucus on the incident, a State Department spokesman, P.J. Crowley, said on Tuesday: “An abiding theme that she has in her trip to Africa is empowering women.” Mr. Crowley also noted: “As the question was posed to her, it was posed in a way that said I want to get the views of two men, but not you, the Secretary of State.” Mr. Gettleman also noted in an article on Tuesday that “the United Nations calls Congo the rape capital of the world.”

The video below, from the State Department’s Web site, shows some of Mrs. Clinton’s remarks at the forum on Monday in Kinshasa on the subject of attacks on women, after her visit to a hospital founded by Mr. Mutumbo and dedicated to his mother. In her remarks to the group, which included the student who asked her to share her husband’s thoughts, Mrs. Clinton said:

“I hope that here in the [Democratic Republic of Congo] there will be a concerted effort to demand justice for women who are violently attacked, and to make sure that the attackers are punished — and I hope that students will take the lead in this, to speak out because these are fundamental human rights.”

Putting Mrs. Clinton’s reply to the student’s question in this context, as words spoken to Congolese students in a forum partly devoted to a discussion of violent discrimination against women in that country, do readers still think that her indignation at this request that she channel her husband as inappropriate as some of her critics have charged? Or could it be seen as a legitimate attempt to make a clear statement that women’s opinions matter, in a part of the world where that perspective may not be often aired?

thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/was-hillary-clintons-answer-in-congo-the-right-one/

By Jonathan Capehart | August 12, 2009

I know I’m a tad late to the party on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Congo outburst, so I’ll keep this short and to the point: You go, Hillary!

Listening to a translation of a question from a student, the usually controlled Clinton reacted with uncharacteristic public fury when she was asked what her husband, former President Bill Clinton, thought about a trade deal between China and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Wait, you want me to tell you what my husband thinks? My husband is not the secretary of state. I am. So, you ask my opinion, I will tell you my opinion. I’m not going to be channeling my husband.

Clinton was right to be upset about being asked that kind of question in a country and continent where male supremacy reigns unchallenged, generally speaking. Making it clear that she has authority in her own right sends a message to the men and the women in that audience, in Congo and in the rest of Africa that she won’t put up with condescension. Not as a woman and certainly not as secretary of state of the United States of America.

Now it turns out Clinton was informed that the translation she was given was wrong. The student was asking her what President Obama thought. So, the secretary did what any self-assured leader would do. As Clinton left the event, she reached out and shook the hand of the student, exchanged some words and a hearty smile. Brava.

voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2009/08/you_go_hillary.html?hpid=opinionsbox1