“‘The time has come,’ pronounced Barack Obama in a speech last week, ‘for universal health care in America.’ Words to warm the heart of any liberal. True, as some observers complained, the speech was incredibly vague and wound up not even gesturing in the direction of an actual plan. But who could disagree with the sentiment? Well, me. In one sense, of course, the time most certainly has come for universal health insurance in America. The time came in the 1940s and has persisted ever since. … The trouble is that essentially nobody believes it’s possible at this point in time to implement, all at once, a system … known as ’single-payer health insurance.’ Simply put, the political challenges are too daunting. The special interests would fight it like the Spartans at Thermopylae.” [editor’s note: For once, an honest appraisal, admitting the bias toward socializing medicine, and declaring it impossible in the present political context.- SAT] (01/30/07)