Category: Current Affairs

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I've never quite understood our contemporary health care crisis, save "Health costs too much and employers/insurance companies/health care providers have an incentive to provide less of it because it costs too much." And even that insight comes fully digested from Sicko, admittedly one strand of a very complicated knot of issues.

Then I picked up last week's New Yorker. In it was a terrific article called "Getting There From Here" by Dr. Atul Gawande that outlines precisely what can and will need to happen to lift the American health care system out of the mess it's in. It contains no political agenda nor easybake maxims. Instead, the article is an elegant docent tour of the world's healthcare systems and the historical circumstances that brought about their creation. All dialectical roads then lead back to the same conclusion: Something as vast as a healthcare system must be reformed incrementally and not with the stroke of a pen. Too many lives depend on its functional existence, however poor, to hit the reset button. There is no do-over. There is only do-a–little-bit-bettter, as often and quickly as we can.

Dr. Gawande won't answer all your questions here (I still don't get why the single-payer ystem has this name. Who is the single payer? The government? You? Isn't just a nice way of not saying "government run") nor will he sratch your political itches with a screaming defense or condemnation. He has instead presented what we see too little of around this debate-perspecitve, thoughtfullness, calm–and why I hope is a sign of things to come.

Also:

• Dr. Gawande answers reader questions at New Yorker.com

A weird little list I came up with in the shower this morning…

1. "Obama to Osama: "Drop Dead."

2. Obama to President Chavez: "Me Llama Obama."

3. "Obama Plan Increases Aid to the American Fama."

4. "Obama Buys Bass Drum: Not a Tama."

5. "Obama's Favorite Jokes Sometimes Begin 'Yo Mama."

6. "Obama, from above, may resemble Dali Lama."

(photo by Steve Rhodes)

Civic Center Plaza, San Francisco, with my girlfriend and our friend Elise. When President Obama was sworn in, I hugged a complete stranger standing behind me. We we both crying.

That about sums up how I felt that morning. I will never forget it.

This week The New Yorker has devoted the entirety of its Talk of the Town section to endorsing Barack Obama for president. This will surprise no one (I’ll throw another zinger. Eve Ensler doesn’t like the Republicans either!) but it does echo the urgency the New York Times showed in 2004 when took up the entire editorial page endorsing John Kerry.

Setting aside all our separate political persuasions, I ask you, in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, if " any of us are better off today than we were 4 years ago." I think the answer to that is clear. There is no perfect choice in any election but when headed in the wrong direction, the smart thing to do is change course.

It remains to be seen if Obama is the change he says he is. But I’m more than willing to let him try. And I hope in November, we’ll be able to say, as one country and with hope, in the words  of President Gerald Ford that "Our long national nightmare is over."

I, like many of you I’m sure, was quite moved by Michelle Obama’s keynote speak last night on the opening evening of the Democratic National Convention. But really, did they have to play "Isn’t She Lovely?", that sappy Stevie Wonder song after her remarks? They couldn’t find "Isn’t She Smart?" "Isn’t She Brave?" or something like that.

That, and the women is introduced by her brother as "my little sister" and then called "cute" by the candidate after her speech? What the hell, man? Just let her talk. Does she need to be ironed out with condescension too?

I’m incredibly proud of my home state today. According to an article in yesterday’s Detroit Free Press, Michigan has the highest African-American voting rate in the country at 57%. The Midwest region, according to the US Census, has the highest voting rate of any group of states in the nation.

Its a dumb old cliche’ to believe that people are more authentic, "more real" in the middle of the country. Its qually idiotic to believe that that same middle is filled with rubes who paint their garage doors red white and blue and begin planning 4th of July parades in February.

Civic participation is not cool. It will not get you laid or backstage to meet the band. It is, however, the very foundation of democracy, the system that allows us to be who we are. I’m incredibly proud to be borne of a part of the world, where cynicism nothwithstanding, this means something. A lotta something. The numbers bear it out (via Negrophile).

According to USA Today, George Bush is now the Babe Ruth of presidential approval ratings.

Many of us remember Babe Ruth as one of the greatest home run hitters of all time. His record of 714 held for nearly 30 years until Hank Aaron broke it in 1974. However Babe Ruth also struck out more times than anyone in getting to his home run record. He seemed to be only capable of wild success and eroding failure at the plate.

In the 70 year history of the Gallup Poll, President George Bush has received the highest approval rating (90% in September of 2001) and, as of this week, the lowest, 28%, breaking President Harry S. Truman’s record of %29, during the Korean War.

It’s a historic day. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. 

In looking at the results from Pennsylvania, I’m comforted by one fact, even though my guy didn’t win: Should a democrat assume the White House in November, our president, Clinton or Obama, will be much smarter than I am. And that’s what I want.

I hear the perhaps accurate/certainly trivial comments that Senator Clinton is not as warm and friendly as we would like and that Senator Obama’s "bitter" remark made him seem like a sheltered brat. And I don’t care. I don’t vote for a president based on who I want holding my hair while I throw up. I’m voting for who will excel int the chair of the most powerful position on earth. So I’m with John Stewart here when I say "Not only do I want an elite president. I want someone who is embarrassingly superior to me."

George Washington presided over the founding of our great democracy despite being a highhanded snob who insisted his soldiers call him "your highness." Abraham Lincoln, despite his own conflicted racial values, steered America through the war that ended slavery. FDR snatched us back from a devastating economic depression but was born a pampered aristocrat.

These are three of America’s greatest presidents who wouldn’t have lasted a day on the campaign trail if held to today’s ridiculous standards of "likeability." So please. Talk of a candidates presentation and personal life if you must. Politics is a dirty game. But can we stop thinking superior governing skills and intellectual capabilities are a curse if that person isn’t someone you want to shoot skeet with? Can we start electing remarkable leaders and not remarkable drinking buddies? Because we all saw how that turned out last time.

(via Megan Daum’s recent column for the inspiration).

Oh my. John Kerry will be endorsing Barack Obama. But John Edwards is not crying.

Former Sen. John Edwards
of North Carolina, the third contender in the Democratic presidential
race, was Kerry’s vice presidential running mate in 2004. Despite their
political alliance, the two men were not close personally and differed
behind the scenes on campaign strategy in a race that President Bush
won.

Edwards responded to word of the endorsement with a
diplomatic statement: ”Our country and our party are stronger because
of John’s service, and I respect his decision. When we were running
against each other and on the same ticket, John and I agreed on many
issues.”

Still, this is getting very interesting.