Hope and "Some" Change Realized

President Obama pledged during the campaign that we would have health care reform during his first term in office. He has delivered. It's not a perfect piece of legislation, but it's a good deal better than the lack of reform we have been struggling with for decades.

Failed, last-ditch attempts by the opposition to instill more and more fear into the debate came across as desparate and pathetic. "Dangerous", "flawed" and "abortion" were the resonations within the ditto-head echo chamber. Republicans have weighed in over the past year with numerous critiques and ideas ranging from simple ammendments to a complete rewrite. The "ideas" that have been floated have been mere props. They had 8 years of government control and offered not one meaningful proposal to fix health care. The one thing they did manage to pass in '06, Medicare Part D, came in at three times over the budget projections, created the donut hole and has had to be fixed with this new legislation.

I spent far too much time watching CSPAN yesterday, but found that listening to our representives in their own unedited speech made for compelling TV. As I flipped between FOX, CNN and CSPAN the difference in coverage was remarkable. FOX was hating, CNN was fawning and CSPAN was just showing the debate unedited, sans spin, with all it's sausage-making gore and guts on display. It was a grand parade of posturing and gas-bagging. There was plenty of passion on display, but sadly there was also hour-upon-hour of pompous and precocious acting.

I'm still feeling rocked by the blatent lying of the opposition with respect to abortion language in the bill. Once again a "gentleman" from the right side of the aisle has shown his ass in public and shouted out some disparaging remarks. I mean really, how can they stand up there in front of God and everyone and lie. It's truly appalling. It's one thing to fume and roar on the talk shows or to get that 15-second sound bite with Gretta and Sean, but to act like a buffoon, on the job, is truly mind-bending.

Speculation about Obama's Waterloo can now be put to rest. There's still plenty of Monday morning quaterbacking going on, and it will take a while for the dust to settle, but the historic moment is behind us, the promise has been fulfilled and a pocket full of change has been delivered.