<p>All of the Democratic Presidential candidates took place in a health care forum in Las Vegas on Saturday. It was apparently webcast live, but so far I’ve struck out trying to find the entire forum posted for replay.</p>
<p>However, here is a 10 minute YouTube collection of highlights: Edwards, Richardson, Obama, and Clinton.</p>
<p>This is the first time I’ve seen Obama answer questions. Disappointingly, his Road to the White House segment on C-SPAN last night only showed him shaking hands, not answering questions. Very unusual for C-SPAN. It almost makes me wonder if he is barring the media from his Q&A sessions at town hall meetings?</p>
<p>Kind of doubt it - he is very good on his feet (and we’ve seen that all over on the news shows). He has a knack for rephrasing the questions asked better than the questioner posed them, making the questioner feel smarter, and then answering them, usually in a measured manner. Not very fiery, or very folksy, but inviting. How he’d do in a debate is anyone’s guess.</p>
<p>I dunno. I’ve never seen C-SPAN film at a town hall meeting and ONLY broadcast the glad-handing and kissing babies at the end in one of their Road to the White House shows. Strangest thing. Unlike some of the other candidates, he doesn’t have video of any of his Q&A sessions on his website, either.</p>
<p>I’ve yet to see Obama field questions in a group setting. I’ve seen his prepared speech and his baby-kissing, but nothing in between. The YouTube clip I posted above may indicate why. Some college kid (a Clinton plant?) just nailed him on lack of specifics. A “humina-humina-humina” campaign moment. And, I say that well aware of the fact that campaign specifics are mostly hot air.</p>
<p>Seven Democratic candidates for president promised Saturday to guarantee health insurance for all, but they disagreed over how to pay for it and how fast it could be achieved.Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York assailed the health insurance industry and said she would prohibit insurers from denying coverage or charging much higher premiums to people with medical problems.</p>
<p>John Edwards, the former senator from North Carolina, offered the most detailed plan for universal coverage, saying he would raise taxes to help pay the cost, which he estimated at $90 billion to $120 billion a year.</p>
<p>Senator Barack Obama of Illinois appeared less conversant with the details of health policy and sometimes found himself on the defensive, trying to explain why he had yet to offer a detailed plan to cover all Americans. </p>
<p>“The most important challenge is to build a political consensus around the need to solve this problem,” Mr. Obama said. </p>
<p>Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico offered a potpourri of ideas to achieve universal coverage, including tax credits to help people buy insurance and an option to let people ages 55 to 64 buy coverage through Medicare.</p>
<p>To help pay for his proposals, Mr. Richardson said, he would “get out of Iraq” and redirect money from the military to health care.</p>
<p>“I’ve yet to see Obama field questions in a group setting.”</p>
<p>I have, but it was an unusually receptive and uniform crowd (law school alumni event). It’s a much bigger challenge to try to give off-the-cuff answers that satisfy a wide demographic. And yes, I agree that his campaign is still deciding on official planks, and he may be trying not to go on the record yet as far as specifics.</p>
<p>I’m just amazed that Obama shows up at a health care forum, sponsored by a health workers union, without a list of talking points. Either his campaign staff has a lot of work to do or he is steadfastly determined to say nothing during the campaign.</p>
<p>I had to chuckle when Edwards said that we have to find ways to take unnecessary expense out of health care delivery. I wonder if he would describe forcing knowledgeable, experienced doctors to deliver all babies by C-section so they don’t get sued by some ambulance-chasing personal injury attorney for cerebral palsey unrelated to delivery as being “efficient health care”?</p>
<p>No wonder Sen. Clinton was in a good mood at the Nevada forum on Saturday. The New York Post reports that she had just capped off a $10 million fundraising week with events in NYC, Washington, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.</p>
<p>interesteddad, I had the same reaction: how can Obama NOT be conversant on the subject! It’s one of the top issues for American voters… if his campaign managers are this out of touch with the electorate, Obama has a looong way to go as a viable candidate…</p>
<p>It’s a dangerous topic for him. Sen. Clinton has a PhD in universal health care reform from the University of Hard Knocks. I would not want to engage her in a debate on that issue. Almost any position Obama could take would provide ammunition for Hillary to pummel him in a debate down the road. His strategy is clear: be the Rorschach Test candidate. Say as little as possible and let voters see whatever they want reflected in his still pool.</p>
<p>I don’t expect him to a have a real universal health care plan. But, at least have a list of three or four bullet points when you show up at a health care forum. He was stumbling around like George Bush with his answer.</p>
<p>It was interesting that Clinton was the only candidate who did not glibly promise universal health care by the end of the first term. Part of that is strategic: she’s trying to stake out the most centrist position of the Dems in the race. Part of it is just experience. As she says, she has the scars from trying to do too much, too fast.</p>
<p>Excuse me, but she singlehandedly created the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in 1997, marshalled bipartisan support for it, and it certainly ranks as the single most important piece of health care legislation in the nation since the creation of Medicare.</p>
<p>mini, are you saying that as First Lady, Hillary Clinton singlehandedly passed or created Title XXI of the Balanced Budget act of 1997? Do you have any supporting links to that effect? If it’s true, I’d like to give her credit. But I have my doubts about any First Lady having that kind of control over Congress.</p>
<p>1sokkermom, based on your many other posts, I’m sure you don’t think “bringing health insurance to the children of the working poor is insignificant.” I don’t know any mothers who would agree with that statement, regardless of whether or not it applies to their own children.</p>
<p>It was the “singlehandedly” comment that made my skin crawl. You are absolutely correct that I am very concerned about health care.</p>
<p>(I personally have a child with a chronic illness, and understand completely about health care needs and issues. It is an important part of our lives. And even though I have a decent health care plan, I spend a tremendous amount of money each month on medical neccessities not covered!)</p>
<p>Hillary Clinton, based on her long experience in this particular field, drew up the budget for the program, drew up the bill, got Republicans and Democrats to agree to sign on, gathered bipartisan support among the public to lobby for its passage. I am saying, pointblank and unequivocally, that the CHIP program would never have been created without Hillary Clinton. (and I worked for our state’s board of health at the time, and was charged with following this development very, very closely.)</p>
<p>mini, do you have any internet links? I’m interested in reading more about her role. I think it’s a wonderful program, but since she was not an elected representative at the time, how is it that she “drew up the budget for the program, drew up the bill, got Republicans and Democrats to agree to sign on, gathered bipartisan support among the public to lobby for its passage.” Isn’t that a little outside the usual role for a first lady?</p>
<p>sjmom, for cripe’s sake. there’s google. and there’s history. Hillary Clinton and her husband never intended her to fulfull the usual role for first lady. Remember her ‘bake cookies’ comment? Or his 'you get two for the price of one" ?</p>