Given the tragically small turnout for Kucinich, the argument that a large sector of "Democratic" opinion wants Obama to be Kucinich seems unusually self-defeating, even for Ron.

Been watching the badgers again?

And don't I recollect that ending foreign wars and closing Guantanamo were platform commitments of Obama? Whereas, if my memory serves me it was only Kucinich who fully supported single-payer public health provision, although Billary had a bit of a nod towards universality.

From where the US is right now,however, Obama is the least worst option for the rest of the world, and an argument could be made that reform of the broken US political system is an even bigger priority than healthcare. My guesstimate is that the Senate's version of the Healthcare bill would actually make matters worse for much of America, rather than better, and it might be better to start again.

Maybe Obama could let the current bill pass and then add a whole pile of "signing statements" to rip out the bribes for the insurance companies and drug companies. Drug costs could be tackled sideways by providing for a federal right to import drugs from other jurisdictions free from patent claims in the USA, and to mandate the use of generics.

Another sideways route might be to impose federal-only approval of all insurance companies, not just medical, ostensibly in the name of public safety all round.