August 15 healthcare roundup

First, Rick Pearlstein has yet a great column on this issue; he correctly notes the winger opposition movement is both spontaneous and astroturfed. It’s easy to see that Democrats from President Obama down who only focus on the astroturfing are going to miss something.

And that’s nothing new, as Pearlstein looks way back to 1963:

The various elements -- the liberal earnestly confused when rational dialogue won't hold sway; the anti-liberal rage at a world self-evidently out of joint; and, most of all, their mutual incomprehension -- sound as fresh as yesterday's news.

At the same time, Pearlstein notes that astroturfing, in the form of fake letters to the editor, started way back in Richard Nixon’s time.

Next, Bob Herbert looks at what government-funded health programs, besides Medicare, actually work. Answer? Non-profit clinics in Vermont that ought to be shoved in the face of Sen. Byron Dorgan before he touts his health insurance coops one more time.