Friday’s political round-up

October 12, 2007

Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:

* John McCain unveiled his healthcare plan yesterday. He called it a “reform” measure, but it’s really just a modest tax credit and a call for “greater competition.” In other words, it’s more of the same.

* The exodus continues: Rep. Ralph Regula (R-Ohio) will announce today that he is retiring at the end of his term. For a Republican caucus that hoped to keep retirements to a minimum, this isn’t good news — Regula is the 10th GOP incumbent to retire this cycle. What’s more, Dems already have a candidate in mind to run in Regula’s district: State Sen. John Boccieri, a major in the Air Force Reserve.

* Hillary Clinton has earned the support of two legendary Democratic leaders: Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) and former Vice President Walter Mondale.

* Mitt Romney, facing an uncomfortable question about gay rights, said he opposes gay marriage, but, “At the same time, I’m not in favor of discrimination. I do not oppose and I very much support equal opportunity in education, equal opportunity in employment, in housing and so forth for gay people.” He added that as Governor one of his cabinet members was gay. The questioner later suggested Romney was trying to play “the gay friend card.”

* Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson didn’t have much luck during his presidential campaign, and withdrew after the Ames Straw Poll. Today, he’ll endorse Rudy Giuliani at an event in South Carolina.

* In the non-endorsement category, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R) support is coveted by all the GOP candidates, but Sanford said yesterday that he doesn’t expect to endorse anyone. He added, however, “I’m not saying never.”

* In case there are any lingering suspicions about just how much the religious right opposes Giuliani’s campaign, Operation Rescue’s Randall Terry said yesterday, “As President, Giuliani would be the de-facto head of the GOP; he would systematically destroy the political power of the pro-life movement within the GOP; he would pressure the party to take the pro-life plank out of the party platform; he would declare the ‘abortion issue’ is divisive, and should not be part of federal races; he would make the GOP the mirror image of the DNC regarding child-killing, thus insuring that there is no pro-life party.” I guess Giuliani should count on an endorsement.

* Former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D), currently planning to run for the U.S. Senate next year, holds a whopping 30-point lead over his Republican rivals in a new WaPo poll. As for the GOP primary, former Gov. James Gilmore leads Rep. Tom Davis by 19 points.

* And speaking of the WaPo poll, Virginia, which hasn’t backed a Democratic presidential candidate since 1964, is clearly getting bluer — by an 11-point margin, Virginians want a Democratic president next year.

‘said he opposes gay marriage, but, “At the same time, I’m not in favor of discrimination.’

um…..and just what does he consider denying gay couples the right to marry to be?

  • Geez, if Virginia is already going Dem by an 11 point margin, the 08 elections are going to be a bloodbath. We’re talking tsunami. No wonder so many Republicrooks are jumping ship, they don’t want to have to suffer through that kind of beating.

  • he would make the GOP the mirror image of the DNC regarding child-killing

    Huh? He thinks that Giulianni would expand SCHIP so that our infant mortality rates might not look like a third world country’s rate? Huh. I haven’t even heard Giulianni say ANYTHING about the abyssmal record of the GOP when it comes to children’s health care in the US…

    Oh – “child killing” as a euphamism for forced miscarriages in the first trimester of pregnancy. Gotcha. Oooh you, Randall Terry, you almost got me you stinker. Here I thought one of the GOP candidates might actually have a beating heart that isn’t buried under the floorboards of their house…

  • Randy Terry of O.R. worries: “…he would systematically destroy the political power of the pro-life movement…”

    He could have shut up right there.

    Romney is beyond a joke. Didn’t he call the LCR ad that ran in Iowa an attack ad?

    Yes, I’ve read the transcript and it could be an elaborate display of snarkiness, but an attack ad it ain’t.

    Oh well, I understand the Talevan was looking to him as the antidote to Rud!e. Maybe his failure to say every g/l/b person should be cast into the firey pit will make them so depressed they’ll siddown and shaddup.

  • So… Romney is fine with “the gays” have equality so long as there is already a law requiring it?

    The only difference between a united opposite sex couple and a united same sex couple is that only one of them is recognized legally.

  • Predictably, the conservative chattering class and its amen corner in the right-wing blogosphere are apoplectic about the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Al Gore. But their rage and angst about the Nobel Committee’s “politicized awards” for “mass exaggerators” and “deceptive rhetoric” isn’t merely a function of the inconvenient truth of the success of Gore’s global warming campaign. No, the rugged individualists of the right are just hopping mad that they never win prizes designed to recognize contributions to, well, the rest of humanity.

    To remedy this perpetual slight, then, here are:
    “Conservative Nobel Prizes We’d Like to See.”

  • I haven’t gotten around to blogging about McCain’s health care proposals as he has been too vague to tell what he really plans. If The Wall Street Journal is correct in their interpretation, this could be really scary. For example:

    While the proposal would leave the beneficiary structure intact, we suspect that Mr. McCain is setting up an even bolder reform. Changing the payment architecture could be used as a lever to move Medicare toward a defined-contribution health-care model, where the government would pay a certain amount per individual, and private insurance would compete to insure patients. This would be a major step toward free-market spending discipline.

    This would make it simple for them to underfund the system and leave Medicare beneficiaries at the mercy of free market to find adequate coverage on whatever benefit they wish to provide.

    The Wall Street Journal also interprets other portions as meaning he will eliminate fee for service medicine. While the system is far from perfect, the alternative would be returning to the old HMO idea first promoted by Richard Nixon. There’s good reason why, after that model failed, so many plans are getting away from it.

  • Does that mean McCain would let me CHOOSE to join medicare?

    Personally, assuming we could choose any system, I’d go with the VA system. IIRC, their patient outcomes are the envy of the world.

  • “I’d go with the VA system. IIRC, their patient outcomes are the envy of the world.”

    Beware of reading too much into these numbers. Computerized measurement of health care is very primitive and the data is not yet at the point where it means anything. The VA’s computer system gives it the ability to look better in such computer generated comparisons as they are able to feed the computer systems the data they need to look good. From my experience in treating Medicare patients who also go to the VA (and are stuck with VA restrictions) you are much better in Medicare than the VA system.

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