Government is complicated? Right? George simplifies it;

If  former Sen. George McGovern were still in Congress and writing health reform legislation, it would be a one-page bill.

“I would have written a bill that said, ‘We hereby extend Medicare to all Americans.’ That would have been my solution. At least the public would understand it,” McGovern said this week.

He also pretty much sums up the f’ing idiocy surrounding the debate;

Universal health care for all Americans is long overdue, McGovern said. “We’re the only industrialized nation in the Western world that doesn’t have it.” Health reform, he predicts, will be the victim of “propaganda” that’s been thrown at it by the health insurance industry and President Obama’s opponents. “I can’t believe the trouble they’ve run into on that,” he said of the opposition that has developed to the proposed legislation.

Well said, George. I have to admit, I have had a man crush on Mr. McGovern for a long time, a true liberal senator. I saw him sitting in the bar at a table in Minerva’s one night by himself and could not work up the courage to talk to him, weird? Huh? All he was doing is writing in his day planner. I was not sure what I would say. I could asked about Hunter. No, that is weird. We could have discussed how he was a true war hero and his record makes McCain’s look like a boyscout who couldn’t start a fire with a lighter and a can of gasoline. I could have brought up his op-ed in Playboy about being a liberal. No, because then I would have to explain I read it for the articles.

Damn I suck.

24 Thoughts on “Why I heart George McGovern

  1. Non-Liberal on August 21, 2009 at 7:18 am said:

    Had you ACTUALLY been a fan of McGovern, you would have read his book about being a bomber pilot. You would have had lots to talk about. Chicken shit liberal.

  2. Oh, I don’t think I am a chickenshit, just shy around people I respect. Which are few these days.

  3. I’ve met the man, he’s quite personable and distinguished. I didn’t get into politics with him, but he did manage to slip in his disdain for the Bush Admin. into the conversation.

    That said, he’s out of touch. His brand of Liberalism is what the Dems have been publically running away from since the Carter years. He said it himself: “I opened the door to the Democratic Party and 20 million people walked out.”

    He would’ve smacked you down if you went there on the McCain comparision, both men went above and beyond in their service to this country.

  4. hossenpheffer on August 21, 2009 at 8:13 am said:

    Atleast McGovern had the skill and fortitude to fly 35 combat missions with a 10-man crew and brought them home safely every time.

  5. McGovern and Rep Wiener have it right – one page, extend Medicare to all. Next.

    Obama’s problem is that pesky re-election campaign in 2012. That forces him to not throttle the banksters, the insurance crooks, and everyone else who’s decades-long greed got us into this economic mess. That’s a big assumption – perhaps another commentator was right in saying that we just got punked. But better punked, but not by much, than have had four more years of Bush.

  6. Ghost of Dude on August 21, 2009 at 9:37 am said:

    Atleast McGovern had the skill and fortitude to fly 35 combat missions with a 10-man crew and brought them home safely every time.

    Are you implying that it was McCain’s own fault that he was shot down by a guided missile and spent several years in a Hanoi prison?

    Flying over heavily defended enemy territory is a craps shoot, no matter how good you are at it.

  7. hossenpheffer on August 21, 2009 at 9:40 am said:

    from every account I have ever heard McCain wasn’t very good at it

  8. Ghost of Dude on August 21, 2009 at 10:08 am said:

    Being “good at it” has very little to do with whether a guided surface-to-air missile finds your airplane and detonates close enough to bring it down.
    The judge of a good bomber pilot is whether he hits the target. Whether he comes back or not largely depends on the enemy.
    I would never disparage a man for getting shot down and spending most of the war as a POW. For his other plane crashes, though, sure.

  9. Apples and hand grenades comparision, Hos.

    Different times, different missions, different attitudes towards the war, different backgrounds, different outcomes.

    Plus McGovern never had to deal with having Katherine Hepburn giving aid and comfort to the enemy or Edward R. Murrow going on air to say we simply can’t beat the Germans & Japanese.

  10. hossenpheffer on August 21, 2009 at 11:05 am said:

    just feeling “owly” today….

  11. Doesn’t really matter. McGovern was a better pilot and a better politician. McCain could not control what the VC did with him in prison. If he would have been released the next day after being captured, would he still be able to use his POW story? Nope.

  12. Jackie on August 21, 2009 at 4:44 pm said:

    I’ve been a huge fan of McGovern for years. Have met him a few times. Have the signed bobblehead from the Canaries game, shook his hand on election day in ’72. (I’m a MItchell girl and got out of school part of the day to see him at DWU.) I’m a huge fan of Rep. Anthony Weiner too. If the Pres. weasels out and runs back room deals with the players that create the mess and can’t seem to control his own Senate, I’d write in Weiner in a heart beat next election or would prefer him as a candidate. He’s better than McCain, but he’s disappointing me.

  13. L3wis:

    Better politician? How do you figure that? I mean, if the Presidency is the Super Bowl, McCain fared much better nationaly in any measure. Even at the State level, McCain has stayed in his seat(s) longer than GM did. Both got hammered for their Veep picks, but McGovern’s was the actual whackjob and he dumped him.

    I doubt that history will show McCain had near the negative impact on his party that GM did on his.

  14. “but McGovern’s was the actual whackjob and he dumped him.”

    And Palin wasn’t a whackjob? LMAO.

    McCain could have won the election if he would have stayed a moderate instead of bowing to the conservatives. That is what I liked about McGovern. He was a liberal and proud of it, and ran on those principles. McCain was a fraud, and always will be.

  15. L3wis:

    “And Palin wasn’t a whackjob? LMAO.”

    No, she’s a conservative who’s being painted as a whackjob by the likes of you.

    Eagleton had suffered from clinical depression and had recieved electro-shock therapy. McG looked like a fool for first saying he was behind him “1000%” and then 2 weeks later accepting his resignation from the ticket.

    McCain had broad appeal from both parties for most of his career, again until the ’08 campaign when his media pals abandoned him for their hero BHO. McG never had any Republican support and couldn’t even carry his own State in 1972.

  16. hosepheffer on August 22, 2009 at 8:10 am said:

    Palin IS a wackjob. Eagleton suffered from depression, Palin suffers from stupidity.

  17. hosepheffer on August 22, 2009 at 8:10 am said:

    right-wing, tard filled stupidity, kinda like sy.

  18. Jackie on August 22, 2009 at 8:14 am said:

    Palin does a pretty good job of painting herself as whacked all by herself. Palin is all about Palin, superfiscial, overconfident, lack of curiosity, fed talking points, and then quits an elected position in hopes of landing a radio deal. I have to question the discernment of those that continue to think she’s peachy keen, you betcha, wink-wink.

  19. No one, in the history of elected politics has drawn more fire and venom in such a short period than Palin. A year ago no one knew who she was. Today she’s hammering Obamacare from her Facebook page.

    If she was truly such a dolt & whackjob why is the Left, who has total control of DC these days, still so obsessed with her?

  20. Jackie on August 22, 2009 at 2:48 pm said:

    Gosh Sy, I do hope she runs for Pres. next election. That’s be the best gift ever.

    I don’t think the left is obsessed with her, I think the corporate owned media, for whatever reason, is though. It’s kind of like the movie “Being There”, you can plunk up a vacant idiot – give it some airtime and there are those willing, like Sy is, that they are deep and insightful.

  21. “No one, in the history of elected politics has drawn more fire and venom in such a short period than Palin.”

    Because no one has been this stupid of a politician in recent history. Now even W.

  22. Not even W.

  23. hosepheffer on August 22, 2009 at 5:01 pm said:

    People cant stopping looking at her because she can’t shut up. Shes a trainwreck kinda like jon & kate +8 or Michael Jackson, the freak factor makes people look.

  24. Plaintiff Guy on August 23, 2009 at 4:36 pm said:

    I’ve met McGovern. He served well in politics. Despite his age, he still delivers good political and social substance. He wrote one book against the Iraq war that made real sense. Now, he’s in the stadium but not on the field. A dignified outspoken critic is welcomed in the present environment.

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