SiCKO
I can't wait to see Michael Moore's new film. But I don't get so worked up - like I once did - over reviews like Andrew Tobias' (via Kevin Drum)

I got to see Michael Moore’s new movie, SiCKO, last night, which opens a week from Friday. Run don’t walk. This movie is going to be huge – and have a huge impact. At the screening I attended, 1500 people were on their feet cheering through the entire credits.

I watched Fahrenheit 9/11 on the first weekend with rabid fans, diehard liberals and the response was similarly rousing. I left the theater that night thinking that everyone would be talking about the movie, and everyone would see it, and George Bush would be defeated in a landslide in the election just a few months away. But of course, that didn't happen. I was a little more realistic when I saw Inconvenient Truth on opening weekend in Nashville, with Al and Tipper and friends watching just a few screens away. The crowd's response was incredible. But the truth is: anyone watching SiCKO now is at a special screening for people who already agree with Moore.

I'm going to see SiCKO at the first opportunity, and will probably be moved and amped up by it. But no matter how much I love him, I don't think America will be led to the promised land, health care-wise, by Michael Moore. Similarly, it will probably take a leader not named Gore to really move us forward on the climate crisis.

In fact, I could believe this film might damage the cause (am I a nay-sayer or what!?). Young people love Moore's films, and my understanding is that he is calling for nothing less than a single-payer, government-run health-care system,and calling every other proposal in between a sham. If true, he may be empowering young voters to go the way of Kucinich and Nader. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, we have problems that have to be solved by concensus.

Call me when elected officials stop taking money from the health insurance lobby, and the poll numbers change about government-run, single-payer health care.