Isn't it time that the media stop focusing on the disruptions and tension at the town halls, and start focusing on the actual issues at hand?
I propose that the White House and Congressional leadership get together between now and early September, and arrange with the networks to have a nationally televised debate (or discussion if you prefer) on health care reform. It is time to force the media to stop basking in the heat of the issue, and get down to some facts.
The Democrats would probably be wise to send their home run hitter to the debate. That would be President Barack Obama, of course. I don't know who the Republicans would want to send. Hopefully they'd send The Queen of the Kooks, Sarah Palin, but I doubt even they are that foolish.
I think a nationally televised debate (or discussion) would help splice off a lot of the bull that is being thrown around by the Rightinistas and their pistol packing, anti-American mobsters. I would love to hear a GOPer say on national television, with the president sitting right there, that no health care reform bill would "kill anyone's granny".
I would also like it clearly stated by a GOPer that any public option to the health care reform would not be "nationalized health care," (which I wouldn't mind), but only the option for people to have access to essentially the same plan that all federal employees, including President Obama and Congress, have.
So, come on politicians and media, start living up to you sacred duty to our society. Start informing us instead of playing us like fiddles. (President Obama, you, of course, are exempt from this criticism, as you have been very clear on this issue.)