On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

Last Thursday (Sept. 20), the QC hosted five Democratic presidential hopefuls at the Adler Theatre to debate health care.

It was a good exchange, but Families USA and the Federation of American Hospitals is taking it a step further.

The two organizations have begun to host a series of health care discussions with the presidential hopefuls and the first one, with John Edwards, was Monday night.

Pretty interesting stuff if you want to dive into the wonky details of health care reform.

The candidates appear by themselves and take questions from a panel of reporters. Last night, it was health care reporters from various news outlets.

This is a great format, one that the sponsors of a forum on the gay and lesbian network Logo used to great effect.

The more traditional debates, like the one here on health care, are great to provide give and take between the candidates. But this set up keeps the candidates under the hot lamp and, provided the questioners are aggressive enough, can prevent the usual two-step you see in a lot of debates.

(Note: I would like to have seen the questioners drill in a little more deeply to find out how Edwards would play for his reform plan.)

If you missed it, the Kaiser Family Foundation, which is hosting the series, has put up a link to the archived discussions.

Here’s the link. It’s worth watching.

The schedule for the other candidates is also on the site. Dennis Kucinich and Joe Biden are on Oct. 25, with John McCain on Oct. 31. Chris Dodd will be on Nov. 1 and Sam Brownback on Nov. 7.

Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul and Bill Richardson are listed as future participants.

For a while there, it seemed there wasn’t a war going on.

Over the summer, as the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates, wound their way through Iowa — to the state fair, the straw poll and innumberable town halls, coffees and diner chats — the Iraq War seemed to fade to the background. Health care, immigration, taxes, the size of government, fighting poverty, these were the topics that got questions.

The war, it seemed, was being ignored.

Of course, it wasn’t. Nobody forgot about it. But after the speedy start to the ’08 presidential campaign cycle and the spasm of positioning in both parties over what to do about the war – and what was done before it started – it seemed the activist base had heard it all.

As event after event passed and Iraq was asked about only sporadically, I began to ask people why it wasn’t coming up. The answer I got back frequently: What new do they have to say?

We’re about to find out.

Gen. David Patraeus’ and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s progress report on the surge this week has reinvigorated the political debate over Iraq. And, with a war spending bill to come before Congress, this all presents an opportunity, an obligation, even, for Republicans and Democrats to redraw, revise, recast and reinforce their own national security profiles.

Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd and John McCain all got the chance to start doing it on the main stage, with Patraeus and Crocker at yesterday’s Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.

Watch for more of it in the coming days. Obama starts in Clinton today.

For McCain, in particular, this is a welcome moment.

A few weeks ago he was written off, but strong reviews of his debate performance in New Hampshire last week and what will surely be a Republican rallying around the war effort is bound to benefit the guy who, while critical of some of the tactics, has been standing behind the war all along.

All this is going to get chewed over in the media and activist base for a while. How long it extends into the fall and winter is a big question. Health care, education, immigration and the size of government are still big topics yet to be fully tackled.

Still, the elephant’s back in the room again and he won’t be ignored.