I quite like to know who your favorite is?

Obama!!!

I will go for the Edwards
johann Hari From theIndependent

Yeah, anything is better then GWB... well, maybe except for Giuliani.. A young, black, intelligent man with a lot of charisma appeals to lots of people, but to me, he's not much different then Clinton or Edwards (except for a better sense of humor). When I listen to Obama, after 5 minutes I'm wondering what is it that he actually said? Other then a nice rhetoric about how we are all warriors for change and that it's united states... His track record isn't that coherent either. He's talking about "change" (I'm sick of that word already), but all the "change" that I can see in him is that it will be a black president of a corrupt government instead of a white one. Despite all that, there's not much to choose from anyway.

Perot + Nader = Paul

Clinton "Tearing" Up!! Ha, ha
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/01/09/clinton-tearing-up-coul_n_80643.html

Washington diary: Hillary's tears

High respect for Kucinich, too bad he is out of the race!!!! He was human.

A Vagueness in Obama’s Message

Hopefully, the results of the New Hampshire primary will eliminate Barack Obama’s use of the vague and misleading words hope and change in his presidential campaign.

With early contests finished in two small states with disproportionate influence—New Hampshire and Iowa—we move into bigger states more typical of the rest of the country. But even if the two small states are untypical, lessons can be drawn from them, particularly from New Hampshire.

The most important to the Democrats is to avoid a campaign like Obama’s, built on his soaring words of hope and change.

I’ve been put off by those words, which became the centerpiece of Obama’s campaign. Maybe I am too cynical or too old or too disillusioned from being burned by past failed crusades. But words and elevated oratory are not enough for me. Nor were they enough for New Hampshire Democrats.

They wanted substance. Although the unemployment rate is not especially high in New Hampshire, too many jobs are in low-pay retail and service and have small or no health insurance benefits. A union leader in Concord, N.H., told me that many of the state’s residents have to work two or three jobs. Sen. Hillary Clinton, ridiculed by her many critics for policy-heavy speeches and question-and-answer sessions, was in sync with voters facing an uncertain economic future. (...)

I have said this many times....A requirement for President should be past militray experience, even if only 2 years.
The only exception to this rule who was a great president was Reagan.

American politics is the strangest thing. There's only two parties that count for something, the democrats being on the right and the republicans being on the far right.

None of the candidates really appeal to me I just want the next president to be a democrat as I see them being the least bad. Let's turn around the horrow show that's been going on the the past two periods.

Actually Libra, it's the best in the entire world in terms of quality.

But when it comes to quantity....

What about quantity? I don't understand what you mean? Has anyone tried to get a hip replacement in Canada? Because it is not concidered a "serious" condition it could be months or even a year before your "turn" is up.

I work in a the medical center in Houston and we have some of the most advanced treatment centers in Cancer (MD Anderson), heart surgery (St. Lukes), organ transplants (Methodist)....there is NO problem with healthcare. People come from all over the world to have treatment here. The problem is with access to Health Insurance and should never be associated with the level of care received here.

I think that is our point with your system. Wonderful healthcare for the rich...

As we were talking about the whole "system" then yes, actually, yours is the worst in the west.

Our system has many faults in the UK, but at least everything is free - from pills that cost several thousand pounds a week, to major heart surgery.

Our University hospitals and Cancer Charities don't do a bad job in research and developments either

...bu arada, I went on a business trip to Houston and drove through a huge area dedicated to hospitals and medical research. I must admit it was pretty impressive. Is that where you work?

I would love to see the first woman defeat the sexism of the US and become a president, but socialized healthcare is evil. It's just a bad idea based on a good intention.

Socialized healthcare is similar to a welfare government, which obviously fails because if you get something for free which has an infinite demand, there won't be enough resources to pay for it. There are much better solutions, like increasing the primary healthcare base - which is really the cause of so many people not having adequate health care in the US.

Maybe we could pull out some statistics as to how many people can't get treatment in the free healthcare system and how many die of preventable diseases... I wonder if we differ so much after all. I have seen both systems in my life and the system in the US is far better. Having said that, I can also see how many people are left without insurence and can't afford health care in the US. I think we should look for solutions within the system instead of trying something that is potentially another disaster.

Interesting enough here is some good information..Healthcare comparison

Interested to see how much Turkey spends on pg.7

I am very happy to know that even in case of losing my job and income I don't have to worry if I suddenly should need instant medical attention. Health treatment is VERY expensive.
While in my native country my spouse once cut his hand and we had to pay for the whole ordeal because he's a non-EU citizen. It was a ten minute consultation, they simple cleaned it and did a single stitch. We had to pay 175€ in cash and I never carry much cash around and I couldn't pay with my credit card there. They wouldn't even let me go to an ATM so my father ended up having to go all the way to the ER with the money. It's awful how some doctors apparently have their priotities. We would probably have gone bankrupt of it was a serious surgery. With state financed health care there's no need to worry about any of this. The doctors do their job and the patients get their treatment.

Well most people in the U.S. don't go to the emergency room to get an aspirin.. I have worked in a hospital and will tell you the non-urgent medical conditions people come in with. You have people with major medical issues, heart attacks etc..then people who have paper cuts. That is why most co-pays are much higher for the emergency room than normal doctor visits or urgent care due to people abusing the urgency to be seen in the emergency room.

It is quite obvious that the cost of health care is skyrocketting and getting out of control. Something really has to be done about it, but I hope that the solution will not be a socialized system.

For those of you interested in American politics, here is an interesting site...
http://www.dehp.net/candidate/

I entered my preferences on the issues that are important to me and it matched perfectly with the WOMAN who I had planned on voting for.

Mine is (as if I am going to vote )
19 Kucinich
16 Richardson
15 Obama
15 Edwards

Elisabeth, you are completely correct in what you said! The quality of health care in the US is very high and therefore, it costs enormously. There are two conflicting interests here: health care being a business - so it must make profit and a government's desire to provide health care to all people.
I think the main problem here are health insurence companies, which charge huge money and then try to pay for coverage as little as possible. This is part of the reason why so many middle class people cannot afford healthcare any more. So I think that in order to improve availability of healthcare - insurence companies should be regulated somehow.
Another reason for the high cost is the fact that a visit in a specialist's office is more expensive then a visit at a primary healthcare provider. However, the amount of family doctors is going down tremendously. There is basically no primary healthcare foundation in this country and this foundation is all that makes the healthcare in other countries better. So I think that if government wants to help, they should hire family doctors and establish this kind of network that would be affordable for low income families and beneficial enough for the doctors to want to do it. If a family doctor gives continuous care, many diseases could be prevented and more expensive procedures won't be necessary which will bring the healthcare spendings down.

However, if the government will simply impose a universal coverage on the current system, the system will simply collapse.

Alameda...After spending years in the clinical aspect of healthcare, I am now in an administrative position. Hospitals usually have at least 3-4 lawsuits going on at a time. Some of them (maybe 2 per year) are legitimate due to human error. Most of them are people looking for money.

Many have discoursed on what an Obama victory could mean for America. We would finally be able to see our legacy of slavery, segregation and racism in the rearview mirror. Our kids would grow up thinking of prejudice as a nonfactor in their lives. The rest of the world would embrace a less fearful and more open post-post-9/11 America. But does it not follow that an Obama defeat would signify the opposite? If Obama loses, our children will grow up thinking of equal opportunity as a myth. His defeat would say that when handed a perfect opportunity to put the worst part of our history behind us, we chose not to. In this event, the world´s judgment will be severe and inescapable: the United States had its day, but in the end couldn´t put its own self-interest ahead of its crazy irrationality over race.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/155117