Mr. Obama still has time to reverse course. A great deal depends on it. To fail on health care yet again might well be the Waterloo Republicans dream of. – Thomas Frank
Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them. – Thomas Frank
Money has transformed every watchdog, every independent authority. Medical doctors are increasingly gulled by the lobbying of pharmaceutical salesmen. – Thomas Frank
There is much to dislike about President Obamas approach to the financial crisis. But opposition, it seems, will have to come from somewhere other than conservatism. The party out of power is also a party out of touch. – Thomas Frank
As a people, we have become obsessed with Health. There is something fundamentally, radically unhealthy about all this. We do not seem to be seeking more exuberance in living as much as staving off failure, putting off dying. We have lost all confidence in the human body. – Lewis Thomas, The Medusa and the Snail, 1979