I understand as well as anyone, that the health care finance reform
process has been dispiriting so far. Congressman Joe Wilson of
South Carolina has
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6165489/Barack-Obama-health-care-speech-Republican-calls-president-a-liar.html">brought
the process to a new low. So low, in fact, that his
href="http://www.joewilson.house.gov/">website is down for
maintenance (at the moment, anyway), and the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison_G._Wilson">WIkipedia page
about him has been locked, due to vandalism.
When the debate got started, I expected to be posting regularly on the
topic. But the debate did not last very long. Instead, all
we've gotten has been a zoological garden of logical fallacies,
rhetorical tricks, and propaganda.
So the one really good idea I have to offer, at this point, is this:
Barack Obama should invite Joe Wilson to the White House for a
beer. (Perhaps offering the
href="http://www.rjrockers.com/home.asp">Son of a Peach from RJ Rockers
brewery; it'd be a nice touch, it being a South Carolina product.)
If Wilson accepts, then Obama gets to salvage his desired image
as a bipartisan peacemaker. If Wilson refuses, then, well, Wilson
looks like an even bigger jerk.
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Ah, but the loons would think this was a sneaky trick to entice the honorable Mr Wilson into the White House to appear in front of a secret Death Panel!
Sadly, the state of American politics on the right wing seems to plumb ever new depths of discourtesy and dishonesty. What scum.
Hmmmmm.... Nice idea, but I would advise Obama to not do it. Wilson would except (he is a man of great hubris) and would use it as a platform.
Unless the death panel thing could be worked out of course .... Hmmmmmm
I'm tired of Mr. Nice Guy President. I want a Happy Warrior. Or, even better, a scowling, angry warrior, like a Chuck Norris of the Left. There is no reasoning with the crusty nugget of poop that currently constitutes the core of the Republican Party. Time to smash. And get some legislation passed.
A nice idea in principle, but an unworkable policy.
If Obama were to share a beer with (even only) his most irrational opponents, he'd become a terminal alcoholic before finishing his first year in the White House.