At tonight’s scripted Barack Obama press conference, Steve Thomas Thomma (thanks a lot, CNN), a reporter for the McClatchy news service, stood up and asked a question after Obama’s teleprompter told him to call on Cleveland Plain Dealer reporter Steve Koff.
And the strangest thing was, Obama appeared to be set on answering the question Koff hadn’t asked yet rather than the one Thomma actually did ask.
The meat of Thomma’s question is as follows.
Two questions. One, can you guarantee that this legislation will lock in and say the government will never deny any services, that that’s going to be decided by the doctor and the patient, and the government will not deny any coverage? And, secondarily, can you, as a symbolic gesture, say that you and the Congress will abide by the same benefits in that public option?
Obama danced around the edges of that for a while, as if something unexpected had replaced something expected. Then he went back on script and added this, citing “Mayo” as if it had already been referenced. “Damnit, Koff. You were supposed to ask me about the Mayo Clinic! Ah, hell, I’ll talk about it anyway.”
So — so part of what we want do is to free doctors, patients, hospitals to make decisions based on what’s best for patient care. And that’s the whole idea behind Mayo. That’s the whole idea behind the Cleveland Clinic.
You know, I’m going to be visiting your hometown tomorrow to go to the Cleveland Clinic to show — to show why their system works so well. And part of the reason it works well is because they’ve — they’ve set up a system where patient care is the No. 1 concern, not bureaucracy, what forms have to be filled out, what do we get reimbursed for.
Thomma hadn’t asked about Mayo. Where did Mayo come from? After Obama realized he hadn’t been talking to Koff, he called on Koff to ask the next question.
You cited the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinics as models for the delivery of health care in the past.
Yeah, “the past” as in about two seconds ago when he thought he was already talking to the person from Cleveland who was supposed to ask this question.
The Mayo Clinic, though, has some problems with House proposals, saying they’re not focused enough on patients and on results. What do you expect to achieve tomorrow by going to the Cleveland Clinic, which hasn’t stated an opinion? And are you expecting some form of endorsement from the Cleveland Clinic?
The reference to the Mayo clinic came from the next question: One that hadn’t been asked yet. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence, though. Why would some in the B-list of the awestruck press provide their messiah with the questions beforehand or accept “suggestions” about topics to cover? That’s just outrageous.
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