The Daschle Debacle - a good thing

Tom Daschle withdrew his name from consideration for the HHS Secretary today, and I gave an enormous sigh of relief.

I could understand and empathize with failing to realize a particular benefit was income, and failing to report that. I could not empathize with "over-reporting" charitable contribution deductions. I could not empathize with "forgetting" about $80,000 in income - especially since I make less than $80,000 a year.

Not only could I not empathize - in a Democrat, I found it disgusting. Blunt but true. To claim you fight for fairness, that you stand up for the little guy, and then you turn out to be a tax cheat just like every other rich entitled (usually Republican) asshole out there? Make. Me. Vomit.

Now, giving the vomiting and assorted carrying-on above, why on earth would I say the Daschle debacle is a good thing?

President Obama has admitted that he screwed up with this nomination.

For those of you that just picked yourselves off the floor, yes, you read that right. The president has admitted to making a mistake.

I find it wonderfully reassuring that he has admitted, on national television, that he screwed this up. Because, yes, he did screw it up. But he realizes it. He acknowledges it. He's thought about why he did it and how it happened. And he's vowed not to do it again.

That's what rational adults do when they make a mistake. Isn't it nice to have a rational adult in charge again?

President Obama is going to make more mistakes. That's natural. But unlike our recent history, we now have a president that will acknowledge mistakes and work to fix them.

Why health of the mother is not just another excuse for pro-choicers

I just recently had a baby girl. She's beautiful, and funny, and makes a lot of weird squeaky noises. I also have a wonderful little boy. I love having kids, and if I had more financial resources, I would probably be lobbying my husband to adopt more children.

The night after I gave birth to my daughter, I had postpartum hemorrhaging. This is a relatively rare complication where basically the mother has excessive bleeding. Thankfully, I was in the hospital and able to summon assistance. There were 5 nurses in my room, administering various treatments to me as a stop-gap until the doctor came. More treatments from the doctor followed. In an attempt to find a balance between providing too-much-info and being frank, let me say this:

1. The treatments to stop the hemorrhaging hurt way worse than labor itself.
2. If I hadn't woke up because my daughter started crying, I don't know how much longer I would have been lying in bed, bleeding. Nor do I know just how long I could have been lying there bleeding and still had the same (relatively good) outcome.
   
3. While I am obviously alive and relatively well, I am now seriously anemic. This means months of prescription-strength iron supplements (and their nasty side effects), fatigue, stress on organs of my body, heart palpitations, etc.

I went home from the hospital on the afternoon of October 15th. That evening, my husband and I watched the 3rd presidential debate between Obama and McCain. During the discussion on abortion, Obama indicated his support for a ban on late term abortions as long as there are health and life exceptions for the mother. In response, McCain said:

Just again, the example of the eloquence of Senator Obama. He's [for the] health for the mother. You know, that's been stretched by the pro-abortion movement in America to mean almost anything. That's the extreme pro-abortion position, quote, "health."

I was so angry when I heard this, I wanted to cry.

I don't regret having my daughter. I carried through with this pregnancy, fully knowing that, although rare, there are pregnancy complications that exist that could damage my health or end my life. I made a CHOICE, a personal choice, to accept those risks and continue a pregnancy to its conclusion.

Who exactly does John McCain think he is? What makes him think that he has the right to discount my health? What gives him the right to say which risks to my health are serious enough to allow me to make decisions about my body, and which are not?