During Governor Tim Kaine’s last radio show, he had a caller, ‘Barry from D. C. ‘ The Virginia governor had quite a suprise from this ‘Barry from D. C.’
As it turns out, ‘Barry from D. C. ‘ was none other than the President of the United States, who had called to play a trick on the governor who is also Chairman of the DNC and to wish him well. These 2 along with Senators Warner and Webb had quite a whirl wind trip through Virginia in 2008.
According to Politico:
“Barry from D.C.” was on the line Tuesday morning for the last edition of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine’s “Ask the Governor” radio program.
“Well, Governor Kaine,” said “Barry” when he was patched through, “this is actually the president of the United States calling.”
“No,” Kaine said, cracking up. “Oh, my gosh.”
President Obama said he’d been planning to complain about the traffic in Northern Virginia, but decided to thank Kaine for his service instead.
“I just wanted to say how proud we are of your service as governor of the commonwealth of Virginia and just wish you and your family all the best this Christmas season after a terrific round of service,” Obama said. “We are just very proud of you.”
Governor Tim Kaine leaves office next month.
Obama! You prankster. Imagine being cranked by the President of the United States.
In related news, the Washington Post endorsed Creigh Deeds yet again to replace Gov. Kaine. Although the timing of this latest endorsement seems a bit suspect, the Post remains certain that once Virginians realize how “important” and “credible” the Post is, Deeds will surely wind up in the Governor’s mansion.
So Slowpoke, what is your news source. Tell me a couple and I will put those on the list to check for articles.
I voted for Kaine, and Obama. I’m proud of neither. They both pretended to be moderates, but pursued extremely liberal agendas and did their voters real disservices. They are both marketeers rather than statesmen. I’d vote for Kilgore if I could do it over again …
Can’t Obama stay out of the limelight for more than 5 minutes?
Did we elect a President or a movie star?
If we’re going to go down memory lane … Paul Tribble. Love what he did with Christopher Newport University, but I wonder what he would have done if he hadn’t retired from politics.
I worked on both the Tim Kaine and Obama campaigns. Previously, I had worked for mostly Republicans and Libertarians. I supported Jim Webb, not because George Allen said, “Macaque” but because I had worked for Webb when he was Secretary of the Navy, and I knew him as a man who would not support domestic spying or imprisonment and torture of our citizens as Mr. Allen did.
In the Reagan years, Republican candidates offered a positive, uplifting message and focused on addressing real issues.
During the Bush regime, I was disgusted to learn that the culture of the Republicans had shifted to a “Jack Bauer” attitude; that torturing and imprisonment without trial was OK, as long as it didn’t happen to them.
If you reflect on recent political contests, the Republican side built their campaigns on smears, gloom and doom, rather than offering any real solutions, or a positive vision of our future. The quest for Regan’s, “Shining City on the Hill” was completely forgotten and supplanted by wars of Presidential fiat.
While I do not support every issue that Tim Kaine or President Obama puts on the table, they are actually trying to address real problems, rather than passing the buck to the private sector and hoping that the “market” magically fixes things in a way agreeable to the politicians, as the Bush Republicans did.
I welcome the emergence of a new political party that will arise from the grassroots and replace the corporate-owned Republican Party. The best candidate for this task is the Constitution Party, but in order for them to grow, their leadership must relax their evangelical underpinnings and focus on being the, “Champion of our Constitution.”
Until a new party emerges to replace the xenophobic Republican Party, it would be prudent for independent and moderate conservative voters to seek candidates, including Democrats, who are focused on addressing real issues and who can serve as the voice of the working class.
Here in Virginia, the Democratic Party can become successful again if they shed or moderate some of their more extreme social agenda items, end their de facto war on White Men, and focus on being the advocate of the working men and women of the Commonwealth.
Positive changes in our political system can happen, but for that to happen, voters must send a message that only candidates who will offer real solutions to real problems will be successful. Don’t just vote against some party,or some personality; insist on a quality discussion of ideas and solutions. We here in Virginia, can set the standard for the rest of the nation by engaging in honest, polite and constructive discussions with citizens of every political stripe.
Doesn’t Barry have better things to do then to make prank calls?
Nice. Politics aside, it as decent of the President to call our Governor. That’s all there is.
Tyler, there seems to be some truth in what you are saying, for sure.
If this was an attempt to be decent, then Obama should have called our Governor privately. But who can blame him for a cheap political stunt? As he attempts to force a healthcare bill opposed by a majority of Americans down our throats, he has “achieved” the highest disapproval rating in history for a president one year into his term. He has to do something to appear ‘nice.’
Kelly, what is it you don’t like about the health care bill? I don’t know enough about it to like or dislike it.
Timmy got a tingle up his leg!
I would like the government take some initial, modest steps in healthcare. A simple bill to prevent health insurance companies from turning down people for pre-existing conditions and to allow people to purchase health insurance from any state would likely have overwhelming bipartisan support. Such a bill would create competition among 1300 insurance companies and would prevent people from being denied insurance coverage.
I would like to see if a simple measure like this could control costs before proceeding down the path of government mandates or massive new taxes.
It isn’t a health care bill actually in my opinion. It is a regulation of the insurance system. Everyone talks “health care” which should include things that actually reduce the cost of health care, and not just insurance, while improving it for people and making the health care actually broadened to treat more people. But what it does is go after the “big, bad insurance company who steals our money”–with a profit margin that doesn’t even approach some of the other industries.
Health insurance started as an aid to people to afford health care when the medical profession (doctors, hospitals, etc) stopped being neighborhood entities. Well, the things that made the costs so exorbitant weren’t addressed in this massive bill–things like tort reform that would reduce costs at the expense of attorneys (not the victims) who collect a large percentage of awards that we all pay to address malpractice insurance and needless, C-Y-A tests that doctors order to protect themselves. it didn’t address the fact that drug companies charge Americans for development costs and provide the same drugs cheaply outside the US.
It also does not extend health care, just insurance. It does not get people out of hospital emergency rooms for simple illness, so everyone suffers. There is no system of community lower cost alternatives like free clinics to take care of the everyday colds and ear infections.
So I get frustrated that people are buying into some grand “health care” expansion when it is just a takeover of an insurance industry that provided a product that people needed. I guess the American public is transferring the wall street mania to another industry.
And by the way, I can buy into the right of people to good healthcare–I don’t buy into the idea that there is a right to health insurance. Setting up a system of free clinics staffed by doctors who would give up some years to the clinic in return for paying off medical school (and overseen by senior attending doctors) or other medical professionals like nurse practitioners etc in return for their education costs. That’s how the military staffs its medical needs. Setting up something like that would mitigate the need for universal health INSURANCE and actually expand health care alternatives for people –you could then have just universal catastrophic insurance for more serious illnesses so all would have entry to places like the Mayo clinic when it is needed. Investing in expanding medical schools would also help with the shortage of health care professionals. There are many qualified individuals who simply cannot get into medical schools because the the limitations or the costs. Those are things I would consider health CARE reform.
So I agree with Kelly that some simple steps could have taken place that would have had bipartisan support but there was obviously no desire for bipartisanship. There was a time in this country that legislators wanted to improve things with positive programs rather than just regulate. So in the end, we will probably be paying more and still have not improved health CARE in this country.
By the way, I happen to like seeing a President show he can have a little fun.
I agree with Kelly also. Something incremental. I am overwhelmed. I don’t know enough about it to hate it though. I am not sure how I am going to be taxed, if I am going to be taxed, etc. I don’t think I can pay any more for coverage. It is already higher than any car payment I have ever had.
I forgot to ask. What do you all propose to do about the people who don’t qualify for medicaid and who don’t have insurance. Aren’t those people costing a fortune and aren’t those people the reason why our coveage is so expensive?
Also, medicaid cost the taxpayers a fortune. I don’t understand how the new, improved health care is supposed to fix this.
I don’t like the cheap political ploy of exempting Nebraska from the expanded Medicare taxes just to buy Senator Nelson”s vote. Now the other 49 states will have to foot the bill for Nebraska’s $100 million share, along with their own. How can that even be constitutional?
“What do you all propose to do about the people who don’t qualify for medicaid and who don’t have insurance. Aren’t those people costing a fortune and aren’t those people the reason why our coveage is so expensive?”
Yes, in an indirect way. Hospitals charge everyone more to cover the uninsured, which drives up the costs, which the insurance companies have to cover to an extent. It is not dollar for dollar as insurance companies use their buying power to enter into contracts with doctors and hospitals. It brings business to those entities so they cut the insurance companies a break.
I am all for an expansion of actual healthcare such as community clinics to do two things, first it frees up emergency rooms for routine sickness and minor scrapes/injuries, and second it would lower the cost exposure that we all have. Governments could use their buying powers to negotiate lower costs for drugs and supplies for the minor illnesses and injuries. This country used to invest more in community clinics than they do now and it is time we give people who don’t have insurance real healthcare improvements.
I am fearful that expanding health insurance is expanding something that hasn’t always proven to be the best or most effective means of delivering healthcare. It does a great job sometimes of helping economically with medical bills but there is more to healthcare than the economics of it.
Also, I am not advocating socialistic medicine as the doctors do not become employees of the state but funding clinics through grants to local governments and relief for the high costs of medical training can be structured so that medical decisions are not made by government employees.