I came across these words from the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell today...

"I've got a cheerful, upbeat, optimistic team ready to go to battle over what most of my members, if not all of them, believe may well be the most important issue they will ever deal with in their time in Congress -- this effort to transform the American health care system into a European type system," he said. "So we are anxious for the debate and are going to give it our best shot. And I don't know how it's going to turn out."

I believe that people reveal themselves in the little things they say. That is, I believe that if you observe someone closely enough you can get peeks into what motivates them. What I get from this short quote is that he's not sure if he'll win what he describes as the most important issue he'll ever face, but yet he is happy because he thinks he'll get a couple of extra seats in the senate out of it. Can there any more glaring example of putting politics way ahead of policy?

The other thing that strikes me about this is the long-standing theme that Republicans have espoused that say that anything European is anti-American. If they really want to insult something/someone, they'll say it's French even.

Well having been there a few times I can tell you that we have much to learn from Europeans. Don't misunderstand me now... because they have much to learn from us too. But to refuse to learn from another's successes and failures is just plain stupid.