Just to be clear, I'm not saying Obama is lying when he suggests a mandate works by mandating people to do things, I'm saying he's lying when he pretends Clinton's health plan is like mandating everyone buy a house. He's smearing Clinton's plan by pretending that it's just a mandate -- that it doesn't, in fact, have greater subsidies than his, and limits out-of-pocket expenses to a percentage of income (which his doesn't do). Kevin is right to say that this is all politics, and not the worst we've seen. But it's still lying. And Obama should stop it. Every time he offers one of these snarky lines on mandate plans, he puts out a quote that Republicans will gleefully replay when they gear up to opposed Wyden, or Clinton, or Obama's eventual proposal. Moreover, as Kevin points out, he doesn't need this to win. He's not raking in votes with these argument. At this point, it's just pissing off progressives.
