Maksuov, wait - you mean if we have a partisan president and plenty of anger across party lines in Congress, then the proposals don't get watered down? Maybe true, the minority party will just fight like hell to kill them and you have the usual gridlock.

Obviously it depends on how big a majority one party has, but in any case your statement doesn't make sense to me.

In any case Krugman's really disappointing me too - he's pretty clearly crossed over the line from analysis to a grudge. And its a strange grudge that seems to go deeper than just some kind of loyalty to Clinton.

Posted at March 28, 2008 6:07 PM in response to JB on PK vs BHO

Not sure whether this post (about #85) on this thead will be read by anyone but I just feel the need to say this:

I'm something of a political junkie but I've had enough. I will gladly take either Obama or Clinton at this point and I just want to avoid the Dems going up in flames over this thing. Its time to focus on why the county should not elect another Republican.

In any case if there's going to be another month or two of wrangling I pray it doesn't degenerate into a food fight. And for the rest of March I'll be taking a break and reading only the sports page (and maybe world news)...

Posted at March 5, 2008 4:32 PM in response to Wednesday Morning Questions (and Answers)

Yeah machines make mistakes, humans make mistakes - but this is happening far too often. And worse, no one seems to really care that much. There were irregularities in the New Hampshire primary, strange differences in results in districts with electronic counters v. districts using hand counting. It came up but then seemed to be quickly dropped by the press, despite calls for a recount. Little by little I'm losing my faith in the US election system. Somehow the country needs to come up with a system that is much more uniform AND reliable - with better checks and balances. The current ad hoc voting system, highly variable by state/district, is simply far too bootleg to be acceptable in the "greatest country in the world"...

Posted at February 16, 2008 4:38 PM in response to NYT: Many New York City Precincts Initially Reported Zero Votes For Obama

There was a great column in yesterday's IHT by Richard Bernstein: "The other Health Care Issue" Getting Costs Down". http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/13/america/letter.php
He points out that its not clear that universal coverage plans deal with the outrageous health care costs in the US (one example he gives is a friend's routine colonoscopy that cost over $8000). If Hillary effectively requires everyone to have health care, paid for by taxpayer dollars, but does not at the same time put huge pressure to bring costs down, it really will amount to a massive x-mas present to the insurers, doctors, hospitals, drug companies and everyone else who is making big bucks off the current system. Obama's plan to provide low cost health care opportunities, if it indeed puts more pressure on the system to cut costs, might be better. But this is just speculation and I welcome more informed views...

Posted at February 16, 2008 3:59 PM in response to On the meaning of 'universal coverage', and the meaning of 'participate', and the meaning of 'working', and the meaning of 'diplomacy': First steps toward a Hillary lexicon