From Fireside Chat to weekly radio address, and now to Youtube. I imagine this 21st century update won’t surprise anyone, considering the “net-savviness” the Obama team showed during the campaign. One thing is for sure though, this presidency is likely to set the bar in its use of communications technologies and innovations. And here’s the video itself.

Unlike many conservative pundits and commentators, I seem to have been absent the day they passed out Obama’s magic mind-meld helmet, so I don’t really know for certain what actions he’s going to take and what the focus of the new administration will be. What I do know is that on the campaign trail a lot of words have been spent discussing how to address our nation’s ailing health care system, and how to approach the goal of universal coverage. Obama, McCain, and Clinton all had their own ideas. And while some face time was given to Medicare, to my mind it was not nearly enough.

Medicare is our red-headed step child. Much effort and political capital was spent by the Bush administration pushing to “fix” Social Security. Compared to the estimated liabilities of Medicare though, Social Security’s future looks rosy. I understand some Democrats’ reluctance to confront the flaws in one of the pillars of our social safety net, but the need is most definitely there. Not only for the sake of the program, but for the larger impact on our health care system as a whole. In the discussion of the best road towards universal health coverage, the phrase “single-payer” has become anathema to many. And why not, when our limited experiment with single payer (Medicare) has such problems? Why should we vote ourselves into a program that appears to have issues just dealing with its current subscribers? This is why Medicare is so central to the debate on health care, especially for Democrats. Any movement towards an increased governmental role in health care will be regarded with skepticism so long as the problems in Medicare go unaddressed. And as for where to start, may I recommend to President-Elect Obama’s staff that they discuss with Senator McCain some of the proposals he suggested on the stump - cutting fraud, increasing adoption of technologies (like EMR systems), innovative care solutions (like PACE), and reforming payment methodologies (some progress was just made on this).

I personally believe that true universal coverage will only be achieved with a radical redesign of our health care system, and the likely adoption of a single payer system, though not necessarily on the Medicare model. Some of the ideas of Ezekiel Emanuel (Rahm Emanuel’s brother) and Victor Fuchs as presented in this TNR article and their book Healthcare, Guaranteed look very promising. But until the government can demonstrate that it can efficiently and effectively operate Medicare, the move towards such a system would be a true leap of faith.

From the one “newspaper” i actually get in print, The Onion (oh the irony).

Obama Win Causes Obsessive Supporters To Realize How Empty Their Lives Are

After all, if you can’t laugh at yourself, then who can you laugh at?

Barack Obama’s grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, has passed away. My deepest condolences to Senator Obama and his family. I can only imagine the horrible storm of emotions he must be going through, losing the grandmother who helped raise him the day before he may be elected President. Thank God he left the campaign trail the weekend before last to spend time with her.

GOP endorsements for the Obama-Biden ticket keep coming in, and I expect will continue to do so down to the wire. Earlier this week we had former Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) who was “the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate”. The next day, former Senator Charles “Mac” Mathias, Jr. (R-MD) added his voice to the chorus. And then yesterday, the story broke that Ken Duberstein, who served multiple positions in Reagan’s administration including White House Chief of Staff in 88-89, taped an interview with Fareed Zakaria (set to air tomorrow) in which he announced his intention to vote for Barack Obama.

Note to other closet Obamicans: You’re running out of time. If you don’t come out of the closet soon, people may be left with the mistaken impression that you actually supported McCain-Palin. And you wouldn’t want that, would you?

Your neighbors are voting. You’re not. That could be a problem.

A video for North Carolina voters, by Dave Willis (Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies) and Scott Jacobson (The Daily Show, SNL’s “TV Funhouse”).

Looks like Obama’s primetime network roadblock tomorrow night won’t be complete (ABC will still air its normal programming), but that still leaves NBC, CBS, and Fox airing his 30 minute ad/speech at 8 PM.

ABC Jumps Too Late On Obama’s ‘Buy’

I understand the idea, but I think this is a big mistake. I have this vision of someone changing channels to get away from politics and they keep getting his address. It’s a worn out sitcom joke becoming reality.

Another one of his targeted, time-relevant two minute spots would have been a much better choice, IMHO. Long enough to break the mold, make the viewer take notice and present his argument, but not hit the attention span wall. This will likely just annoy independents and give his critics a fresh load of ammo to paint this in the worst possible light. I just don’t see the upside.

For those not keeping up on their viral video, a couple of new ones have been making the rounds in the last couple days. But hey, it’s just more liberal, communist, hollywood types endorsing Obama, right?

Just to correct the record:

Police: Campaign Volunteer Lied, Injured Self

Politico has an interesting article up in which it notes the findings of recent Pew study showing the media coverage of McCain over the last six weeks or so was mostly negative. Obama’s coverage on the other hand was slightly positive in total. They also analyze the coverage of the VP candidates, noting Biden’s coverage was almost as poor as McCain’s.

While they do tie much of the coverage of McCain to his own actions, the study makes an interesting connection between the results of the many opinion polls and the media coverage, noticing a corresponding relationship. The question is though, did the polls influence the coverage, or did the coverage influence the polls?

Yahoo News (AP) - Al-Qaida-linked Web site backs McCain as president

Well, many folks predicted it, but now it’s official. Not too surprising, since Powell’s foreign policy recommendations and stances are pretty much in sync with Obama’s.

As they say, a picture is worth 1000 words. (Photo: Associated Press)

WSJ has some details.

In case you somehow missed it, here’s Rep Bachmann (R-MN) in her oscar-worthy performance as Sen Joe McCarthy:

We start with the now well-worn Anti-American by association card, then move to expanding the associations. Matthews decides to call her bluff, figuring she’ll back down and look like the shill she’s playing the role of. But no, Bachmann refuses to relent, and throws down a royal flush of straight on McCarthyism craziness. Are we really so doomed to repeat our worst history? What’s next, War Relocation Camps for Muslims? Or maybe a resurrection of the Sedition Act?

USAToday - Former global leaders in Iran to support Khatami