Mr. Palladino,

Why do you spend so much more time attacking someone who dared to ask
the President a tough question, than examine the content of his
question, esp. since you stated that his question "was very good question" (sic)? How about more on the issues and less personal attack?

Obama's claim that the government option would have to make it on it's own and not be subsidized is not credible. Do you think that Obama would let his most important program fail or go into huge debt if it couldn't compete? I doubt it. It would be another subsidized
money loser like Amtrak. The P.O., which Obama mentioned, runs in
the red even though it has a monopoly on mail delivery. Obama's answer doesn't sound like much of an answer to me, either.

Thanks,

Charles

Congratulations are in order to Zach Lane, the University of Colorado student who asked a perfectly respectful and valid question of President Obama at the town hall meeting in Grand Junction on Saturday. It is unfortunate that Mr. Palladino elected not to include the president's response to Mr. Lane's question. Perhaps that is because to do so would underscore once again Mr. Obama's dissembling on this issue in light of other statements he has made over the years and recently on the subject of competition in the healthcare system. Most interesting is at the end of the president's lengthy and rather rambling respone, he mentions UPS and Federal Express with respect to competition with the U.S. Post Office. Evidently the president is oblivious to fact that UPS and FedEx came into being precisely because of the inefficiency of the Post Office, and that they provide better service at lower cost than the corresponding niche within the Post Office.

In essence, President Obama conceded to Mr. Lane in his response that the private sector cannot effectively compete with a government-run, government-capitalized healthcare. The UPS reference neglects to mention that the U.S. Post Office essentially ceded the entire overnight and package shipping niche of their enterprise to those private competitors. In the case of healthcare, the government has no intention of pemitting such competition to exist. Their restrictions upon all existing insurance policies are so Draconian, with even the slightest change or update in those policies resulting in in automatic transition to the public plan, private competition would in effect be eliminated in the span of a few short years.

So, once again, I would like to thank and congratulate Mr. Zach Lane on respectful, albeit pointed, question to President Obama. That is the essence of how our representative republic should operate. And shame on anyone who dares to be critical of a private citizen asking an appropriate question of an elected leader and expecting a truthful, honest answer.

Why should an American citizen apologize to President Obama just for asking a very good question about just one of the many problems with ObamaCare? The president works for us and  we should keep him accountable by confronting him with the questions that most of us have about his attempt to socialize our form of government. He is not getting these types of questions from the media so when a bright young American is able to articulate what many of us would love the chance to do, we should welcome and celebrate it. The fact of the matter is that most Americans would like the government to fix existing entitlement programs like social security and medicare/medicaid before burdening us with yet more failed government programs. At least then they would warrant a little more credibility of which this administration lacks severely.

Mr. Palladino,

Why can't the President be challenged to a debate? He is an elected official who works for "we the people". So what is wrong with young or old challenging his opinions? The President chose to  take off his coat, his tie, and "roll-up" his shirt sleeves so that he could appear to be just like one of the people in attendance. He chose to have a town hall style meeting where people could voice their opinions, make statements, and ask questions. Is it because this "whipper-snapper" was young, confident, and asked an intelligent question? Or is it because you still think that young people should be "seen and not heard"?

I'm 61 years old and I am proud to see the youth of this country standing up and joining the political debate. We ask them to fight our wars so why can't they be supported and respected when they stand up and ask questions? To me you are the one who should be ashamed for even writing what you did. In O'Riely's words, you're a PINHEAD!