Couple of Comments

A couple of thoughts and then I'll try to stay away from politics for a while:

-- I was working, of course, yesterday, so only caught a few minutes during lunch of the live health care summit at Blair House, hosted by President Obama and attended by a sampling of Democrats and Republicans.

I am often accused of having a Pollyanna-ish view toward our government and elected officials so I will go ahead and plead guilty as charged on this one. But I thought the summit was a grand example of some of the things that are good about our country.

Yes, it was probably about a year late. There was no doubt a backdrop of extreme political motive behind everything that was said and, in fact, the whole motivation for having it was probably political in the first place. There were a few testy exchanges.

But, for even the most tried and true cynic -- should we not be thankful that we live in a country where elected officials who come from opposing points of view sit down together, offer their contributions and at least give the appearance of having the best interests of their countrymen (and women) at heart? And somewhere, in the midst of all of it, shouldn't we have found at least a glimmer of hope that maybe, just maybe, the health care system in this country will finally be repaired?

Maybe I am too optimistic and perhaps too unrealistic. But for at least part of yesterday, I liked what I saw.

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Newly elected Massachusetts Republican Senator Scott Brown, who coasted to victory in the special election that was supposed to be nothing more than a formality for Democrats who thought they owned the seat, has caught flack for supporting a jobs bill that is mostly supported by Democrats.

In response to the criticism, Brown simply said that he went to Washington as an independent voice (after being elected, quite obviously, by independent voters). He thought the bill was good for the country and, more importantly, good for his constituency.

If you thought that I was a robot created in the image of Limbaugh/Palin/Pick-your-arch-conservative, he seems to be saying, maybe you weren't listening.

Again, I like what I see here.