That was the most contentious visit to Congress I’ve ever seen and I watched during the scandalous Clinton years! It was like watching Prime Minister’s questions in the UK. That portion of the evening was fantastic. It almost made me think we had a democracy going on here. Almost (Remember, kiddies: this is a reee-pub-lick, not a democracy).
What did we learn from that speech? Not much. Obama wants a public option but he doesn’t want to hurt your feelings by making you take one. Soooo, he’ll make you wait halfway through the speech before he says it aloud. Oh, you can only have a public option after a delay of four years and I think you have to go to a grain silo to see a doctor (or some other kind of CO-OP or something like that). Who the hell knows? The speech was very, very light on details.
I’m happy he said the words “public option” aloud. I’m mad as hell that he wants to fine people for being uninsured, though he did mention a waiver system (again, no details). I’m very happy that he didn’t seem to have a problem bloodying some petulant noses. That, in fact, was the most refreshing part of the evening. To paraphrase Luciano Perkins, for a while this evening, Obama got his swagger back. But all in all, it was a non-event.