It really is a travesty that we have a President who won't seize what is probably the single best chance to unite Americans behind a single common cause - energy self sufficiency. You could sell it to every audience you meet:

• labor: jobs galore

• business: opportunities galore

• economists: no more flood of dollars to foreign countries for oil

• national security hawks: we make our own energy, no more shaky suppliers; plus no cash for 'friends' with questionable motives

• peace lovers: no more oil wars

• greens: averting the disaster of global warming

Now that would be an actual legacy, but of course the shrub is an oil man through and through, so we got sort of a different legacy.

I'm gonna read between the lines and guess that some of the venom comes from people being burned out with our joke of a health care system. That energy needs to be redirected towards making the changes will actually help improve things, and by that I mean a national health care system. We don't need some BS patchwork with more administrative costs for administering tax credits that allows people to buy insurance. Nobody WANTS insurance! They want health care!

Instead of vilifying a doctor who provides a little insight, honesty, and humanity on the other side of medicine, get involved and advocate for change. The real power lies in combining people of a like mind - the huge number of patients plus the ranks of reform-minded doctors. You might start with one of these links, or send an email to your elected officials or even to Obama's campaign staff:

http://www.aarp.org/issues/dividedwefail/

http://www.ninenineohnine.org/pages/Home

I'm not involved in the medical field at all. I test business software, and yes I am stressed like any worker. But if I make a mistake, you get aggravated if you are using our software to try to do your job. If the doc messes up, somebody might die. So I have to disagree with others who think the stakes are the same for stress-induced mistakes by doctors as they are for everybody else. They are not.

I think he got the tone just right. For voters on the fence who might have thought he was an effete egg head, this speech showed him as down to earth and ready to lead with strength.

I think his educational successes are assets, but some pundits commented on how some voters might have trouble relating to a smart high-achiever with a graduate degree from Harvard. They should have a little easier time now.

I think they should hand out plastic sheeting for the people in the front rows. McCain is going to get obliterated, just like Galagher does with the watermelons in his comedy act.

Of course the die hard Republican supporters will never be swayed by anything Obama does, and you or I could write their response for them (SOS every time). But the swing voters...? I'd love to get a reliable take on whether they saw anything that swayed them. Most of the folks posting here were already pretty sure McCain wasn't their guy so not too many surprises in here.

I've always thought that would be the most frustrating thing about being a doctor - dealing with patients who just won't comply with the most obvious basic instructions to help them be healthy. At first that must be just maddening as hell to have a steady parade of people come in with diseases that are largely preventable and caused by choices that EVERY damn thing you can read will tell you are bad for your health. At that point it becomes just managing a disease instead of making smart choices to stay healthy. And managing those diseases costs a lot of money (diabetes, emphysema, coronary disease, and more).

If we ever do get a single payer system, in my mind it MUST include mechanisms that try to put these costs back on the sources. A simple tax on sugary snacks, cigarettes, & cheeseburgers sounds reasonable. The more you buy, the more you kick in to offset your eventual medical bills.

If we don't move now to enact an energy policy that includes more oil and gas production from domestic sources, including ANWR and the federal [Outer Continental Shelf] OCS, we may look back someday and realize that we failed to perceive a critical crossroad in the history of this nation.

You just gotta laugh through the tears.