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Isn't Edwards on the ticket going to make it hard for the medical community to get behind this ticket? Edwards made his fortune sueing doctors didn't he?

Yes, but if Kerry's Vietnam strategery is any guide. Any time we mention Edward's predatory litigation and the devastating ripple effect it has in our society, they are going to roll out a person he saved from an "evil corporation." I betcha that'll be the way they handle any criticism of that.

There are committed liberal docs and med staff who really want single payer. Some of the older docs will feel intimidated and perhaps decide to retire early. It will probably increase the market for the nurse practitioners and physician assistants, as they can handle a lot of the work and are cheaper, to boot. The HMOs and insurance providers will like that Kerry is proposing that the government make health insurance premium payments to businesses and people. This guarantees that the costs continue to rise, just like government payments for tuition do not bring college costs down.

This ticket will sneer at MSAs and make anyone who believes in privatization out to be Scrooge. So far, I haven't seen health insurance break out of the single digits in rankings of issues, but the Johns are going to fix that, if they possibly can. It is their only issue where they can play the constituent card for every one of their special interests.