Move over, Joe! Gaffetastic Obama is hot on your heels

This is so, so priceless:

[At the NH town hall] Mr. Obama said health care overhaul would free up doctors to concentrate on treatment because they would not be prodded to schedule unnecessary tests. He said the fact that Medicare allowed Mr. Anderson to return to Lipitor showed that the federal system worked. And he said that a government-run public option should not put private insurers out of business, but rather force them to be more competitive, even going so far as to compare the competition between the two to the competition among Federal Express, U.P.S, and the Postal Service.

β€œU.P.S. and FedEx are doing just fine,” Mr. Obama joked. β€œIt’s the post office that’s always having problems.”

Er, um … I’m speechless, but Phil Klein picks up the slack:

The gaffe arose from the inherent contradiction of those arguing for the introduction of a government government-run plan. On the one hand, Obama and other supporters of the idea argue that we need to have a strong government plan to create more efficiency, drive down prices, and “keep private insurers honest.” Yet at the same time, they have to make it appear weaker to push back against those of us who argue that it will threaten private insurance and move us toward a single-payer system. So then you get statements in which Obama, in the course of arguing for a government-run system, takes a shot at the government-run post office.

Here’s the video:

Sometimes the best gifts you get are from your opponents themselves. It’d be great if the RNC got creative and use that line in an ad like they did with Kerry’s “I voted for it before I voted against it” line, but I won’t hold my breath.

Cross-posted to the Public Secrets blog, where I am helping guestblog for the vacationing Anthony this week.

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