One of Josh Marshall’s readers nails the workings of the wingnut mind:

One recurrent theme of extremist assaults on the president has been the deep, visceral conviction that he’s hiding an extremist agenda. The more moderate his rhetoric, the more reasonable his tone, the more detailed and specific his claims, the deeper this conviction grows. If you start with the presumption that the president is trying to foist his socialist agenda on an unsuspecting nation, then his apparent moderation and civility is actually further evidence of his duplicity. When nonpartisan groups substantiate his claims, it’s because they’re swallowing his transparent lies instead of revealing his real, hidden agenda. Every bit of apparent evidence that the president is reasonable only makes the situation more desperate - how to break through the illusion and reveal him for what he is?

We saw this dynamic recur again and again throughout the month of August, as anger boiled over at town hall meetings. Right wing activists insisted that they knew, to a moral certainty, what the plan was actually about, and demanded that their representatives acknowledge the truth. Such arguments are immune from rebuttal; at their very heart lies the esoteric contention that the real agenda is only implicit, hidden within the bill’s provisions, and that seemingly benign clauses actually contain loopholes that will be nefariously exploited following its passage.

See? They “know,” in their “gut,” what’s going on - and they’re p*ssed off that the rest of the world can’t or won’t see, everyone is against them except the True Patriots at Fox News!

Wilson’s also wrong on his facts - the Obama plan won’t cover illegal immigrants.

But what are facts to someone who operates from instinct rather than reason?

This is the dictionary definition of paranoia. Joe Wilson shouldn’t apologize - he should be led away in a straitjacket.