Mark, your new material is not nearly as funny as your classic stuff. Trying out the new, darker edge stuff, eh?
Seriously, I think you nailed it. And that's a cool story about Kucinich, with a perfect analogy of seeing a band in a small club.
I can still be a Democrat fanboy at times, but I agree that they have their serious issues. They, too, are too beholden to lobbyists and special interest groups. Lewis Black reminded me of this when I saw him live. He enjoyed calling everybody numbnuts, an equal opportunity basher.
I do think that Obama got too caught up with the Lincolnesque "Team of Rivals" approach. I think he is honestly exasperated that he can't achieve much bipartisanship. Realizing that reality led him to have that final reach out to the Republicans. Eventually, though, he realized his best remaining option was to go ahead and push unilaterally for what he thought was right as far as the health care reform (HCR) bill.
One thing that chaps me is the cries of the Republicans that Obama and the Democrats are arrogant, that they are pushing this down the throats of the American public. As to the arrogance, I think the Democrats are no more arrogant than the Republicans. Each side has its view of what is right and what it wants to accomplish, and that's that. Leave the name-calling out of it. As a psychiatrist, it seems like too much projection when you call the other side arrogant. Either that or you're being a bunch of crybaby losers. But I guess that would be me name-calling.
As to the pushing of HCR down the throats of the American public, there's two things that bother me. (1) The right and the South basically said the same thing about the desegregation of the military and the civil rights legislation of the 1960s. (2) So much of what the opinion polls reflected was fueled by misinformation and fear-mongering from the right. When people were asked about the particular details of the HCR bill individually, they approved of them. When people realize that HCR is not going to be Armageddon, as Boehner claimed, then maybe things will calm down a little.
I think what we are doing here in this thread is a positive step towards civil public discourse.
