I understand as well as anyone, that the health care finance reform
process has been dispiriting so far. Congressman Joe Wilson of
South Carolina has
href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6165489/Barack-Obama-health-care-speech-Republican-calls-president-a-liar.html">brought
the process to a new low. So low, in fact, that his
href="http://www.joewilson.house.gov/">website is down for
maintenance (at the moment, anyway), and the
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Addison_G._Wilson">WIkipedia page
about him has been locked, due to vandalism.
When the debate got started, I expected to be posting regularly on the
topic. But the debate did not last very long. Instead, all
we’ve gotten has been a zoological garden of logical fallacies,
rhetorical tricks, and propaganda.
So the one really good idea I have to offer, at this point, is this:
Barack Obama should invite Joe Wilson to the White House for a
beer. (Perhaps offering the
href="http://www.rjrockers.com/home.asp">Son of a Peach from RJ Rockers
brewery; it’d be a nice touch, it being a South Carolina product.)
If Wilson accepts, then Obama gets to salvage his desired image
as a bipartisan peacemaker. If Wilson refuses, then, well, Wilson
looks like an even bigger jerk.