Saw it live. Amazing bit of television.  Talk about one pissed off announcer with nowhere to go.

As I heard a politician say on CSPAN today (didn't get the name - just in the car briefly with the radio on), the problems we face as a nation are not terribly complex.  They are all solvable.  It is only politically that they are impossible to solve.  So that is where we are - solvable problems but impossible politics. If we go over the cliff and they take us with them, then throw them all out. Cross party lines if necessary, but start over with a new crew. If you are in a red state, vote blue and throw the bum out.  If you are in a blue state, vote red and throw the bum out. Tell them that the country, not their damned parties, is the issue.

So, we are going to have to revisit healthcare.  What should we learn first? Legislation designed totally by committee with buy-in from only part of the political world isn't the best of ideas. I hold Republicans primarily responsible, since they took their ball and went home even when the suggested legislation was very similar to their proposals, but there is, as usual, blame enough to go around.  The answer, as the civilized world knows, is national healthcare.  Lower cost, bigger bang for the buck, a healthier populace than we have, lower infant mortality, lower drug costs, and so on. But one scream of socialism is more powerful in this  country that can't quite define any of the isms than a ton of evidence. So we are in for another 10 years or so of suffering before we arrive at the point we could have reached under Nixon, Clinton, Obama.  Did I leave anyone out? They all tried but ran into the lunatic fringe.

I was invited over for a look from another site.  By most accounts, I'm liberal, but I believe in compromise.  In fact, I usually think of people who are so certain of themselves that they can't reexamine their positions as blighted, suffering from terminal self-inflation. Given half a chance, I can learn from conservatives, but not if they are too busy hating me to explain the facts behind their positions.  I am around 70, but still manage an optimistic thought at least once a day. If Romney had become president, and I certainly did not want him to, I would be busy right now wishing him well and searching for areas of agreement where I could back him.  Am I in the right place?