Until we talk about a big reform that actually adjusts the power of the private companies I believe that BO has a better plan because he doesn't have an unfunded, regressive, mandate fee as high as 10% for middle class families who live pay check to pay but aren't poor enough for the subsidies (btw, the BO and HRC subsidy plans are indistinguishable if you  read them side by side.)

We know mandates don't work, look at MA.  Nearly half of the uninsured are still uninsured, and the system is out of money.  Many of the newly insured were simply put on existing federal programs, regardless of mandates.  Some people can't afford the least costly insurance so they pay the fee without getting insurance.  

Look at CA; the mandate plan only got 1 out of 11 votes in the committee, but big insurance companies were in favor of that mandate plan.  Why was that?  For that matter, why did the insurance companies favor the SCHIP expansion that Bush vetoed?  I'm in favor of that expansion, but at least my eyes are open: I know that the legislation is setup to provide income to private companies at the same time it helps kids.

Car insurance mandates don't work either.  The level of uninsured drivers is as high as 20% for states with mandated car insurance.

Listen to HRC carefully: she hedges by saying mandates are a "goal."  She has talked about them as a strategic starting point, so they can easily be tossed aside when it becomes politically expedient.  

People who can afford health insurance don't need a mandate "gun to the head" to make them buy it.  Most people who can afford health care have good jobs, so they get the insurance as a benefit.  People who can afford insurance but don't get it from their jobs already have a gun to the head.  If they have money and they have a health care emergency, they will spend a ton of money, or they'll go bankrupt.  The problem is not that we need a mandate "gun to the head," the problem is that costs are too high.  Costs must be dealt with before implementing a regressive mandate penalty.

Our health care system is way too expensive, and mandates will make this worse.  Our health care costs are paid by two sources: 1) the government and 2) the private sector.  The level of our government spending alone (excluding the part paid by the private sector) is not much less than the level of total health care spending in some developed countries.  Our problem is the entrenched insurance companies who live off the government money.  Our problem is that politicians invent programs like mandates that sound good to the public at the same time they greatly increase income to the insurance companies.

Gore and Edwards are being neutral, no matter how much either camp tries to drag them in, but I always think the rumors from the Obama camp are significant.

And frankly, since that poll was taken between Mar 24-27, I bet the number of HRC supporters who want him on the ticket with her has declined.  I think many of them would put him on for unity in the party, but I don't think many of them "want" him to be the VP.

This is where I am. I, too, was on record as wanting them to become as one.

In fact, I actively DO NOT want Obama to be the VP now. I don't hate him or anything, but I don't think he is electable because of Wright, and I don't want HRC to have "God Damn America" hanging around her neck.

He's still trying to find a way to get the Dems, methinks.

At that point he would be able to go Sibelius or similar or, if poor support for Obama among (older) women is not quite the concern in August that it is now, and I think it's a real problem for him, he could go with the usual white male selection.