The State of the Union address had been my focus, until yesterday’s unprecedented live broadcast (except on Fox) of President Obama in the House Republican’s lions den. When Republicans astonishingly tried to jack the debate with their trademark fact-free myths, Pres. Obama conducted a clinic on busting your opponent’s myths–in their face, live on camera, unscripted, no teleprompter–while making a few of his own. It’s what we leave unsaid, yet is seen or heard loud and clear in the minds of our audience, that distinguishes myth-making from plain prose.

The solid front of Democratic Party progressives supporting the Senate’s health care form bill, has now cracked wide open with Howard Dean’s call to kill the Senate bill and start over in the House with reconciliation. Dean’s call hasn’t cracked open the floodgates among the Senate and House Democrats and in recent days people like Bernie Sanders and Anthony Weiner have indicated that even though they’re sympathetic, they’re not with Howard yet, while others like Ben Cardin, Jay Rockefeller, and a veritable hallelujah chorus of other Democratic Senators have registered strong disagreement with him, insisting that the bill should still be supported. Meanwhile, Harry Reid continues to oppose using reconciliation to pass a bill. Why?

We now have a new war policy in Afghanistan. While it will make very few people happy, it does have an advantage over the Neo-Cons policy in that it recognizes the complexity of the situation. Simple answers for complex problems has been the hallmark of our foreign policy for too long.