A magnificent speech
President Obama took back the initiative in the debate over national healthcare last night. His speech was as good as it gets, explaining why national healthcare is needed, which of the critics' claims were pure balderdash, and how it would be paid for.
Still, the nutjobs on the right just couldn't contain themselves. Associated Press has identified Rep. Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, as the person in the audience who yelled, "It's a lie!" when Obama said it wasn't true that illegal immigrants would get free healthcare under his bill. Believe it or not, that was a new low for the Republicans. And this from a representative of the Southern state that introduced slavery to America and started the Civil War.
I'm sure there are many good people in South Carolina, but Wilson isn't one of them. He seems to be the spiritual descendant of South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks, who (literally) on the floor of the Congress beat a Northern senator bloody and senseless with his cane in 1856 for saying things about slavery he didn't like. Time for Wilson and his kind to go hiking on the Appalachian Trail.
(I looked at the story on the speech in The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, and comments from locals are running nearly 100 percent against Wilson. They are embarrassed that someone like Wilson represents their state.)
I felt certain for the first time tonight that Obama will win and we will get national healthcare. Along with many on the liberal left, I would prefer single-payer national healthcare such as France has. But this is a good compromise that will end the tyranny of the insurance companies. People have long underestimated and written off Obama to their later chagrin. It happened during the 2008 campaign--remember how his candidacy was supposedly doomed by his friendship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright?--and it's happening now. He will win, and so will we.