Vote '08

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - John McCain says he wants to change how Americans get their health insurance.
The Republican presidential candidate is proposing a shift away from job-based coverage toward an open market where consumers can choose from competing policies.
The Arizona senator is also suggesting a $5,000 tax credit to help people buy insurance policies. Everyone would get the credit, whether he or she keeps a policy through an employer or shops for a new one.
He made the proposals during a speech today at a cancer research center in Tampa, Florida.
Critics of McCain’s approach say it could leave sicker or older people without coverage. The McCain campaign says there would be a safety net to protect high-risk people.

Read John McCain’s speech on his health care policy, delivered today, here at his website.

He also has a new ad on this issue:

What do you think? Post a comment!

Elizabeth Edwards brought up some great points about the coverage of the Presidential campaign so far this year in an op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times.

Whether or not you agree with your politics, she makes some pretty dead-on damning statements over how the media has focused more on process & strategy rather than issues & ideas:

“..every analysis that is shortened, every corner that is cut, moves us further away from the truth until what is left is the Cliffs Notes of the news, or what I call strobe-light journalism, in which the outlines are accurate enough but we cannot really see the whole picture.

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The problem today unfortunately is that voters who take their responsibility to be informed seriously enough to search out information about the candidates are finding it harder and harder to do so, particularly if they do not have access to the Internet.

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News is different from other programming on television or other content in print. It is essential to an informed electorate. And an informed electorate is essential to freedom itself. But as long as corporations to which news gathering is not the primary source of income or expertise get to decide what information about the candidates “sells,” we are not functioning as well as we could if we had the engaged, skeptical press we deserve.

…

If voters want a vibrant, vigorous press, apparently we will have to demand it. Not by screaming out our windows as in the movie “Network” but by talking calmly, repeatedly, constantly in the ears of those in whom we have entrusted this enormous responsibility. Do your job, so we can — as voters — do ours.”

We say, hear hear.

& we want to commit ourselves to you to try to do better. Yes, strategy & personalities are important — but there are loads of issues that deserve at least as much if not more attention.

Is there an issue you care about that you haven’t seen where the candidates stand with it? If so, drop us a line & we’ll do the homework for you!

What do you think about Mrs. Edwards’ remarks? Post a comment!

 What did the founding fathers have in mind for how religion is treated in this country?

Did they want us to be faithful to their faith?
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One of the major failings of the Bush administration since September 11th, 2001 has been the lack of any kind of call for national sacrifice (& no, we’re not counting the call from the President to “go shopping“).

After the jump, we offer some thoughts on how the next president needs to change this.. even though we have evidence they’ve given no indication they’ll do so. 

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[Hard to ignore a segue like this one after the Elton John post.]

In an interview with the gay magazine ‘the Advocate,’ Barack Obama says if elected he would repeal the military’s current “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy regarding homosexuals.

For those of you unfamiliar with it, it requires the military to not ask if any service member is homosexual, but also mandates that any person who reveals themself to be so be immediately discharged.

Find out what Obama had to say — & get our take on the thing, too — after the jump.

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Dear All 3 Presidential Campaigns,

For the love of all that is holy, can we please talk about things that happen at times other than 3 a.m.?

Can there be another group of people looking over bills & paperwork besides these folks?

Are there other children, perhaps, who would volunteer to be filmed while they sleep, so these particular kids can wake up & get on with their lives? (Think of all the Ambien that must be pumped into the kids’ systems so they could stay asleep for so long!)

Respectfully & sincerely,

[What does “jump the shark” mean? Explanation here.]

Regardless of how much the clip below is a current metaphor for the 3a.m. ad, we would give quite a bit to see any of the candidates cut a commercial with them in the role of the Fonz.


Aaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy.

“The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, a grim milestone that is likely to fuel calls for the withdrawal of American forces as the war enters its sixth year. The American deaths occurred Sunday, the same day rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide. The four soldiers with Multi-National Division - Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. Sunday in southern Baghdad, the U.S. military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack - less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the conflict.”

Again, hopes you are paying attention to Iraq, even though the economy is taking center stage.

Last Friday, liberal columnist Mark Shields & conservative columnist David Brooks discussed the 5-year anniversary of the war, & both encapsulated my feelings on the war perfectly by saying this:

JIM LEHRER [no relation]: Finally, your thoughts, five years of the Iraq war, what are you thinking about right now, David…

DAVID BROOKS: Well…

JIM LEHRER: … about the war and the rest? What needs to be said about it? Let’s put it that way.

DAVID BROOKS: Well, it’s been a searing experience for the country and for a lot of us. I would say it’s changed my view of the world quite dramatically, as I look back. And I think what I knew but didn’t practice was the sense that societies are complex, organic organism, more complex than we can possibly understand. And if you’re going to intervene…

JIM LEHRER: You mean other societies than our own?

DAVID BROOKS: Ours, too. Ours, too.

JIM LEHRER: Oh, OK.

DAVID BROOKS: And if you’re going to intervene in a society, you have to respect the complexity and respect your own ignorance of that complexity. And that’s something every conservative should really know, but sometimes those facts were held in abeyance in the enthusiasm of the moment.

JIM LEHRER: Mark?

MARK SHIELDS: We know, Jim, we went to war against a country that had never attacked us, that never threatened us, on the bogus claim that that country had weapons of mass destruction which were a threat to us.

And it was not a moral war, and it was not a just war. It was a war in which the United States sullied, stained and repealed one of the great American values, that is that, in wartime, war demands equality of sacrifice.

All the sacrifice in this war has been borne by the 1 percent of Americans who are in uniform and their families. The rest of us have been quietly by, especially those of us who opposed the war, and been moral defectors.

We haven’t protested the fact that this is a war that our children and grandchildren will pay for. We haven’t even — we’ve blithely accepted tax cuts, and no draft, and no burden, paid no price, bore no burden, and accepted leadership that demanded nothing of us, and we’ve demanded nothing of them.

JIM LEHRER: David?

DAVID BROOKS: Well, I do think that desire to sacrifice is hanging out there. It’s still an unmet need in the body politic. There are still thousands of young people, people of all ages, who want to do some sort of service. And for the next president, that will be something to pick up, not to draft them. We’re not going to have a draft. But to increase national service is something McCain has talked about, Obama, Clinton. They’ve all talked about it. And I think it will emotionally help heal some of the unwanted desire to actually rally together after 9/11.

God bless & keep the souls of the (now 4000) fallen in Iraq. May whomever becomes their leader on January 20th, 2009 better understand how to support them, & realize that the nation is willing to be asked more of it to help see this conflict to victory.

Later today on NewsChannel 9 at 5:30, we’ll talk with an Iraqi refugee who has called Murray County, Georgia home. Despite promises to welcome Iraqi refugees with open arms, the U.S. has accepted them at a frustratingly low pace. 

The current Vice President & former President both made statements in the last week that for two former supporters, was the tipping point.

Read how they both explained why this was the last straw, after the jump.

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PBS’s Judy Woodruff interviewed a roundtable of average Americans - Republicans, Democrats, & Independents - on the Iraq war on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer (no relation) last night.

It was fascinating to watch. (there will be further discussions tonight & tomorrow on the economy & the presidential race, respectively, & we recommend you tune in).

After the jump, the transcript. Vote08 is incredibly busy today with both the 5 & 5:30 newscasts to write, but we hope to inject our opinion into the discussion later today. Help continue this conversation by posting a comment!

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Hey, folks — got some time on your hands? Then I’m sure you’ll dive right in to the tens of thousands of “First Lady files” from the Clinton library. (UPDATE: ABC News has looked through the files .. & found some memories Hillary would love to forget..)

Today’s release was supposed to counter arguments that the Clintons are not being fully transparent by keeping many documents secret.

In fact, today Clinton told reporters that she sees herself as “possibly the most transparent person in public life.”

As of this afternoon the Invisible Man has yet to respond to that comment.

Seriously, though, these really aren’t the documents that many are asking for; what’s still missing from the public eye are her & her husband’s tax returns since he left the White House. And it doesn’t look like those will be made public anytime soon.

As Obama supporter Bill Bradley put it on the PBS NewsHour earlier this month:

“I think Hillary is flawed in many ways, and particularly if you look at her husband’s unwillingness to release the names of the people who contributed to his presidential library. And the reason that is important — you know, are there favors attached to $500,000 or $1 million contributions? And what do I mean by favors? I mean, pardons that are granted; investigations that are squelched; contracts that are awarded; regulations that are delayed. These are important questions. The people deserve to know. And we deserve, as Democrats, to know before a nominee is selected, because we don’t want things to explode in a general election against John McCain.”

Transparency is also an issue we’re digging deeper into at NewsChannel9 with the Chattanooga Police Department, & the investigation into the expenses incurred in two recent matters involving Captain Jeannie Snyder. The department told us yesterday they erase e-mail records every 24 hours. Depend on us to dig deeper into that matter later today.

Anywho,

endorses transparency. Transparency is good. Especially if you’re running for office. Because, really, what’s the alternative? How do you end up looking if you reject transparency?

What do you think?