Go ahead and discuss, if you are watching. I’ve got the television on, but Miss Lucy wants me to change the litter box first.
Update: I could have done without all the flapping about what a great guy Max Baucus is, but so far the presentation isn’t bad. On to the Q and A.
Why do we need a “uniquely American” health care system? That’s what we have now.
So far he’s not talking about the public option.
Well, it went OK, I thought. Nothing startling.
Meanwhile, in the UK, even the conservatives there have taken offense at the Rethuglicans’ smears against the UK’s NHS system. But then, its a sad for the US that even many conservatives in the rest of the developed world are to the left of even many so-called “liberals” in the US:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090814/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_us_health_care
No national healthcare system will be perfect and people will complain. But Rethugs have taken gripes in the UK as meaning “Get rid of the NHS system”– nothing could be further from the truth– they just want NHS to run better.
Obama was fine. He was clear. But it doesn’t matter what he says. It’s how the media filters the message.
How many people can listen to him speak in Montana, or wherever, at 3pm on a Friday? He needs to give a prime time speach, not a press-conference. He needs to control the message and not get blinded about some stupid question about A-Rod’s steroid use or an African-American professor getting arrested for ‘breaking into his own home.’
Control the message, Barack. Control the message!
Right as always gulag… here in western Montana I missed the zoo.
The obsessive concern to be “different” from England, France, Canada etc is that America has a tendency to embrace the crappy for petulant childish reasons. Ranking 37 is pretty shitty.
One thing I would like to see is the American people taking on Senators and House Representatives like they should instead of expecting Obama to carry the whole load. Senators and House Representatives are the responsibility of the American people and the American people should act like adults and handle it. This silliness of Obama must bare butt spank congress while the people kick back waiting and hoping is failure.
The uniquely American idea struck me as inauthentic. It sounded like a convenient conservative friendly label to paper over the idea that the system can’t be changed too rapidly or too drastically. He did not appear to be at his best today. He struggled momentarily for words and when he had to fish for them, they weren’t the best choices.