Bill Roth

Things I have no choice but to write

Category: politics (Page 2 of 2)

Political Advertizing the in Philadelphia Market

September 30, 2009 / / 0 Comments

One thing I will miss when I move back to San Jose is Philadelphia politics. Because of its proximity to DC, and the fact that it is a much more competitive state than California, make it a vastly more interesting place to watch politics.

Take for example the issue advocacy ads. The one running on MSNBC right now is one from Heath Care For America Now. The ad, which strikes me as overtly political, is actually from a 501c4 issue advocacy organization, the Health Care Action Network. Their key tag line is:

If Insurance Companies Win, You Lose.

Interestingly, no talk about a public option. They do not single out any politician or piece of legislation, but say “Call Congress….”.

Its a pretty good site. Its media rich, which makes it slow on my netbook, and they are using Google Analytics, which shows some sophistication.

Public Option Day

September 29, 2009 / / 0 Comments

MSNBC is saying its Public Option Day.

Interesting fact, only Baseball and Healthcare have exemptions from the Sherman Anti-Trust act.

In my view we need a mild public option, like support for Kaiser-like co-ops.

We need to take an incremental approach. It seems to me that this year’s healthcare solution should take the following form:

1. Eliminate pre-existing condition rejection
2. Some tort reform.
3. Either eliminate monopoly control in states where monopolies exist, or:
4. Allow healthcare companies to act nationally (with a limit on the martket concetration).

Key point being this is a big hard problem, and democracies can not often handle radical change without a non-existential threat.

Bill Safire, R.I.P, Vast Right Wing Conspiracy moves on

September 28, 2009 / / 0 Comments

I mourn the passing of William Safire today. Like Nicholas Kristoff, I disagreed with many of his political views, but his writing was beyond reproach. His On Language column was amazing.

In other news,  President Clinton says the VRWC (Vast Right Wing Conspiracy) has moved on to attach President Obama. If this is the case, the VRWC is clearly fielding their second or third team. *Iam talking to you “Birthers”…..

2010 Midterm elections

September 27, 2009 / / 0 Comments

They are predicting, on the Chris Matthews Show, that there is a good chance that Democrats will loose the House in 2010. In order to do this they would have to loose 38 house seats. Nate Silver and Charlie Cook are both predicting that there is a good chance that this will happen. But Stu Rothenberg has a point: This is like 2 tsunamis striking on after another.

We’ll see.

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