This was fantastic. Thank you for cheering me up, in a gallows humor kind of way.

 Hi, Crab bait. The answer is that he is not holding those thoughts in his head at all. Obamacare did not go as far as he wanted and he knows it is untenable; it was all he could get. But it is the first, crucial step to an eventual single-payer government system.

Ideological purity is charming, to a point. Some of you are like people who refuse to get out of the crosswalk as you see a car bearing down on you because you have the right of way. You are in the right, but you still end up dead or in the emergency room. Politics is still the art of the possible, no matter how much some of you seem to wish it otherwise. To paraphrase Tom Hanks from That Thing You Do!, "You will soon be up in your room writing your new hit song, 'Alone with my Principles'".

 I am a doctor (psychologist...I don't want to hear any of that "real" doctor foolishness, either) who maintains his own practice. Professional liability insurance is tres' pricey, and one of the main problems is that your rates are calculated on a "claims made" basis, not a "claims paid" basis. So my rates go up if someone sues me, even if the suit is without merit, even if the suit is thrown out or I am found blameless. I realize that malpractice reform is hardly a front-burner issue, but the more reasonable providers that are driven out of practice, the more all of our care suffers.

 @ Kervinlee

+1

 The upcoming Wonder Woman pilot has also taken great pains to remove the stars from her costume; perhaps the comic has, as well?

 My apologies. It can, and does, get better than "Realpolitik". The closer to this column is the cherry on this sundae of stupidity:  "I cannot think of a better example of academic freedom being put to good use, if only on a one-time basis." The fact that he can't conceive of a better example of academic freedom either speaks to his lack of imagination or the fact that there are so few boundaries of respectability left to cross.

 Realpolitik? Priceless.

 At least Marie Antoinette let them have cake; Michelle Obama won't even let us have that without a caloric disclaimer

 A weiner by any other name...

I fear Chicago may be on the Detroit express, as well. Well, perhaps the local, not the express.