Her parents' actions when she was five make her a hypocrite.
Perhaps it's a case of cause and effect.
Sarah Palin speaks. Liberals foam at the mouth.
Sadly, it's a condition for which there is no known medical treatment.
The latest outbreak of this condition broke out after Palin spoke in Calgary, Alberta over the weekend. During her speech, she disclosed that her family used to seek health care in Canada's Yukon Territory during her early years in Alaska.1 Palin told her audience:
Believe it or not – this was in the '60s – we used to hustle on over the border for health care that we would receive in Whitehorse. I remember my brother, he burned his ankle in some little kid accident thing, and my parents had to put him on a train and rush him over to Whitehorse and I think, isn't that kind of ironic now. Zooming over the border, getting health care from Canada.2
When word of Palin's remarks came to the attention of the liberal media they immediately started showing frothing symptoms. Sam Stein of The Huffington Post was patient zero:
The irony, one guesses, is that Palin now views Canada's health care system as revolting: with its government-run administration and 'death-panel'-like rationing. Clearly, however, she and her family once found it more alluring than, at the very least, the coverage available in rural Alaska. Up to the age of six, Palin lived in a remote town near the closest Canadian city, Whitehorse.3
Where does one begin?
Well, I think it's fairly safe to presume that five-year-old Sarah Heath was not in charge of making the family's medical decisions. When Chuck and Sally Heath took their children to receive health care in Canada it was a country that was in the midst of Trudeaumania. The Guess Who was its most popular rock band while Bobby Orr and Serge Savard were its best hockey players. Let's just say a lot has changed in Canada in the intervening four decades up to and including Canada's health care system.
Canadian Medicare was in its infancy in the mid-1960s. It was in 1966 when Canada's Parliament passed the Medical Care Act to provide coverage for doctors' services. Although the federal government set the standards it was left up to the provincial and territorial governments to administer the program.4 Not all jurisdictions joined the program right away. The last hold out would not join until 1972. That holdout was none other than the Yukon Territory.5
Simply put, at the time Sarah Palin's parents sought medical treatment in Canada, the Yukon Territory was not part of the Medicare program. But even if the Yukon had been integrated into Canada's health care system, since the Heaths were U.S. residents they presumably would have been required to pay a fee for any medical services obtained in Canada. Indeed, the U.S. Embassy's Consular Services advises Americans planning to travel to Canada, "Tourists and temporary visitors do not qualify for this health care plan and should have their own insurance to cover medical expenses."6
Now Palin's critics might have had a point had she sought medical treatment for herself or her family in Canada while she was Governor of Alaska. Alas there is no evidence she ever took that route. But we do have an instance of a Canadian Premier who recently sought medical care in the United States.
Last month, Newfoundland & Labrador Premier Danny Williams traveled to Florida to undergo a heart procedure that was unavailable in his province.7 Williams, a Progressive Conservative, makes no apology for his decision. "This was my heart, my choice and my health," said Williams after the procedure had been completed.8
Naturally there were those who criticized Williams' decision to seek medical care outside of Canada. Amongst them was Dr. Wilbert Keon, a retired heart surgeon and currently a Conservative member of the Canadian Senate. While Keon concedes Williams could not have had the procedure done in Newfoundland & Labrador, he argues that the Premier could have had the procedure done in several Canadian cities including Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. "I can't imagine anything that couldn't be done in Canada that is done in America."9 However, it is also worth noting that Keon did not state when it could be done in Canada.
In 1976, Keon founded the University of Ottawa Heart Institute.10 How long do cardiac patients in Ottawa wait for bypass surgery? According to the latest data available by the Ontario Ministry Health, the wait time for heart bypass surgery at the University of Ottawa's Heart Institute is eleven weeks.11 Suppose Williams had sought care in Ottawa? What if he ended up bumping someone on the waiting list that was in greater need of care? He would have been accused of obtaining preferential treatment by jumping the queue. Williams was damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
The same holds true for Sarah Palin. Remember when Barack Obama defended his association with Bill Ayers by stating he was only eight-years-old at the time Ayers engaged in domestic terrorism?12 Well, it's nice to know the liberal media holds Sarah Palin to a higher standard of conduct when she was five-years-old then when President Obama was eight.
Endnotes
2. http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5imco-mAvOiSY_uN3u7iWTwodvvJA
3. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/08/palin-crossed-border-for_n_490080.html
4. http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0003658
5. http://www.canadiandoctorsformedicare.ca/e-rounds/e-rounds14.pdf
6. http://www.consular.canada.usembassy.gov/medical.asp
7. http://www.cbc.ca/canada/newfoundland-labrador/story/2010/02/02/nl-williams-heart-010310.html
8. http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5h0QC7bditrEb3wYz_6_b-gsGGDxA
10. http://www.uottawa.ca/services/markcom/gazette/000331/000331-art08-e.html
11. http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/wait_times/public/wt_public_mn.html#
12. http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/04/17/fact_check_on_clinton_attacks.php
[...] Actions de ses parents quand elle avait cinq font d'elle une hypocrite. C'est peut-être une liaison de cause à effet. Sarah Palin parle. Les libéraux l'écume à la bouche. Malheureusement, c'est une maladie pour laquelle il n'existe pas de traitement médical. La dernière flambée de cette maladie a éclaté après que Palin a parlé à Calgary, en Alberta au cours des week-end. Au cours de sa [. . . ] URL article original: http://www.intellectualconservative.com/2010/03/09/palin-condemned-for-medical-decisions-her-parents... [...]
[...] Palin Condemned for Medical Decisions Her Parents Made When She Was Five « Intellectual Conservativ…. var fbShare = {url: [...]
This is just another Liberal "Gotcha". Like when they say to an Economic Conservative "You're a hypocrite because you're taking SS checks & Medicare reimbursements, or one of those stimulating payments, nynna, nynna, nynna."
[...] Palin shared to her audience in Canada, NO she in not a hypocrite. Aaron Goldstein wrote a great piece laying out the facts of the Canadian health care system, the time frame, and also pointing out once [...]
Another observation
If one is an otherwise healthy resident five year old with "red throat", a common occurrence to be sure in Canada or the U.K., or, for that matter, if an otherwise healthy 25 year old or even 75 year old has the same minor problem, he/she can get in to see a doctor quite quickly, which doc, if he sees no other problems, will be able to give the reassurances that it's nothing & here's a prescription for an antibiotic.
These are the cases presented to the gullible by the "you need government help" crowd & the faker politicians who want Big Government solutions. They, disingenuously or ingenuously (doesn't matter; same result) ignore the fact that the same result is true in the US, even for the poor who use the Emergency Room of the local hospital & who can ignore the bill when presented.
But, if some 75 year old has Big Time problems requiring quick time treatment, he/she will wait 9 mos for an MRI in Socialized Medicine (OOPS, Single Payer) countries, whereas he/she will not wait in the Big Bad USA.
And if a 75 year old UK/Canadian resident obviously needs a pacemaker, 9 mos will be 3 mos longer than he/she will live. Not to worry, none dare call the decision makers "Death Panels", because that would be so Palin-déclassé, my dears.
Sarah Palin speaks. Liberals foam at the mouth.
Try this example of "out of context overkill in a sidebar attack of Palin is no excess":
http://althouse.blogspot.com/
"See, for example, the words of former Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska: 'If [the Pledge] was good enough for the founding fathers, its [sic] good enough for me….'"
Those words appear in Palin's Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire, Eagle Forum Alaska, July 31, 2006. In his dissenting opinion in the new 9th Circuit case upholding the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance, Judge Reinhardt cited Palin's words in a footnote in support of the proposition that "some individuals" don't know their history:
A …commenters defends Palin…
Reinhardt’s citation is misleading. The question to which Sarah Palin responded read:
11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
The answer was
Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance
It could be that she gave a stupid answer in which the “it” referred to the Pledge itself. That would be historically inaccurate. But the “it” could have just as easily referred to the phrase “under G-d.” If so, the answer would be completely plausible as founding fathers used such phrases all the time.
Posted by Ann Althouse on 3/12 at 11:44 AM 63 comments
Tags: 9th Circuit, Establishment Clause, history, intelligence, Judge Reinhardt, law, Orin Kerr, Pledge of Allegiance, Sarah Palin
My response:
"If these Palin, er, faux pas, here, no less something taken out of context from a speech, are so important, how come every faux pas of Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Reid, or for that matter assorted Kennedys are unimportant? Could it be that those guys have a (D) after their names?
"[T]hose on the left are moralists, smarter people who pass up their own personal agendas to help the community. They think of society, not self, and so when they err, they do it under stress, in accidental fashion, and with no lasting significance — not like their selfish Neanderthal cousin conservatives, for whom transgression is a valuable window into their flawed souls. Bushisms became a media pastime, but no one suggests that a president who says Cinco de Quatro, or 57 states, or references the 'Austrian' language is a Dan Quayle wrestling with potato." VDH 1/12/10
Or a Pres who confuses King Henry VIII with King Arthur.
And a judge who confuses "its" & "it's".