There is plenty of coverage elsewhere of this historic event (an achievement US presidents have aspired to since Teddy Roosevelt), but it was particularly interesting for me on Sunday to watch the healthcare debate in the House unfold as I wrote at my Mac.
Rather than watch on TV (which we have now abandoned entirely), I watched on the Huffington Post's excellent website, which offered live streaming video - unmediated by commentary, which allowed one to get a true sense of the pace of the process in the House - along with three columns of streaming Twitter feeds, one labelled simply "Health Care Reform" and the other two, "Liberal" and "Conservative."
It was especially fascinating - in equal parts compelling, entertaining and horrifying - to read the "Conservative" tweets from increasingly sour-grapes Republicans who saw, as former Bush speechwriter, David Frum, put it so eloquently, their Waterloo approaching.
It was deeply disturbing that there was a tweet that afternoon (west coast time) calling for the assassination of President Obama - but, given the vitriol on the Republican side, that sadly seems hardly surprising. Redefining a move to improve health care as a bill that "kills babies" is obscene - especially when those who fight for the rights of the "unborn" (and I have very complex feelings about abortion) so often are the very same people who believe firmly in capital punishment (barbaric, in my opinion and that of most of the world) and morally and legally questionable atrocities such as the Iraq War.
In any case, today is a great day for America, for progress, for health care - and for President Obama, whom I believe far too many have underestimated in terms of his clarity of vision, his persistence and his ability to work around the roadblocks of Washington. May this be the beginning of a great and productive new phase for his presidency.
