Thursday, December 31, 2009

The New US Health Plan: Courtesy of Bob Bird

I'd take a bet that not one of the 13,113 Alaskans who voted for Nikiski's Bob Bird would have voted for Mark Begich. But if Bob didn't run, most of his votes would have gone to Ted Stevens who trailed his opponent by a little over 3000 votes.

Without Mark Begich in the US Senate, the Democrats would not have had the 60th vote needed to quell Republican efforts to filibuster. The defeat would have been,as the Republicans pledged, President Obama's Waterloo.

No matter your political bent, it's way too early to evaluate what the new policy will bring, after all there has been no melding of the House and Senate bills yet. I've yet to see a (sane) critique of the either proposal that doesn't have a both a good/bad position. Well, maybe more bad than good, but that argument is for another post.

Regardless, Bob Bird will have had the most important role in passing whatever health care legislation that does become law. Has it ever happened in US History when one so insignificant on the national scale, might change the course of the nation?

And can you imagine that Bob, a history teacher at Nikiski High and one of the most conservative gentlemen that you will ever meet, might not appreciate his place in the books?

I think I will rub it in the next time I see him!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

And I went to sleep on the eve of the new year with a smile on my lips. Any angst caused by Bob's stands over the years has been poofed away with your magic SOL wand. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

God Bless all the spoilers that turn elections. Nader being the exception to the blessing.

Wolfe Tone said...

Another, similarly ironic situation:
On his blog and in other public forums, Andrew Halcror is one of Sarah Palin's biggest detractors.

In 2006, Halcro ran as an independent gubernatorial candidate against Tony Knowles and Sarah Palin.

Sarah won by 17,459 votes.
Halcro garnered a total of 22,443.

It could be argued that those votes may not have translated into Knowles votes, but since those voters did NOT want Sarah, and there is no substantive difference between the politics of Knowles and Halcro, my guess is that she would likely have been an also-ran had Halcro not been in the race.

She would not have been a Vice-Presidential candidate, there would be no "Going Rogue" book tour, and there would be no talk of her as a 2012 Presidential hopeful.

So, we can thank Andrew Halcro for her celebrity, and, additionally, for the election of President Obama (not that I'm complaining about the latter).

Elwood Foreclift said...

So Wolfe,
Are you saying that the loyal readers of Playgirl magazine owe Andrew Halcro some gratitude?

Wolfe Tone said...

Exactly, Elwood.
Just as Pajamas TV can thank Andrew for Joe the Plumber's hard-hitting news coverage.
I believe it's called The Butterfly Effect.
Except the butterfly, in this case, turned out to be Mothra.

Ishmael said...

As rightwingnut wacky as Bob is, he really wowed me with his performance as the singing salesman on the train at the beginning of the Kenai Performer's production of "The Music Man."

Anonymous said...

as a singing salesman on a train in a Kenai adaptation of 'Music Man' is as far as Bob should ever go.

Anonymous said...

Why is it that an armed (knife point) robbery can take place, four people get tossed in cuffs and nobody knows nothing? Fred Meyers parking lot 12-29-2009, maybe there is no crime in Soldotna. Or maybe it hits too close to home for SPD.


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