Back in 2000, I suppose some Republican could have defended Bush from my charges on similar grounds. They could have pointed out that Congress was free to overturn Helms-Burton, and that the details of implementing it would be worked out at lower levels, anyway, so my whole argument wasn't going to amount to a hill of beans. But, of course, that was untrue. Smoke and mirrors aside, Bush was campaigning on a promise he knew to be completely unworkable, and he was doing it simply because it gave him a platform from which to take cheap shots at the more honest position of his opponent. That's what Obama's doing this time.

He knows his health plan, as proposed, is unworkable. So why is he selling it? The answer is simple. He knows that selling a fairy tale will make him popular. He knows that McCain's health plan will be vulnerable because it allows insurers to deny coverage for preexisting conditions, and that the plans of Clinton and Edwards are vulnerable because they mandate coverage. So, nevermind the fact that you have to make a hard choice between those two models. Obama will simply pretend you can have both no denial of coverage for preexisting conditions and not mandate of coverage, knowing full well that doesn't work. That way he can take cheap shots in both directions.

I give him full credit for being such a sly and cynical politician. It was a very smart lie, and has doubtless helped him a lot this campaign season, and may help him even more in the general election (assuming McCain doesn't get more media traction than Clinton did in pointing to the flaws of Obama's plan). Obama's a very slick politician, and knows how to tell people whatever they want to hear. But when I watch him taking dishonest shots at an honest plan, while he touts his own fairy tale, I have a problem with that, even if it is highly effective.