Saturday, February 23, 2008

Here's the Beef

WaPo Business Columnist Steven Pearlstein says that when it comes to substance, Obama's got it:

Now that Obama is sprinting toward the finish line in the Democratic marathon, his opponents are suddenly asking, "Where's the beef?"

If it's beef you like, all you have to do is go to http://barackobama.com, where you will find a refrigerator case packed with prime policy meat. That may come as something of a surprise to you, considering how utterly lacking in substance the reporting and analysis has been over the last year. But it's all there -- as much as or more than is offered by other candidates and certainly as much as any voter would require.



Perlstein points out you'll find:

  • An 11 page, single spaced energy plan that features a cap and trade system

  • A 15-page, single-spaced health-care plan, including 65 footnotes. You'll find a cogent analysis of what ails the health-care system, along with the best thinking of Democratic health-care reformers on how to fix it: disease management, computerized medical records, radical reforms of the insurance market, tax subsidies for low-income families and federal reinsurance for catastrophic illness.

  • A 40-plus-page economic agenda that outlines Obama's proposals for avoiding a recession, helping homeowners avoid foreclosure, restoring the rights of workers to form unions, improving public education, combating poverty and shifting the tax burden from the middle class to the upper class.
There's more of course. And Pearlstein compares Obama substance to McCain:

[McCain's]"comprehensive" health-care reform program consists of two pages of platitudes with no specifics and no way to pay for itself.

Oh, and this:

...he has written two books (all by himself, unlike a certain other candidate). The first offers a compelling personal narrative...The second book is a thoroughly readable, intelligent and well-reasoned discourse on politics and policy that offers a fresh perspective on a wide range of issues.



So when some one asks of Obama, "where's the beef?" tell 'em Obama's got not just the hat, but the whole herd.

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