Playing the Middle Against Both Sides - #politics

No one is giving Barack Obama much credit for continuing to try to be President of the United States at a time when the nation, politically and ideologically, is split in half.

Despite repeated setbacks and rebuffs, he is still trying to do what he was elected to do: Be President to the people on both sides of the big divide.

So he is not likely to veer sharply left and become President of the Progressives. And those on the right long ago decided to treat him like the Antichrist or, on a day when they are feeling magnanimous, merely as Public Enemy #1.

Personally, I wish the President now would side strongly, firmly and loudly with the Progressives, the liberals and moderates who still believe it is possible to take care of the least among us while also creating jobs, restoring education, encouraging science and fighting our way out of the Great George W. Bush Recession.

But then, President Obama would not be doing the job he was elected to do, which is to serve all of the people, even the ones who have tried long and hard to wreck his Administration at every turn and thus prolong the nation's economic woes for their own political gain.

In any case, a presidential move to the left would only raise the outrage and partisan resistance of the right, widening the great gap even more and further deepening it.

If Barack Obama is not re-elected, the next President -- Perry, Romney, Bachmann or ? -- likely will not try to represent anyone to the left of deep right field, except with sneering lip service.

In that case, the political gridlock will worsen and the right-left divide simply will expand as battered Democrats pull out their now-long list of grievances and seek revenge and full payback for all that the Republicans have done to them during the Obama Administration.

Electing a President in 2012 who is to the right of center will just give us four more years of stalemate and empty, futile political posturing.

Like it or not, America's economic recovery and psychic recovery will have to happen somewhere in the murky center.

It will never happen in the now sharply defined right or left.

-- Si Dunn

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C-130 Pilot vs. Commander in Chief

I'm not buying Texas Gov. Rick Perry's contention that he is more "military" than President Obama. Yes, Mr. Obama was a community organizer, and he did not serve a tour of duty in any of the U.S. armed forces. And yes, Capt. Perry flew Air Force C-130 transport planes. By the way, thank you for your service, Governor.

Still, there's nothing more "military" than being the Commander in Chief of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Marines, and the U.S. Coast Guard. You head all five branches at once, and you deal daily with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Pentagon and assorted military advisors.

You make decisions that send thousands of men and women into harm's way. You also make other life-and-death decisions that far exceed a pilot's responsibilities to a C-130 flight crew or squadron. For example, you give the final go/no-go decision on whether or not to invade a supposed ally's airspace and territory to kill or capture a major leader of international terrorism. You try to convince allies to stay the course as you wind down two unpopular wars you inherited mid-battle. You make repeated trips to Dover Air Force Base  to witness and salute the flag-covered coffins coming home from combat operations and overseas accidents. You try to comfort the families of those who lost sons, daughters, husbands, wives, brothers or sisters in operations that you okayed. And you try to decide which defense programs or military operations should continue and which can be curtained to meet both dwindling economic resources and dwindling political and popular support. Oh, and you stay prepared to launch nuclear-tippped missiles in response to an attack on the United States or key allies.

In my view, President Barack Obama has now garnered one hell of a lot more overall military experience than any ex-C-130 pilot currently seeking the Republican nomination.

-- Si Dunn

Health Insurance? Help Us Afford It

The Associated Press has reported that the health insurance industry is offering "for the first time to curb its controversial practice of charging higher premiums to people with a history of medical problems."

If you've ever had a medical problem, then lost a job or started a small business and tried to buy individual health coverage, you likely have run into this little problem:

If you need it, you really can't afford it.

Republicans have long pushed for "market solutions" to the health insurance problem. And the "solutions" the market keeps delivering tend to be priced somewhere beyond sky-high.

According to the AP article posted by CBS News, "[a]bout 7 percent of Americans buy their coverage as individuals, while more than 60 percent have job-based insurance."

The percentage for individuals likely would be much higher if monthly premiums for health insurance did not rival or exceed mortgage payments and car payments. Meanwhile, people with employer-provided health insurance are paying sharply higher premiums and co-payments and getting squeezed hard, too.

"The offer here is to transition away from risk rating, which is one of the things that makes life hell for real people," health economist Len Nichols of the New America Foundation public policy center told the AP. "They have never in their history offered to give up risk rating."

According to the AP report on the CBS News site, insurers hope to head off the creation of a government insurance plan that would compete with them, something that liberals and many Democrats are pressing for.

The AP report did not mention that Republicans long have opposed government-sponsored health insurance plans, touting vague "market solutions," instead. These are the same "market solutions" that have helped keep many of the 47 million or so uninsured Americans priced out of the health-insurance market and in the "if you need it, you can't afford it" category.

The current offers from the insurance industry fall short in one very big category: small business, which creates the vast majority of new jobs in the American economy. Small businesses, under the new proposal, would have to keep paying higher premiums and deal with risk ratings. One sick employee could send premiums through the roof.

So the news on risk ratings seems to be significant, but now is not the time for the Obama Administration to ease off on its health-insurance plans. If anything, the White House needs to ratchet up its proposals and keep holding the health-insurance industry's feet to the fire.

-- Si Dunn