Friday, April 27, 2007

Democrats: There are a lot of choices out there. . .


The democratic debate last night had me thinking about the scene from Whit Stillman's "Last Days of Disco" when Alice and Charlotte are looking down over a huge dancing throng and one of them muses (somewhat wistfully),

"There are a lot of choices out there."

As a life-long Democrat, I have had many opportunities to be dissapointed by our party's habit of stumbling all over ourselves when given the chance to shine. An old Sat Night Live skit mimicking the Bush-Daddy/Dukakis debate said it all for me. After Dana Carvey's dead-one Bush rambles incoherently, Jon Lovitz's Dukakis mutters,

"I can't believe I'm losing to this guy."

This is a talented field of candidates. My early crush on Richardson wained a bit tonight. The "big three" all did well but the one who I would chose if I had to right this minute was-- Hillary. (Believe me, no one is more surprised than I am by that). But she was posed, prepared and knowledgeable. We are ready for "the best and the brightest" to come try and clean up this mess the Bushies have made, yes?

Hillary gave an answer to the health care question that really resonated with me and I NEVER hear people talk about it -- those of us in the middle class who have health insurance who also need health care relief. I have a good job with a decent salary, but after being diagnosed at age 44 with Inflammatory Breast Cancer, a particularly aggressive form of the disease, I found that even my company's excellent insurance was not enough. My treatment cost almost a quarter of a million dollars and I paid over $20,000 out of pocket in co-payments and related costs. Every one of us in the middle class is just one catastrophic health crisis away from losing everything we work so hard for. Reform has to be more than just universal coverage.

Stay tuned. It's not too soon to be paying attention.

No comments: