By Evan Falchuk

President Obama held a town hall meeting today, which seems to have gone well.

Except he decided to use an analogy to dispute the idea that a government-run health insurer would drive private insurers out of business:

“As long as they have a good product and the government plan has to sustain itself through premiums and other non-tax revenue, private insurers should be able to compete with the government plan,” Obama said.  “They do it all the time,” he said.  “UPS and Fedex are doing just fine. . . . it’s the Post Office that’s always having problems.”

This is probably not the best analogy.

The US Postal Service has a monopoly on first-class mail, and is staffed pretty much completely by government workers.  As good as these workers are, the idea of the Post Office evokes images of waiting on line, and the rising cost of stamps.

And as for the villainous health insurers, are they now UPS and Fedex?

It is all very hard to follow.  It’s no wonder even people paying close attention to this issue are left wondering what these plans are all about.