Don't be surprised when Tom Friedman can turn a sentence that captures an entire six months of politics: "Mr. Obama is not a socialist; he's a centrist. But if he's forced to depend entirely on his own party to pass legislation, he will be whipsawed by its different factions."

And if that's not succinctly shocking  enough to knock your sox off, Mr. Friedman gleefully tosses out  a political football in this season's indoor sport of national health care reform rugby. He quotes Matt Miller, who slyly describes the proposed 'exchanges,' or insurance clearinghouses,  as the " the Romney health plan with McCain-style financing."

That's something that Senator Baucus and his backlog of naysaying nabobs can relate to, and maybe even use as a basis for suitable counterproposal, if they'll get they're neurons, instead of their fringy constituents, firing on all four cylinders.

Meanwhile, back in the hinterlands, people of less notoriety than Mr. Friedman  share their health insurance tales of woe in cyberspace blogfests.  One example: "My husband can't change jobs because it would be so difficult to get me covered under new insurance due to pre-existing condition clauses.."

This not-uncommon dilemma demonstrates the widespread problem of portability of coverage. Right next to it is the pervasive issue of denial of coverage due to pre-existing conditions, and also termination of policies due to onset of sickness or medical emergency. These really are issues that have brought many households to financial ruin, along with all the other economic crashing that's going down.

So we can see why so many folks are worked up about this issue, and why Congress needs to get something started, imperfect as it may be, to begin meeting the needs of the American people, regardless of what whiners on both ends of the spectrum may spout out about.

 As far as the public option goes, it is really nothing more than the Democrats' prescription for initiating some real competition. It 's a good idea, just needs a little work to make it work in freedom-loving America. And although most Dems don't trust Sen Baucus and the Senate Finance committee, I am hoping that his hingepin group will be able to come up with a compromise that the entire country can live with. But you can bet some Dems will raise hell, and some Repubs too for that matter. But hey!, this is the nature of true democracy: you've got to make deals and compromises. No way around it.

If you want to get a true picture of what government-assisted health care might look like: ~Ask granny what she thinks of Medicare. ~Ask a poor person's opinion about Medicaid. ~Ask a veteran how well the VA med plan works. I think you may be surprised at how many folks actually approve of these programs.

That's not to say the government should take all of it over. All you sky-is-falling socialistphobes out there need to have a little faith in the American way of doing things and realize this: affluent people in the US will never settle for health care controlled by government. They will supplement their coverage with private plans. That is what is done in Britain and Europe by those who can afford it. You don't see rich folks in government-subsidized housing.  You won't see them in government health insurance either. But people of less means need something better.  Times are hard, y'all. And what would the good samaritan do?

And you Congresspeople, it's your job to assure the American people that the "option" is truly an option.  If folks on the lower-$ half need a public option, then folks on the upper-$ need a private option left intact. And I suppose that is what Max and his crew is up to.

At least  I hope so...  " the Romney health plan with McCain-style financing." I'm still lol over that one.