Gibbs: “I don’t know if I should do that from the podium.” (AP)
President Obama yesterday used an intriguing rhetorical construct in discussing health care reform with members of Organizing for America.
“There’s something about August going into September where everybody in Washington gets all wee-weed up,” he said. “I don’t know what it is. But that’s what happens.”
Maybe it’s because a bunch of us are having weird, unexpected Crawford withdrawal. Others just hate the newsless August Washington echo-chamber, where editors still want stories but there is nothing to report on so we recycle polls and predict the death of health care reform. Perhaps someone misses Eric Cantor. Others think it’s hot outside — who knows?? But — “wee-weed up”? Is that really necessary?
Robert Gibbs, please clarify:
“I think ‘wee-weed up’ is when people just get all nervous for no particular reason, when they — look, it — I think the way the president used it was — and I — I’ve talked to a few of you guys about this — in our — in August of 2007, right, the rap on the president and the campaign was, they can’t — they’re — first of all, they’re doing poorly in Iowa. They can’t possibly win the nomination, let alone the presidency, right? So I’ll leave those predictions aside.
So this is just — this is sort of an August pundit pattern between people getting overly nervous for something that still has a long way to go. Bed-wetting is — would be probably the more consumer-friendly term.”
Got it. Will health care reform cover treatment for that?
