"Obama Camp Has Many Ties to Wife's Employer"
Anyone know the deal with this sinister headline in yesterday's Washington Post? Keep reading for the shocking details.
A few years ago, executives at the prestigious University of Chicago Medical Center were concerned that an increasing number of patients were arriving at their emergency room with what the executives considered to be non-urgent complaints. The visits were costly to the hospital, and many of the patients, coming from the surrounding South Side neighborhood, were poor and uninsured.
OK ... Common problem at many big city hospitals. Based on the sinister tone, I'm expecting the next paragraph to say Michele Obama, with help from people working for the campaign, came up with a devious plan to deny the uninsured health care.
Michelle Obama, an executive at the medical center, launched an innovative program to steer the patients to existing neighborhood clinics to deal with their health needs.
But, in a shocking twist, she came up with an innovative program.
That effort, in time, inspired a broader program the hospital now calls its Urban Health Initiative. To ensure community support, Michelle Obama and others in late 2006 recommended that the hospital hire the firm of David Axelrod, who a few months later became the chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
And then, in yet another shocking twist, she hired one of the best PR guys in Chicago to plug the program. Can anyone tell me what the scandal is here? I thought relieving overcrowding in emergency rooms was a good thing. I thought providing health care to the uninsured was a good thing.
Perhaps the program was a failure? Nope. No scandal there. The story concludes that it is too early to determine how well the program is working.
The story also tries to hint at scandal by discussing donations by U-Chigaco workers. During the past 9 years, according to the story, U-Chicago workers donated at least $373,000 to Barack Obama's campaigns. But the story does not provide any context for that number. Is that more or less than other similarly sized universities? How does that compare to similarly sized institutions in Chicago?
The author, Joe Stephens, is the same guy who brought us "Obama Got Discount on Home Loan." Nice work, Joe.
The full story is here.