"Jimmy Carter stops short of endorsing John Edwards, but calls him a candidate “whom I really admire.”
More: “I can say without equivocation that no one who is running for president has presented anywhere near as comprehensive and accurate a prediction of what our country ought to do in the field of environmental quality, in the field of health care for those who are not presently insured, for those who struggle with poverty.”
Of course, I couldn't agree more. Edwards' health care plan has successfully split the baby, by having an expanded version of Medicare available to all, but without that program being mandatory - so private insurers still have every chance to compete on price and coverage, but every citizen is covered, one way or another. It's an experiment that can help resolve the conservative canard that private business is always more efficient than government bureaucracies at providing the same services. In fact, China and Russia are already disproving that claim daily, as government businesses there routinely outperform private competitors in what is termed "state capitalism". Government bureaucracy has gotten a bad name because monopolies, whether private or public, breed sloth and poor management. The breakup of AT&T heralded an amazing growth in telecommunications in the US, and many believe Linux and Macintosh have far better operating systems than any version of the Windows monopoly. And so likewise for public businesses - think how much better the US Mail has gotten since Fedex, UPS, et al. came into being.
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