From last night’s All-Stars.
On Obama’s health-care town hall in New Hampshire:
I thought the key event in this town hall was when Obama said he did not support a single-payer system — which means a government-run system — and the reason he gave is because the transition would be disruptive, not because he opposes it on principle.
In fact, we know that before he became a national candidate, he supported a Canadian-style system, which is a way of saying he still believes in it.
And we heard from high-ranking Democrats who have admitted in Congress that the public option is the royal road to a government-run system.
So it leads to a lot of suspicion, and I think warranted suspicion, that the public option is the camel’s nose — a way to get us started on the road inevitably to a government-run system.
On Hillary Clinton’s irate response to the mistranslated question in the Congo:
She lost it. It was not a real good moment. In part, I’m sure it was because she thought she was being treated as an appendage of her husband.
But I think part of it is also the venue. Here you have Richard Holbrooke running Afghanistan and Pakistan — the heart of our troubles in Asia. You have George Mitchell in the Middle East. You have envoys here and there, and she is the secretary of state, and she’s sitting in the Congo, in the Congo?
You’ve got Petraeus running Afghanistan. You’ve got Odierno running Iraq. She is totally marginalized, sitting in Kinshasa. I’m sure it is a great city — in fact, it’s not — but the Congo? Africa is very low on the scale of important interests of the United States.
She was supposed to be the president of the United States at this point. She was going to be queen of the world. Instead, Obama bestrides the world. He gives speeches in the great capitals, in Cairo — and she is in the Congo! You’d be upset, also.