I hate McCain too, but i would’ve used a different example to show what a douchebag he is on this issue. You see i work in a radiation oncology clinic that accepts all patients regardless of their ability to pay. We have a lot of non-compliant patients who show up for their treatments only when they feel like it. This not only negates the effectiveness of the treatments, but extends the number of days that we have to keep them on the schedule. They are occupying time slots needed by other patients, who must now wait to start their treatment. So yes, if you can’t stick to your radiation treatments then tell your doctor that you are refusing treatment and then go away.

Not his, of course. You know. Somebody else’s.

No, ‘Public Health Initiatives’ means paying Repub-friendly PR firms to make PSAs announcing that sick people without money are helping the terrorists. Because if God had wanted you to live forever, or at least long enough to be a drain on Social Security, He would have graciously permitted you to be born into a family that could buy its medical care on the GloriousFreeMarket(tm). Personal Responsibility,on the other hand, means having enough money (or power, the two being pretty well interchangeable in the GFM) to buy all the medical care you want.

After all, once Jawn McPain was no longer healthy enough to continue his life-long coverage on the Federal military teat, he was smart enough to dump crippled-&-no-longer-cost-effective Wife #1 for a younger model with a rich daddy who could buy him a Senate seat, thus guaranteeing McPain continued access to the Best Medical Care! Why can’t the rest of learn from Old Jawn’s crafty ways, rather than whining about sick infants and needless suffering and similar depressing topics?

The experience of the crucible of war does tend to focus the mind, and it does make you examine the choices you make in different, more stark relief. But it does not define character. To think that McCain, or MacArthur, or me should come out of our experience as great statesmen or honest players is to both overestimate the value of the experience and to misunderstand it’s most profound effects.

McCain has to deal with his demons, as do we all. But we have to decide if we want the leader of our political system to be someone WITH those demons.

I’d say no.

It isn’t the experience of war that shaped McCain that we have to be concerned about. Oh no.

It’s the impact of the brutality of war on a deeply ambitious man. He wants all the marbles. And his own marbles are in question. He wants to have the power. The question for the rest of us is, does it make sense to vest that power in his hands.

I’m going to say a big, loud, frightened NO!

mikey

You make him sound a little like Col. Willis Corto.

Only if they help. If your Public Health Initiative to stem the growing obesity epidemic is a series of PSAs where McCain calls fat kids names, a bloody-minded refusal to stop subsidizing corn syrup so we can make Castro cry, and doctors turning diabetes patients away because it’s their own fault, you’re good.

Meaning what, exactly? If you’re the victim of medical errors or mismanagement, you’re shit out of luck?

Well, in a world not controlled by the GOP style of Government By Lobby, one might assume this means the persons responsible for medical errors or mismanagement (doctors and hospitals and pharmacies, for example) should pay to correct them, not some random third party. But then you remember the whole tort reform thing and you realize that, no, they pretty much mean you’re SOL. Keep your eye on the ball, kids.

I was just thinking his campaign slogan should be McCain: More Evil Than Bush, Dumber Than Cheney!

‘Sup?

Whaddayasay I Iaunch my bunker buster missile into your hardened silo, eh babe?

Babe?

Um, where ya goin?

mikey

As opposed to our current efforts to synthesize a plague capable of destroying Martian invaders?

Seeing that pile of contradictory platitudes under the heading “Straight Talk” just made me that much more annoyed.