Huckabee on Hardball
My favorite former Arkansas governor continues to wow the press. Tonight, it was Chris Matthews on MSNBC.
Matthews led in to Mike's segment with an interview of a retired steel worker named Steve Skvara who is having a tough time finding health insurance for his 56-year-old wife. He's covered by Medicare himself, but had been depending on his former employer's health care plan to cover her until she qualifies for federal assistance. Unfortunately, that former employer (LVT) had gone bankrupt, leaving no health care coverage in the aftermath and taking one-third of the employee pension funds.
Naturally, Matthews followed-up on this segment by asking the governor what he would do to fix problems like this.
And, Mike hit the ball out of the park.
He correctly pointed out that the Republican Party is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and shouldn't act as such. We need to stand up to "sheer, unadulterated greed" that rewards high-level executives with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses while asking front-line workers to accept deep pay cuts.
As to health care in this country, Mike reminded Matthews and his viewers that he has long been an advocate of a major paradigm shift. First, we need to discard the post-WWII mentality that tied coverage to a person's job. People don't work at the same place for 30 years anymore. So, their coverage should be tied directly to the person, not their employer. Keyword="portability." Secondly, we need to approach health care in terms of PREVENTION, not just intervention.
Finally, Matthews uncharacteristically threw Huckabee a softball, asking him how democratic the upcoming Ames Straw Poll really is since it costs $35 to vote in it. Obviously, it is not an exercise in democracy. Rather, as Mike reminded him, it will show both organizational strength/ability of the candidates AND (more importantly) the level of motivation of their supporters.
"Everybody likes you, Mike," Matthews concluded with a big grin.
"Like me on Saturday," was Huckabee's response, with an even bigger grin!
Go, Mike, go!
Matthews led in to Mike's segment with an interview of a retired steel worker named Steve Skvara who is having a tough time finding health insurance for his 56-year-old wife. He's covered by Medicare himself, but had been depending on his former employer's health care plan to cover her until she qualifies for federal assistance. Unfortunately, that former employer (LVT) had gone bankrupt, leaving no health care coverage in the aftermath and taking one-third of the employee pension funds.
Naturally, Matthews followed-up on this segment by asking the governor what he would do to fix problems like this.
And, Mike hit the ball out of the park.
He correctly pointed out that the Republican Party is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and shouldn't act as such. We need to stand up to "sheer, unadulterated greed" that rewards high-level executives with hundreds of millions of dollars in bonuses while asking front-line workers to accept deep pay cuts.
As to health care in this country, Mike reminded Matthews and his viewers that he has long been an advocate of a major paradigm shift. First, we need to discard the post-WWII mentality that tied coverage to a person's job. People don't work at the same place for 30 years anymore. So, their coverage should be tied directly to the person, not their employer. Keyword="portability." Secondly, we need to approach health care in terms of PREVENTION, not just intervention.
Finally, Matthews uncharacteristically threw Huckabee a softball, asking him how democratic the upcoming Ames Straw Poll really is since it costs $35 to vote in it. Obviously, it is not an exercise in democracy. Rather, as Mike reminded him, it will show both organizational strength/ability of the candidates AND (more importantly) the level of motivation of their supporters.
"Everybody likes you, Mike," Matthews concluded with a big grin.
"Like me on Saturday," was Huckabee's response, with an even bigger grin!
Go, Mike, go!
Labels: Arkansas, Chris Matthews, economy, health care, Iowa, Mike Huckabee, MSNBC
posted by wsmv at
9:08 PM
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