None of this is a prediction on the 2012 election, by the way. Obama is an outstanding campaigner and is likely to be personally popular three and a half years from now. And there’s no sign at all that the Republicans have revitalized their message and have a strong candidate ready to carry it.

There are those days that I wonder whether the Republican Party will ever again be a National player! That said, their constant negative hammering, and their easy access to the dreadful liberal press will have an effect. I suspect that if you asked folks what policy or action led to their negative impression of Nancy Pelosi they would be at a loss to answer.

Open the window James, take a deep breath, clear your head a bit, and promise not to use the term “socialized medicine” without confronting the reality of the American Medical scene. If socialized medicine means you will no longer be able to chose your own physician, or consulting doc, guess what, most Insurance carriers are already imposing those limits. If you mean socialized medicine will limit what treatment options are available to you, guess what, Insurance carriers do that routinely if you start costing too much money. If you equate government sponsored health care with socialized medicine, where do you place Medicare and Medicaid in the scheme of things?

For those who get their tingles from polls, the quoted Wall Street Journal NBC poll will make salacious reading. On page 19 the series of questions on Health Care begin with question 30, which is graphed out at the beginning of this blog. Based on a quick perusal, there is a “core” of respondents, in the range of 33 to 35% who oppose further government involvement in health care.

The clunker is question 34a (pg 21) that centers on the importance of having a choice available between a public and private plan. Combining those that felt this was Extremely important (43%) and Quite important (35%) an astounding 76% wish this option to be available.

It is question 34c that should warm the hearts of all those who shout Socialized Medicine from the roof tops. Of the respondents, 42% believed that the proposed Public Plan would “Limit access to doctors and treatment options”. This, when Medicare, the proposed model, does neither.

Sigh, Dave Shuler may be right, but I sure wish he would stop pointing out my ignorance.

R. Paul Miller, MD

You see, increasing government control and government spending has always and invariably been the easy way out...and like most easy ways out, and most 'shortcuts', it ends up biting us in the ass.

When Mr. Obama starts making really hard choices, like actually cutting spending on something other than the miliary, I'll consider this differently.

There really isn't anything unusual on his numbers either where they were or where they are heading.