Growing Pains

A sunny election day here in Mpls, much like the day one year ago when we made history. Here’s something I wrote the day after the election:

“One thing that struck me about Obama’s speech last night was how somber and restrained it was. I loved the (subtle) references to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sam Cooke. But overall, this speech was not a celebration. He obviously knows that all the work, all the fighting against stereotype and distrust and tribalism has just been prelude. Now he has to lead a nation.

“I thought he did a masterful job of reaching out last night to all Americans. But there are some who heard it differently. A conservative woman I know told me today she is distraught because she heard Obama has said his first act will be to sign an executive order legalizing partial birth abortions. And that he has said he wants to redistrubute wealth.

“I asked her if she thought his speech last night tried to extend a hand to people like her who didn’t support him. “No,” she said.

“It’s an example of what President Obama will face. Rumors, myths, misinformation campaigns, and a segment of the electorate determined to see the worst in him, determined not to give him a break. No wonder he was somber last night. The hard work hasn’t yet begun.”

The hard work continues.

CBO? What's that?

Early in the health care reform debate, conservatives couldn't stop quoting the Congressional Budget Office figures on how reform would affect the deficit. Now that the bills have been roughly hammered into shape, the CBO is finding that health care reform will bring deficits down.

And what do conservatives have to say about that?

*crickets*

Fox News Reports the Opposite of Truth (In other news, rain still wet)

"This was pretty classic even for Fox. Fox News managed to go almost two days reporting that Dede Scozzafava had dropped out to help Doug Hoffman beat Democrat Bill Owens. And then they went as far as to report that Scozzafava had endorsed Hoffman. This despite the fact there was no evidence for either and ample evidence that Scozzafava was privately supporting Owens."

TPM catches an amazing sequence of coverage by Fox, where they totally start making stuff up to support their political agenda--and this is their "news" coverage, for anyone who still sees that distinction.

(video added)

A (Very) Simple Plan

One of the lessons of health care reform is that fiddling around the edges -- as we have for decades-- has not been effective in addressing the really big problems we face. Dare I suggest that to fix big problems, you need a big bill? Maybe even a thousand pages or more?

"After months of debate within Republican ranks, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) is finally about to release his health care bill, but the outline he gave reporters does little to cover the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance."

Exactly. The Republican "solutions" are like calling the Fire Department when your house is on fire and having them hand you a lawn sprinkler.