Be nice, now. The English language is not Ed Morrissey’s strong suit, and he at least makes a show of reining in the racist comments he knowingly baits from his audience.

Update. If you came from over here, you need to note two things: first, that Patrick's only talking about the title of this post, which is odd, because in the body of the post the sarcasm of the title becomes absolutely clear.  So clear, in fact, that my later clarification is really only for people who only read the title of this post. Second, Patrick completely ignores the argument of both this post and my clarification.  Make what you will of his silence as regards anything other than the sarcastic title of this post.

It seems Mr. Ed Morrissey caught President Obama fibbing again. See, Michelle Obama said this:

I will never forget the time eight years ago when Sasha was four months that she would not stop crying. And she was not a crier, so we knew something was wrong. So we fortunately were able to take her to our pediatrician that next morning. He examined her and same something’s wrong. We didn’t know what. But he told us that she could have meningitis. So we were terrified. He said, get to the emergency room right away.

Which the New York Times reported thus:

In her speech, Mrs. Obama also told the story of how her daughter Sasha would not stop crying when she was 4 months old. A doctor’s visit revealed she might have meningitis; she ultimately did not, but the illness produced a scare.

So far, so consistent: something was wrong with Sasha Obama; she was brought to a pediatrician; the pediatrician told her parents she could have meningitis and advised them to take her to the hospital. But Morrissey is suspicious because

[i]n a speech to nurses just eight days earlier, Barack Obama told the story quite a bit differently (emphasis mine):

When our youngest daughter, Sasha, was diagnosed with meningitis when she was just three months old, it was one of the scariest moments of my life. And we had to have a spinal tap administered and she ended up being in the hospital for three or four days. And it was touch and go, we didn’t know whether she’d be permanently affected by it. It was the nurses who walked us through what was happening and made sure that Sasha was okay.

Well, she wasn’t diagnosed with meningitis. How hard is it to get the facts straight so that both Obamas tell the same story?

I know what you’re thinking: this is the kind of close-reading I advocate doing in posts like this. Let it be known, however, that I do not believe paying close attention to language is enough: the conclusions drawn from that analysis abide by the basic rules of logic and the English language. So let me help Mr. Morrissey out:

Michelle Obama said: So we fortunately were able to take her to our pediatrician that next morning. He examined her and same something’s wrong. We didn’t know what. But he told us that she could have meningitis.

President Obama said: When our youngest daughter, Sasha, was diagnosed with meningitis when she was just three months old[.]

In his fever to catch the President in a lie, Mr. Morrissey neglects to notice that Michelle Obama said that the pediatrician diagnosed Sasha as possibly having meningitis, at which point Sasha was taken to the hospital to have a spinal tap administered in order to confirm the diagnosis. Mr. Morrissey, it seems, is just another Edmund Premington:

Like Premington, Mr. Morrissey’s problems with comprehension are based on a gross deformity—only in this case intellectual instead of bodily. He cannot understand that when the First Lady says the pediatrician “told us that [Sasha] could have meningitis,” that constituted a diagnosis. On the basis of that diagnosis, the pediatrician told them “get to the emergency room right away” where, according to the President, Sasha had “a spinal tap administered and she ended up being in the hospital for three or four days.” Far from there being a lie, there isn’t even a discrepancy there: you are diagnosed with Malady X, sent to the hospital for confirmation, then treated for whatever is wrong with you, even if it differs from the initial diagnosis. In short, the validity of the pediatrician’s diagnosis is immaterial—the fact that it was made is all that matters..

For example, in the summer of 2004 a doctor diagnosed with me and treated for a mild case of depression. A few months later, my throat swelled up and a different doctor diagnosed me with thyroid cancer. In both cases, I was diagnosed. If I say that I was diagnosed with mild depression in the summer of 2004, nothing that happened subsequently would make me a liar for stating it because that is the way logic and the English language work.

Either Mr. Morrissey and his commenters don’t know from logic or the English language, or they are being deliberately dense to score the cheapest of political points. The idea, as I understand it, is to toss meat into the thin gruel of Joe Wilson’s cooking because every little bit adds some body to the soup. However, Mr. Morrissey and his ilk care little how any individual ingredient contributes to the flavor, because no matter what anyone tosses in there, the last step of the recipe calls for adding two parts ungranulated racism for every one part of liquid:

Fortunately Sasha recovered from meningitis so quickly that she was able to get out of her hospital bed and march with Dr. King in Selma[.]

Not one to cause excitement, unless there is a good communitity organizing reason behind it, he decided not to inform Michelle of this matter.

At least she has slave blood running in her veins[.]

They put her up in front of a totally sympathetic audience (black women) and then watch helplessly as their opponents fisk her remarks, which are exactly the same as her husband’s.

Fact checkers are racists conservatives and can’t be allowed to be part of the future of this country, they don’t fit with Obamas fantasies and lies so they must be marginalized or completely eliminated.

WTF is up with that belt. Does she not know that when she wears things like that it makes her hips and a$$ look large. Like she doesn’t have enough junk in that trunk.”

It would have been worse, but as Mr. Morrissey’s commenters complain:

NET-NANNYING COMMENT THREADS ARE BORING TO READ . . .

Don’t want to get banned for what I really think.

Even Mr. Morrissey knows that letting the racism of his compatriots trot out in response to every and anything he writes might give others the correct impression about what the actual issue is here. There’s a reason, after all, he had to write this:

We welcome debate and humor, but if you use racial, ethnic, and/or animal terms to describe politicians and their families (I’m certain I don’t need to explain further), your comments will get deleted and your account closed.

Odd that he shuffles the most significant thing he says into a parenthetical, don’t you think? But these people are not, I repeat, not racists. As proof, I present to you this video from the Values Voters Summit in which Tony Perkins, a supporter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group which once posted this [not for the faint of heart or stomach] on their official page, introduced Congressman Roy Blunt, who then went on to tell a joke about “eliminating the monkey problem” that was not, I repeat, not in any way a dog-whistle:

It was just a complaint about the President involving an analogy about good, decent Anglo-Saxon imperialists whose dream of having a golf course in India was being ruined by a group of unruly monkeys . . .

(x-posted.)

Comments

[Ahistoricality]

First, I want to emphasize what you said about that Council of Conservative Citizens link: That ranks with the most gut-wrenchingly racist and shocking things I've ever seen. Do NOT click it unless you're prepared for something both physically and psychically disgusting.

Second, I thought the comment thread after Morissey's cautionary post was fascinating for the vitriol directed at Little Green Footballs and its proprietor Charles Johnson. Apparently the racist stuff is their fault, though why LGF would want to, or even think to, sabotage Hot Air comment threads by making HA look bad to liberals is unclear to me. LGF trolls are apparently worse than leftist ones, though there were a few swats at purported liberal sock-puppet trollery (though, since they apparently consider LGF to be a leftist site now, it's not clear they weren't still talking about LGF).

Finally, though Morissey issued his caution, none of the comments you linked to have been removed at this point.

[SEK]

Finally, though Morissey issued his caution, none of the comments you linked to have been removed at this point.

Nor will they be, because those aren't the ones considered racist. The mind, it boggles.

As for the LGF thing, it has to do with an LGF poster going to Hot Air and saying a few racist things just to get the HA commenters to agree in mass numbers. I'm not exactly sure what's going on with LGF anymore, what with getting booted from Powerline and Instapundit's blogrolls for attacking them for being racist.

[Edwin P Souse]

You don't notice a difference between diagnosed as possibly having and actually having and being treated for meningitis? Michelle thinks it was the former, Barry thinks the latter.

Actually having and recovering from dread disease is sooo much more dramatic, don't you think? But it probably was just a mental mistake, right, these kind of problems happen every day.

[a]

When Obama says "And it was touch and go, we didn’t know whether she’d be permanently affected by it" the obvious implication is that Sasha did have meningitis. How can you be permanently affected by a disease you don't have? I mean whatever, anybody who heard Michelle's comments would come away with the impression that Sasha had meningitis and anyone who heard Barack's comments would come away with the impression that she didn't, but if you've convinced yourself that there's no discrepancy congratulations I guess.

[Ahistoricality]

diagnosed as possibly having and actually having

There is a difference, but not one which is actually reflected in the use of the word "diagnosis." Did you actually read the post, Mr. Souse?

[The Modesto Kid]

An often-overlooked advantage of the US healthcare system is that it is much more dramatic to have and recover from diseases when you are not insured. It gives you something to talk about that will hold the attention of your interlocutor, perhaps move him to tears as you describe being dropped from your insurance plan and losing your house and your marriage falling apart as you try to scrape together funds to pay for chemotherapy. Single payer = boring.

[SEK]

I hate dealing with the stupid. Sigh:

You don't notice a difference between diagnosed as possibly having and actually having and being treated for meningitis?

I do . . . but you don't seem to realize that people are treated for their symptoms while they wait for the results of tests that take three days (which is what a spinal tap takes). Given that they were both talking about the waiting and the terrible uncertainty, I believe your lack of charity falls into the category of actual dishonesty here. As a friend said elsewhere:

[T]he child was in the hospital for days with a high fever. One who has children always worries about permanent damage in the case of a serious illness, whether or not it’s been correctly diagnosed. I don’t know what the timeline is for a meningitis diagnosis, thanks be to god, but there are two possibilities: it’s positive, which is terrifying; it’s negative, which means you still don’t know what’s wrong with your seriously ill child, which is devastating.

Turns out the timeline was, as the President said, "three or four days." So please, indulge in your surname and try again, as I think you'll have more luck that way.

the obvious implication is that Sasha did have meningitis.

No, it isn't. The implication is that his child was very, very ill. The fact that that illness wasn't meningitis is beside the point, for the reason presented in my post.

I mean whatever, anybody who heard Michelle's comments would come away with the impression that Sasha had meningitis and anyone who heard Barack's comments would come away with the impression that she didn't[.]

Seriously, if you can't keep your convenient half-truths straight, why should I even pretend to think that you're being intellectually honest? I mean, I try, I really, really try . . . but you need to put in some effort. Otherwise, I have to correct your nonsense, recapitulate the lie you wanted to sell, then refute it, and that's really not fair.

[alkau]

When Scott was just under 2 years old we took him to California from Alberta, Canada. Somewhere over the state of Washington he became very ill. The first 4 days of our family vacation were spent in Childern's Hospital of Orange County. He had a spinal tap which proved it was not memingitis, but it was a horrible experience for us. These facts remain very clear in our minds stillsome 30 years later. At one point we thought he was dying as did the nurses caring for him. The facts are remembered by both his father and his mother and no differences in the story have ever occurred. When it is your child, you remember. For the president to say something different shows yet another occasion to spin a story that is helpful to whatever cause he is speaking about. Parents remember serious illness in their child the same way. The moms are better at recall of the events, but the facts remain the same. Someone is lying and using a child's illness to their own advantage.

[SEK]

Yes, Mom, but did you read this part of my post:

For example, in the summer of 2004 a doctor diagnosed with me and treated for a mild case of depression. A few months later, my throat swelled up and a different doctor diagnosed me with thyroid cancer. In both cases, I was diagnosed. If I say that I was diagnosed with mild depression in the summer of 2004, nothing that happened subsequently would make me a liar for stating it because that is the way logic and the English language work.

Was I lying when I told you I was diagnosed with mild depression? If the answer is "no," then, there's absolutely nothing wrong with what the President said.

[SEK]

Shorter previous comment: "MY MOTHER, THE TROLL."

[Ahistoricality]

All due respect, AlKau, but Michelle Obama's version quote here stops more or less where Barack Obama's quoted version begins, so they cover different details. There's only one difference between the President and First Lady's versions. Three months v. Four months. That's it. Otherwise, the stories are entirely consistent with each other.

[JPool]

The facts are remembered by both his father and his mother and no differences in the story have ever occurred.

Wow. If this is true you are unlike every couple or set of parents I have ever known.

Someone is lying and using a child's illness to their own advantage.

Huh. I think folks have already dealt with the question of "lying". Clearly the President and First Lady are using the story of their child's illness to make a point and I suppose they see advancing that point as in their own and perhaps the country as a whole's advantage. The thing is that I don't see anything wrong with that. If I were using the story of a child's illness to convince you to buy my mail order products and services that might seem a little tawdry. But I think that politicians are allowed to tell stories from their private lives, whether I agree with whatever conclusions they might draw from those stories or not.

[happyfeet]

I'm bloody outraged. Cap'n Ed has gone too far this time.

[Josh]

Scott's Mom, Don't many insurers now require diagnoses before hospitalization? I know it was different thirty years ago.

[Jon H]

Scott's Mom: there's something called a 'tentative diagnosis'.

[Deirdre Ewing]

Actually, SEK lied about LGF. LGF admin Killgore Trout posted racial slurs at Hot Air, and was admonished by hot air commenters. He used this sockpuppet to 'prove' that hot air uses racial slurs. Charles Johnson thought it was illuminating, despite this contradicting LGF's own disclaimers on threads.

LGF is a very racist blog that is now proven to peddle in racism, racial slurs, and the lowest sort of thing like that. They ban people for any slight thing, but everyone who cares already knows all that already.

SEK is accusing someone of race baiting, and I don't really even care. I mean, it's SEK. no one cares.