garcohsf's Comments (32)

“Contrary to what some on this site have been saying for the past few months, this certainly looks like remarkably good strategy on the part of President Obama and his team. By refusing to impose what he felt were "must haves" in this legislation, while continuing to stress the importance of the public option, President Obama has let the legislative action take its course. By allowing Harry Reid to step forward with the "solution" to this issue, President Obama has avoided becoming the issue, ie, you are either for or against Obama depending on how you vote on the public option. It certainly appears that the conference committee, which ultimately will decide what the final bill looks like, will have a Senate version and a House version, both of which will contain a public option of one kind or another. This after people were saying that it was dead just a few months ago. Good going, Mr. President.”

“I think that a lot of people are confused about the impact health insurers have on the costs of our health care system. Most of the things that health insurers do that people (rightly) find objectionable, or even despicable, are done in order to lower costs. That's why they refuse to cover people with pre-existing conditions. That's why they refuse to authorize procedures. To save money and lower costs. Anyone who thinks that health insurance reform which causes more people to be covered and more procedures to be authorized is going to lower costs will be disappointed.

Lowering costs of health care is going to require health care reform, not just health insurance reform. It is going to require changes in the way we live, eat, exercise, etc. It is going to require changes in the ways in which health care, not health insurance coverage, is delivered.

I think the question of who can do that better, government or the private sector, is an open one. I favor a public option for health insurance, but not because I think it will lower the cost of health care (it won't) but because I think it will lower the cost of the subsidy needed to provide health insurance to those who can't afford it. The major reforms that are being considered now--mandated coverage, no exclusion for pre-existing conditions, portability of coverage if you lose or change jobs--do not depend in any way on a public option.”

“Yelling at a police officer in your own home is not disorderly conduct. Can't be.”

“How refreshing, how wonderful, to have a President who saw that he made a mistake and acted promptly and responsibly to deal with it. Bravo, Mr. President.”

“Hell, we're cowards about a lot of things in this country. We're cowards about religion--try getting elected to office if you're an atheist in this country--can't happen. We're cowards about sex--have an extra-marital affair and you're barred from public life. We're cowards about our role in the world--we insist that America is the "greatest country that has ever existed," but we refuse to acknowledge the truly awful things we've done around the world--not just during the Bush administration, but in lots of ploaces, lots of times. We're cowards about poverty--n­otwithstan­ding all of our wealth, we expect even the poorest among us to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps,": even if they don't have any boots.

Sure, we're cowards about race, among other things.”

“Absolutely right. This applies to all US employers, not just the car companies.”

“Yes, why are we blaming only the oil companies and the Big 3, and not the people who bought all those gas-guzzling SUV's? They had other choices. Every time I see one of those behemoths in the city I want to ask the driver when was the last time they took the thing off-road?”

“Yes, it is true that Gov Schwarzenegger doesn't take a salary from the state. But let's focus on what's important--his $175,000/year, indeed the $114 million that would be saved by cutting two holidays for state workers, are nothing in the context of a $12 billion budget deficit.

The fact is that Schwarzenegger came into office after the recall, and was reelected in 2006, claiming that he was going to be a fiscal reformer. Instead, things have gotten worse and worse, and he has shown no leadership whatsoever. Every one of his budgets has been based on the same "smoke and mirrors, phony borrowing tricks that he criticized Goveror Davis for.

He finally came around this summer to the realization that the state has to raise revenues (ie taxes), and then did nothing to make it happen--he can't get a single Republican vote in the State Senate for a responsible budget. Instead of campaigning for McCain in Ohio (which he has to have known was a lost cause), he should have been campaigning against every Republican legislator who refuses to do the right thing and include increased taxes as part of a plan to get the state out of this mess.

And those tax increases should not be limited to the regressive sales tax, How about raising taxes on commercial property?

Governor Schwarzenegger has been a failure, and will soon be a lame duck. He should resign. Maybe President Obama would make him Ambassador to the Sun.”

“You are exactly right. She tried to make it sound as if the clothes were just for her and her family to wear "at the convention­." We know that isn't true, but Greta didn't follow up on it.

It would be very nice if someone could find a witness willing to go on the record that they were in Neiman Marcus or Sax with Governor Palin, to prove that she is a liar.”

“The idea that anyone thinks that anything intelligent or interesting can be said about who the Republican Presidential nominee will be in 2012 strikes me as absolutely ridiculous.

I agree with Boehner to this extent; I see this election as less a victory for the left over the conservative policies of the past 8 years, as a victory for the candidate who offered an alternative ("Change") to the guy 75% of the country thinks is doing a lousy job. So guess what, if 4 or 8 years from now, a lot of the country thinks Obama is doing a lousy job, then the Republicans will probably have a pretty good shot if they nominate someone who looks like an alternative to him.

And the thing is--we can't know what the issues or problems are going to be that people will be judging Obama's performance on. How many "pundits" imagined a year ago or even six months ago that the candidate's responses to a financial crisis on Wall St would be such an important factor in the election.

The problem is that we have a tendency to fight the last election. That's what McCain did, and what Obama didn't do.”

“Latest numbers I've seen have Obama with 53%, it's not surprising that it has gone up as the West Coast states finished their counts.”

“That was exactly my reaction. He is so natural, so unforced, so willing to laugh at himself, even under all the pressure, little sleep, etc. Very impressive. I'm going to like having him around for the next 8 years.”

“I don't know what you are looking at. fivethirtyeight.com gives Obama a 98% chance of winning Pennsylvania, he is up by 12, 10 and 7% in 10/24 polls, Nate says that the lower one is a Republican firm that has had a 2-3% Republican lean.

Obama should certainly not count on winning Florida, but fortunately, he doesn't need to...

I am not saying be overconfident, I am not saying stop working (I canvassed in MN this week and will be phone banking from home (Oakland, CA) this weekend), but let's not spread disinformation or scare people needlessly, either. Let's just tell the truth.”

“Dan Quayle ran for President in 1996. He was not taken seriously, and got nowhere. The same will happen to Palin if she runs in 2012. She has absolutely no chance on the national stage, not even in the Republican primaries.

Remember, too, that it will be a completely different election in 2012 than the one we are having now--it will be a referendum on the first Obama term, and the issues will be ones we can't predict now. People always seem to make the mistake of predicting what will happen in the future as if nothing will change from the present.”

“Who in the world thought it was a good idea for McCain to bring up the fact that a black Congressman compared him to a racist segregationist?

I think it was clear throughout the debates that for McCain, this is all about me, while for Obama, this is all about you and we. And that Obama's cool, calm, steadiness is what we need....”

“If McCain truly were a patriot who loved his country, he would concede the election to Obama now, and ask his supporters to rally behind him. We are in a serious economic crisis. It's clear that McCain has no idea what to do about. In addition, the Congress is going to be overwhelmingly Democratic, so even if McCain's vile tactics somehow work and he were to be elected, the poison he has created would make it impossible for him to govern. Finally, it is clear beyond doubt that Sarah Palin is not capable of serving as President, should that become necessary. McCain should therefore take any possibility that that might happen off the table by conceding now.”

“What does Governor Palin think about the state of women's rights in Saudi Arabia?”

“He won't meet with Fredonia, either.”

“Agreed--Sam, how can we make sure this story gets picked up?”

“The choice of Sarah Palin as his VP nominee shows McCain's poor judgment and desperation. This is especially true since he had spoken with her once by phone before inviting her to Arizona, where he offered her the job. She will be off the ticket within six weeks as it becomes more and more clear that she is not qualified to be first in line to the Presidency.”

“She needs to come out and say that they have both agreed that she is not going to be the nominee for Vice-President, and she needs to urge her supporters to back him, in the strongest possible terms.”

“Anyone notice how often HuffPo has links to stories in the New York Times. Yes, the paper has sometimes failed miserably, especially on WMD, but it is also responsible for breaking more stories on, e.g., warrantless wiretapping, torture, manipulation of intelligence, manipulation of science, etc. than any other news outlet.

We should encourage the Times to be better, but we should never forget that it is a precious resource.”

“If he wanted to call for her murder, he would have suggested that she be put on a flight to Bosnia . . . .”

“I question the claim that 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with autism. According to Wikipedia (which I realize is not a definitive source, but the article purports to be citing scientific reviews), the prevalence of autism is estimated to be 1 or 2 per 1,000, and the prevalence of ASD (such as Asperger's syndrome), which is milder than autism in 6 in 1,000 (or 1 in 166).”

“This is exactly right. It is not possible to be "mistaken" about whether you were under sniper fire and had to run for cover. Especially when she told the story more or less accurately in her book. Of course she can't admit that it was a lie, so she's stuck.

This is as bad as when Joe Biden incorporated events from Neil McKinnock's life and spoke as if they were his own. She should be out of the race.”