Health Care

I used to live in Washington DC, and so am always interested in the goings on down in the States. For the last year I've been following with some amusement? bewilderment? astonishment? the incredible political process that has been acted out in DC over the issue of health care. I think most Canadians are a bit confused about what is going on -- never mind the byzantine process that legislation has to thread its way through in order to become law -- especially when it comes to the substance of the bill: you mean after all this you still are not going to cover everyone???

Politics in the US has become so vitriolic over the last fifteen years that I'm not sure whether or not there is actually a way of making the voice of the sensible middle of American society heard. Which is why I am in the camp of believing that Barack Obama is the best thing for the US right now. I don't believe he is a radical leftist as some would paint him, nor a closet conservative as others would as well. I think he is actually a true representative of the sensible middle road -- pragmatic, committed and determined. The starkest contrast between the opposing sides in this debate are captured in Paul Krugman's column in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/opinion/22krugman.html?hp.

Obama essentially said that this was an issue worth staking a career over. I will follow his career with great interest. I really think that as Jon Stewart says, Obama is the Jedi Master playing 3-D chess in the dark with his opponents...