Taking it like a Champ

Talking to people in and around Atlanta, one dude who clearly wasn't a fan of Dubya did have an admiration for him insofar that (and I paraphrase)

"No matter what dumbass idea he* had, even if it was going to wreck the country, he always stuck to his guns. If he said he was going to do something, he did it."

As startling as that striking observation was, determination as a character trait isn't considered a flaw; on the contrary, its something that most would consider a strength. Although misplaced in so many ways the way George W. Bush used it during his term, President Obama isn't displaying the same kind of iron-willed fortitude as his predecessor, allowing the right-wing to scare out moderates by putting words in his mouth and the left to grow increasingly dissatisfied with his performance to date. So we have an appearance of indecision, sheepish policy statements and general confusion among some of those who are acting more hysterically than others.

Of course the standard "special interests rule this town" argument can still be applicable to the debate, but if the Obama administration wanted everyone to have affordable health insurance, he would finagle a way for everyone to get it, instead of having conservative pundits showing an uncharacteristic regard for the environment by lamenting at the amount of paper wasted every time they take out a copy of it to show how large and complicated it looks (In comparison to what, we shall never know.)

It seems that some of the respect for Obama would be restored for him if he did a little more of this instead of umming and ahhing.

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*Its also worth noting that the same friend I quoted also used "A load of Dubya Bush" as a synonym for "bullshit."

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Tried, Tested, Success-ted

Apart from the brilliant riposte given by a Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts to a ill-informed town hall protester with a reality tunnel so narrow the light of day seldom enters through, many people are confusing the "public option" - namely setting up a government run enterprise to compete against private insurance companies to cover uninsured Americans - with "nationalized" medicine directly owned and administered by a government agency much like Medicare Australia or the UK National Health Service.

What many people aren't aware of is that what Mr. Obama terms the "public option" has been tried and works rather successfully in Australia under the guise of Medibank Private, the government-owned public health insurer. Originally a not-for-profit entity, it was recently incorporated and thus required to pay tax on its earnings; therefore wholly funding itself (through users subscribing to its service and reinvesting profits into the business) and contributing toward the upkeep of the public health system through the 10% GST (as well as the other taxes it will now be required to pay as an incorporated entity.)

As a beneficiary of Medibank Private* rather than one of the myriad other private insurers on the Australian market, it works rather well if you can afford to pay, as well as taking up the 30% government rebate and the waiver of the Medicare levy surcharge if one earns over AU$73,000. Of course people still point to the public health system as inherently inefficient despite the private sector attempting "relieving the burden" on it. In my view, pundits from both sides should be looking at the other side of the coin: in reality Australians that are covered with private health insurance experience little to no waiting times for care in the private sector - which is the only option most people in the US have. Although the fallacious "USPS does well against privately run mail carriers" argument may fall through, an extensional and largely functional example could prove more compelling for policymakers and those who matter the most in this debate - the 46,000,000 uninsured.

*in July 2007 I underwent a hernia operation and could pick my doctor, time of surgery and hospital I was admitted to, all with a private room via my coverage (at the time) with Medibank Private.

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Natural Born Somethings

To me, the most bizarre debate that seems to simmer at the fringes of American politics and civil society at the moment (even more so than the dude at 2:58 of this video) is that of the Birthers, the name of a group who claim the presidency of Barack Obama is illegitimate due to his "reluctance" or "inability" to produce a valid birth certificate that proves his US birth and citizenship.

Since he was (or maybe he wasn't?) born in Hawaii, I'm assuming that to get a birth certificate, you would probably have to rock up at a Hawaiian State births, deaths and marriages registry or something similar, take a ticket, wait in line, produce three or four forms of ID, pay a fee and blah blah blah. Such a damn hassle, man.

Seriously; these Birthers don't know how government services work. You can't tell one of the legions of interns and assistants to go for you - you'd have to front up, in person. I'm assuming these Birthers are from the right of the American political spectrum; so therefore even if Mr. Obama did actively try to refute the claims of the Birthers' group, he would have to take Air Force One and its mandatory military escort to Hawaii which would then open him up to criticism from the same group for wasting taxpayer money. Oh, and taking time off for personal reasons, too.

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