the rix mix

Hello, baaaaby!
Yeah, this is the big bopper speakin
Ha ha ha ha ha! oh, you sweet thing!
Do I what? will I what?
Oh baby, you knoooow what I like!

The Big Bopper, "Chantilly Lace"

Barack failed to knock Hillary out yesterday. Bad for him. I wouldn't credit Hillary with a great victory in Texas; Barack overcame a large poll deficit there. But Hillary smacked him good in Ohio. She finally exploited Barack's very real weaknesses among Hispanics & white working class voters & definitely slowed down the Obama machine. Texas doesn't mean squat for Dems in the general election. Neither does South Carolina, for that matter. Ohio, New Jersey, New York, California, Massachusetts certainly do, & Hillary took them all. & she can win Pennsylvania, too. The delegate numbers are against her. But the Clintons are the type who conspire to give you nasty little punches in the crotch & crunch your feet in touch football games.

I can't locate the news article; on Monday Hillary warned about "underestimating" voters. Call me an old-fashioned cynic, but I think it's hard to go wrong underestimating voters. John Edwards sunk by overestimating us. Both Hillary & Barack find success underestimating voters (let's leave McCain aside for now). Hillary's "fear" telephone TV ad will become a classic example. Of course, the president doesn't pick up a phone before an aide says who is on the line. Waking a president up is a very important staff decision. Barack's entire campaign reminds me of "We Are the World," & the notorious "Hands Across America" feel-good event of 1986. I watch Obama rallies on TV & honest the first thought enters my mind is, 'He's got to be kidding." But I initially reacted the same way to Beatlemania in England & they turned out better than alright.

Tomorrow, McCain goes to the White House to be annointed Candidate Four More Years. He can run on the Bush Iraq War. He can run on the Bush economy. He can straight talk all he wants out his ass. what's wrong with statement:

"I will campaign to make health care more accessible to more Americans with reforms that will bring down costs in the health care industry without ruining the quality of the world’s best medical care.”

Lots. There are many ways to measure our "world's best medical care." McCain can go to any hospital in the United States by private jet, choose any doctor, have any procedure. We have the best care for rich people. But a whole lot of statistics from drug costs to infant mortality rates to percentage of uninsured & underinsured show there are a good number of nations with better health care for everyone else. He can't bring down the costs without overhauling the system, & the Number One step for that is universal coverage: Every American citizen has health insurance. Every citizen walking into Muhlenburg Hospital emergency room in Plainfield NJ has an insurance card, & Muhlenberg is adequately compensated. Muhlenberg is closing. It is not an old, crumbling, inner city hospital. & some of those old hospitals serve needs that cannot at the moment be served without them.

(R. Stevie Moore performs "Chantilly Lace" - Uncle Floyd TV show, 1980)

Labels: THE election