Year: 2009

With the polls still open as I write this . . .

SKYPE VS VONAGE VS MAGICJACK

I recently asked how anyone could fail to have a Skype account.

And I’ve recently seen about two billion TV ads touting a thing called the MagicJack – and even saw them for sale in a 7-Eleven.

So?

There’s a lot more to this analysis, but it concludes:

Skype is the best service if you are looking of a complement to your cell phone. This is exactly how Spot Cool Stuff uses Skype: We use our cell phones for domestic calls and then Skype for international ones. In fact, with the fantastic Skype iPhone app you can use Skype on your cell phone (presuming you have an iPhone). Except for video chats, we exclusively use Skype via an iPhone. (Speaking of video chats, it is very cool and surprisingly high quality on Skype).

At the start of this article, though, we stated that we were looking for the service that could best replace a telephone company land line. Without a doubt, the best service for that task is . . . Vonage.

If we were to stealthily break into your house and replace your telephone company land line service with Vonage you might never notice a difference. You’d have the exact same phone number (not so with MagicJack or Skype) and the exact same phone (not so with Skype); you could use your phone without a computer (not so with MagicJack) and you’d be unlikely to notice much quality difference. Yes, Vonage is the most expensive of these three services. But this is one of those times when you get what you pay for.

INSTANT RUN-OFF VOTING

In a move no one cleared with me, the Oscars are going to have ten Best Picture nominees this coming March instead of five. I’m not sure I like that. But I do very much like how the voting will work.

Arlen Long: “Click circle #2 and then #3 and then #4 to see the animation. Instant Runoff Voting for the Oscars might generate understanding of how this would work for the Presidency.”

☞ And that, as I’ve argued before, would be a very good thing (and not just for the Presidency – for any election with more than two candidates).

I owe you counterpoint to Friday’s gloomy Einhorn link. But today:

SAVE THE PLANET

Al Gore’s new book, Our Choice: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis, launches today. Buy it here. Or the young reader hard cover edition here. Wouldn’t it be nice to keep the planet habitable for human life?

THIS IS TOTALLY COOL

Here’s a plan for the world to become entirely independent of fossil fuel (oil/gas/coal) in 20 years. We’d go 100% to wind, water and sun . . . at a cost of $100 trillion . . . which assumes no improvements in current technology (which of course there would be) and with no increases in conservation and efficiency (which there would be, also – as when I replaced the 400 incandescent watts in my kitchen with 24 LED watts that work just as well at a 94% energy reduction) . . . $5 trillion a year globally . . . lots of jobs . . . saving trillions on oil and coal each year . . . ending air pollution and reducing carbon emissions to pretty much the shavings when we sharpen pencils.

Obviously, nothing so dramatic is likely to happen. But Scientific American has done an amazing job of bringing this idea to life. Lots of cool stuff to click on, lots of important stuff to learn. Don’t miss this one.

DNDN PUTS

Daniel: “I have a question about your Dendreon speculation [January, 2011, 20 puts bought for $5 each]. The study currently underway has a statistical endpoint that is based on overall survival, and everything that has been released seems to me to support that they will satisfy that part of the requirements. So, my question to you (or really your expert) is does he expect the drug to fail because the study results are going to be poor (i.e., overall survival not statistically improved), or does he expect the FDA to reject it despite the study since they still don’t show a decrease in disease progression (despite the alleged statistical survival benefit)? Personally, I think if they meet their endpoint, I don’t see how they cannot be approved given the lack of other viable alternatives and an extremely vocal patient base clamoring to try it out (if it is conceded as safe, which the FDA has already done).”

Guru says: “The rejection will come because DNDN ran an invalid study. The study they ran – the one on which they report statistical significance – does not conform to the agreement they have with the FDA (the SPA*). For recent examples of companies who were rejected for running the wrong trials in cancer, see Genzyme’s Clolar and Vion’s panel.”

* “Special Protocol Agreement. It is an agreement between the company and the FDA on the terms of the protocol. People are bullish on DNDN because in 2005, they got an amendment to the protocol for trial 9902B that was called an SPA. Fine, the protocol was amended. What the FDA did not say is that the way 9902B had been run before the amendment would satisfy the new amendment. In fact, the FDA said in 2002 in writing that a change that was virtually identical to one made in 2005 would require the start of a new trial. To satisfy the SPA as amended in 2005, Dendreon needed to start an entirely new study – 9902C. They did not start this new study. Instead, they mixed the ongoing study 9902B (which had been running since 2002) with a new study based on the amendment of 2005 and produced a final study that is not a valid satisfaction of the 2005 SPA. They should have started an entirely new study.”

So then I asked Guru: “Okay, okay . . . but does the drug WORK?! What’s your best guess as to the positive effects, if any, of the drug?”

“No,” he replied. “Unfortunately, the drug cannot possibly work.”

He could be wrong about that of course; and even if he’s right, he could be wrong that the FDA will reject it. So this is a speculation to be made – like all speculations – only with money you can truly afford to lose.

INFUSYSTEMS

My best guess? Based on nothing more than instinct? INHI, last trade $2.90, will grow, and the warrants we bought on it, giving us the right to buy it for $5 any time up until April 11, 2011, will expire tantalizingly, maddeningly, heart-breakingly worthless.

And then, once they do – and with the dilutive overhang of 34 million warrants suddenly removed – the stock will shoot to $7 in short order, which would have made the warrants worth $2 each (they currently trade under a dime), and I will spend weeks rocking back and forth, doing the “if-only.”

I mention this partly because I like to expect the worst to avoid disappointment; partly because of the double-reverse-feh!feh!-jinx effect (wherein expecting the worst actually makes it a little less likely*); and partly because – while I doubt it will be enough to save us – I was pleased to see this exceptionally good customer satisfaction report. Satisfied customers do not a $7 stock make, especially with the overhang of 34 million warrants.** But they can’t hurt.

Here’s the company’s “story.”

*See the Hogwarts School of Financial Thought and Wizardry.

**All in, that would be a market cap north of $360 million on sales currently under $40 million. Then again, if exercised, the warrants kick in $160 million in cash, so the market cap would really be “only” $200 million or so in excess of that cash. And if sales were to take off, and if the market were in a mood to reward growth – let’s just say I expect the worst but haven’t sold my warrants.

FOUR FREE IPHONE APPS:

Word Warp

Can chest-thumping pride and red-faced shame coexist? The answer, if you have just gotten a score of 18,650 playing the iPhone’s Word Warp app – burning two hours that could otherwise have gone to some constructive pursuit – is yes. The game is entirely addictive, and hinges largely on realizing two things that are not instantly apparent.

Skype

Assuming you already have a Skype account (and why would anyone not?), this free app puts it on your iPhone. Now you can call anywhere in the world for free – if the other party is on Skype – or for almost free if you’re calling a regular phone number. This app is available for other cell phones as well.

Kindle

Charles loves his Kindle way more than he loves me, but that makes me feel good because I got it for him as a gift. How many gifts do we give that don’t quite hit the mark? So now, with this app, he can access all his Kindle books on his iPhone. Handy when traveling light – T-shirt, wallet, keys, and phone.

As with all iPhone apps, you get these three by touching the “App Store” icon on your main page . . . then touch SEARCH at the bottom of the App Store . . . then touch the entry field at the top of the screen . . . and type, say, KINDLE or SKYPE or WORD WARP.

Search

This one you don’t even have to download; it’s already on your phone. But if you’re as stupid as I am, you may not realize it. From the main screen (I just learned), just swipe your thumb to the right. You get a keyboard and a field with the phrase Search iPhone. Type anything, and almost instantly you’ll see a list of contacts and emails and calendar items and anything else that contains that word. Just touch the one you want. If you suffer from appoplexy (the rage that results from having so many apps on your iPhone you can’t find the one you want), just type the first few letters of its name and – voila.

This much-talked about investment assessment – that I am several days late in sharing – offers an important perspective for investors, policymakers, and voters. And it may lead you to buy some GLD. It certainly strengthens my belief that the last thing we needed this year were tax cuts. They may have been politically necessary; indeed, in today’s world, they almost surely were. But, as argued here at the time, the folks WITH jobs and the folks MAKING taxable profits are not the ones who most needed help – nor the ones whom helping would do us any economic good. The tax cuts did not lead to hiring people; they were used to pay down debt and/or to buy stuff America largely doesn’t need, much or most of it made abroad.

Whatever we borrow should be borrowed to put people to work building a solid future – caulking and insulating homes, rebuilding bridges, digitizing health care records, smarting-up the electric grid. (In that last regard, see the President’s remarks Tuesday, where he announced 100 grants totaling $3.4 billion to install smart grid technologies.)

Have a great weekend, Einhorn’s sobering assessment notwithstanding.

THE BELL OF FREEDOM

Yesterday, Federal legislation aimed at granting LGBT people (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) equal rights was signed into law for the first time in our nation’s history.  In some ways it was just a toe in the water and a very small start – it extended the existing Federal hate crimes statute to cover crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity.  But it was a good start, and we soon may have the employment discrimination law extended to cover gays; allow gays to serve in the military without having to lie about who they are; even allow married gay couples the same right as married straight couples.  (Right now, a gay couple legally married in Massachusetts or Canada or Connecticut or Spain or Iowa or South Africa or Vermont or Holland is treated by the Federal government as if they were not married at all.)

Addressing a group of interested citizens after the signing, the President concluded by recalling the signing of the original hate crimes legislation:

In April of 1968, just one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, as our nation mourned in grief and shuddered in anger, President Lyndon Johnson signed landmark civil rights legislation.  This was the first time we enshrined into law federal protections against crimes motivated by religious or racial hatred — the law on which we build today.

As he signed his name, at a difficult moment for our country, President Johnson said that through this law “the bell of freedom rings out a little louder.”  That is the promise of America.  Over the sounds of hatred and chaos, over the din of grief and anger, we can still hear those ideals — even when they are faint, even when some would try to drown them out.  At our best we seek to make sure those ideals can be heard and felt by Americans everywhere.  And that work did not end in 1968.  It certainly does not end today.  But because of the efforts of the folks in this room — particularly those family members who are standing behind me — we can be proud that that bell rings even louder now and each day grows louder still.

BZ, DEPO, INCY, DYAX

I think there’s lots of risk in the stock market even after the small correction we’ve just had or are in the midst of.  But with BZ back down from over $6 to $5.21 and the BZ warrants down from a high of $1 to 62 cents year, I was heartened by a research paper yesterday from Lazard Capital.  It noted a refinancing of some 15.75% debt with 9% debt and set its price target for Boise Paper stock at $8.  I wouldn’t buy it here – I liked the stock better at 37 cents a year ago and the warrants better at 2 cents.  But I’m not rushing to sell the final third or so of the warrants.  You never know.

A basket of mini-drug-stock speculations that might double a year or two from now – to be bought only with money you can truly afford to lose – is INCY (suggested June 11 at $3.40 or so, $5.62 last night) and DEPO (down to $3.02 from $4.50 or so when suggested here the first of this month, so I’ve bought more) and DYAX, yours yesterday for $3.17.

OPT-OUT

As noted in August, many of us would like to see some improved version of the British or French or Canadian system (with our spending vastly more than they do, there would be room for improvement, even as our costs came way down) – but a “single-payer” system is not in the cards. Failing that, we hope a “public option” will be part of the compromise. Yet even that was in trouble in August. Well, here was my suggestion: a “public option” for those states that want it. Couldn’t that pass?

So it now [October] looks as though this may indeed be the compromise. But to be clear on how tame this is, and to see the whole spectrum of possible reform, from left to right, see:

RACHEL MADDOW ON THE PUBLIC OPTION

Here.

RACHEL MADDOW ON FOX “NEWS”

Here she does four enlightening minutes on the Tea Party schism . . . in the course of which she shows the promos Fox “News” ran to promote the Tea Parties, a part of Fox programming.

WHY JOURNALISTS SHOULDN’T BE DEFENDING FOX NEWS

Bill Press makes the case here.

CORRODED CAR BUMPERS

Andrew Klossner: “That “Soft Drinks Hard Facts” document is urban legend. You can find a good discussion here.”

☞ Well, yes and no. Apparently, soft drinks do corrode bumpers – but that’s not such a big deal.

SENATOR AL FRANKEN

Watch this two-minute clip to get a sense of what kind of senator he’s going to be. Paul Wellstone would be proud.

MORGAN STANLEY CEO DESCRIBES THE WEEK FROM HELL

This is a longer clip, but it just gets more and more gripping: a firsthand account of the week the global financial system could have collapsed. “Tell Tim Geithner I’m on with Japan . . .” Really: if you want to confirm or recalibrate your sense of what went on, and what kinds of people these are (my view: good people, overpaid), watch this.

FACE MASKS

Amie Home: “While the country continues to debate how we pay for and access health care, how about we reduce health care costs by keeping people from getting sick in the first place? As the family of five coughers filled the rows around me on a full plane last week I realized I was doomed. While I felt bad for the children and parents traveling (unmasked) while sick, I felt worse knowing what I was bringing home to my family. Sure enough, I caught swine flu and gave it to my 5 year old daughter, who has been battling 103 degree fevers for days now. People getting sick costs money and productivity. Why can we not have the will as a country to require masks for coughing people on planes, in doctor offices, and in other public places? Instead we throw up our hands and say, oh well, everyone is going to get it, and it becomes a very costly self-fulfilling prophecy. Just venting because my chest hurts, my oldest daughter is sick, and I dare not kiss my littlest one, all because a family decided they really needed to go on their Vegas vacation despite the fact that they had very sick children with them.”

☞ Ugh. I feel for you – and I thank you for increasing the likelihood I will actually WEAR one of the the little masks I bought (as every traveler should*) years ago – around the time of bird flu? – and have never worn because I’d feel like an idiot. But maybe now you’ve given me the courage to put health over embarrassment when I board Jet Blue tonight.

*But did I buy the right kind? I have no idea. Readers will chime in and enlighten us?

MORE LAMB CHOPS

Ralph Mason: “I like Obama. He’s a huge improvement. But it’s hard to see our President talk about reform and change while standing before a crowd of people paying 15k per plate, many of whom are part of the very fabric of what has gone wrong in our economy and who are apparently without any remorse or even doubt about their role. I think we need to see a little more FDR in Obama even if it means he loses a few plates at the next fundraiser. Here’s what most Americans see while Obama’s in NY.”

☞ Ralph links us to a Wall Street Journal story about political contributions. I’d like to take a minute to give you my take on this. The first thing to say is that anyone who fails to see the connection between money and politics must be four years old. And the second thing to say is that anyone who fails to favor “clean elections” or similar campaign finance reform must be a Republican. (Okay, that’s a little strong, but just a little.) But the third thing to say is that there is a big difference between the effect of contributions on individual legislators and the effect of contributions to the DNC (or, when he was running, to Obama’s campaign itself).

Because the fourth thing to say (don’t worry; I have only ten fingers) is that, thanks to a lot of pushing from our side, the amount of money any individual can give a party committee like the DNC in a given year has been reduced from “unlimited” – we had one guy who gave us $12 million in 2002 – to $30,400. That’s still a lot to you or me, but in a sea of more than $60 million the DNC will raise this year – the bulk of it from small contributions – $30,400 really doesn’t amount to that much.

A fifth thing to say is that – even though it legally could and the RNC legally does – the DNC accepts no money from federal lobbyists (of whom there are more than 10,000 in Washington, each intensely interested in legislation and each with a checkbook), just as the Obama campaign did not. Likewise, we do not (but the RNC does) take money from Political Action Committees.

So the truth is, no one is getting any bridges named after him – let alone a law passed, a regulation modified, or a policy changed – because of a $30,400 contribution to the DNC.

And, by the way, the donors at this dinner were not “part of the very fabric of what has gone wrong in our economy and who are apparently without any remorse or even doubt about their role.” At my table were one sculptor; one computer services executive; three lawyers; one art dealer with a strong side-interest in caulking America’s energy leaking houses; and one retired Republican entrepreneur whose wife and daughters had twisted his arm to do this (he was a good sport, but left only partially converted). Others in the room I knew included an heiress from Vermont and her son (an artist); a young hedge fund guy and the mother of his three kids (his passion is education reform); a magazine publisher; the former mayor of Denver; a labor lawyer and his very activist liberal wife; a retired advertising mogul and his wife; the employee of a mega-philanthropist; the head of a major bank that received no TARP money; and some real estate moguls.

Virtually everyone in the room was giving to see their taxes raised, not lowered; to see health coverage made universal even though they already have it; to see the President succeed with tough financial regulatory reform even though some of them are in finance.

That’s why they were at a DNC dinner, not an RNC dinner.

MUSIC ED.

James Musters: “That was a good high school orchestra you linked to last Friday [just listen to them play], but some Venezuelan kids have them beat. The Times of London music critic rated them #5 in the world – not #5 in youth orchestras of the world, #5 in the world amongst all the great orchestras. It’s an outgrowth of Venezuela’s providing a classical music education for everyone, rich or poor. Back in the USA we are still trying to figure out a way for everyone to get health care, while the countries that have had it for decades are working on quality of life: The Finnish government just made broadband Internet access a guaranteed legal right of all its citizens. And the Venezuelans are providing classical music education, and an instrument, to all kids, no matter how poor.”

☞ Well, first off, those Ohio kids were from just one high school. Your ringers were, basically, national champions, culled from an entire country – and some of them appear to be about 30. No wonder they play so well. Ringers, I tell you! Ringers! But of course it’s terrific to see how the Venezuelans are using violins to fight violence. That first link above tells the inspiring story.

Jacqueline Greenberg: “After sharing with all of us this wonderful high school orchestra, why not post information to help funds these kids. Many of your readers currently help the schools their own children attend, but we could all use the random acts of kindness of strangers (please excuse the mixed metaphor/literary quote).”

☞ Happily:

Newark High School Orchestra Fund
Park National Bank c/o Cindy Neely
P.O. Box 3500
Newark, OH 43058-3500

GOT PLANS FOR SATURDAY?

Click here to join one of thousands of actions around the globe tomorrow to bring attention to climate change.

It makes me a little nuts I can’t find the video of the President’s speech last night on-line – several TV cameras were rolling, and I saw snippets of it on the news – because as well as the transcript reads, actually hearing and seeing him say these things is even more compelling.

As I said yesterday . . . boy are we ever fortunate to have this guy. I know we’re out of practice, but it’s really okay not to be cynical:

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
__________________________________________
Immediate Release 2009 October 21, 2009

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT DNC FUNDRAISER DINNER

October 20, 2009

Mandarin Oriental Hotel
New York, New York

6:21 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Please, everybody have a seat. Back to your salads — (laughter) — or whatever they’re serving. [Tomato mozzarella, decent but not great; best lamb chops I ever ate; a so-so apple tart “pre-set” when we sat down; good fresh-brewed coffee after the President finished speaking; basically, what would have been about an $80 dinner at a nice restaurant, yours for $15,200. – A.T.]

It is good to be back in New York. (Applause.) Always great to be in New York. I — for those Yankee fans out there, you’re still up 2 to 1. (Applause.) You should be all right. I love this town, and I — want to know how much I appreciate everything that so many of the people in this room have done, not just for me, but for the country as a whole. There are a lot of folks here who were on the frontlines of our campaign, and people who devoted their time and their energy and their reputations to backing some guy nobody had ever heard of. (Laughter.) And I will never forget that. And not a day goes by that I don’t think about the obligations that I have as a consequence of this extraordinary honor that’s been bestowed on me — the obligation I’ve got to every American and everybody who put their hopes into a cause that wasn’t just about winning an election, but was about changing the country.

Now, it’s been nine months since the Obama family packed up and moved to Washington. And I want to report that Malia and Sasha are doing very well. I got more requests for Malia and Sasha meetings during the photo line than — (laughter) — you can’t afford a fundraiser involving Malia and Sasha. (Laughter.) I just want you to know. I’m cheap. You guys can’t afford that.

They are doing great. Michelle is obviously an extraordinary First Lady. (Applause.) And we’ve got Bo, my dog, who — I now rank fourth in influence in the house — (laughter) — behind Michelle, Malia, and Sasha. I’m slightly ahead of Bo. (Laughter.) But he’s coming on fast. (Laughter.)

It’s important for all of us to remember, I think, what was happening less than a year ago when we walked into the Oval Office, because I notice that there’s been a little bit of selective memory going on, some collective amnesia on the part of some folks about what we were facing. We were seeing an economic crisis unlike any that we had seen in generations. We were losing 700,000 jobs per month. Our financial system was on the brinks — brink of collapse. Economists of every stripe were suggesting that we might slip into a Great Depression. That was just nine months ago.

And think about what we’ve done since that time. We acted boldly and swiftly to pass a Recovery Act that’s made a difference in the lives of families across America. As promised, we put a tax cut in the pockets of 95 percent of working families in America — the most progressive tax cut in history, benefiting 7 million families right here in New York. (Applause.)

We extended and increased unemployment insurance to help 12 million people get by during tough times. That’s helped more than a million folks here in New York. We made COBRA 65 percent cheaper so that if people were out there looking for jobs, they could actually still keep health care for themselves and their families. (Applause.)

We provided relief to states, including New York, to make sure that teachers and firefighters and police officers weren’t laid off. According to initial reports, this has saved some 250,000 jobs in our schools all across America — 250,000 jobs; teachers that would have been laid off had it not been for the Recovery Act. We supported more than 30,000 loans to small businesses, including nearly 2,000 in this state, helping to create thousands of private sector jobs.

But the Recovery Act wasn’t just about tax cuts; it wasn’t just about providing emergency relief for middle-class families and working families who bore the brunt of this recession. It was also the largest investment in education in American history. Think about that. The largest investment in education in American history — and one that is promoting reform in states all across the country. It was the largest investment in clean energy in American history. (Applause.) It was the largest boost to medical research and basic research in American history. (Applause.) And it was the single largest investment in our nation’s infrastructure since Eisenhower built the interstate highway system in the 1950s, an investment that’s putting people to work all across this country rebuilding not just our roads and our bridges and crumbling schools, but also creating a whole new infrastructure, a smart grid to help clean energy travel from where it’s produced to where it’s needed — broadband lines extending into communities that don’t have it.

So that was pretty good for the first month. (Applause.) And then we kept on going, and we passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, because I think women should get paid the same as men for doing the same work. (Applause.) We lifted the ban on stem cell research to begin restoring science to its rightful place in America. (Applause.) We extended health insurance to 11 million children in America — (applause) — 4 million of whom previously had no insurance at all.

We passed a service bill named for Ted Kennedy, which is encouraging folks to give back to their communities all across the country, expanding Peace Corps and AmeriCorps. We passed legislation to protect consumers from unfair rate hikes, and the most comprehensive credit card reform legislation in a generation.

We passed laws to make sure that our children weren’t being targeted by big tobacco companies, and housing fraud legislation. These were all things that we had been fighting for for years, that we signed into law in the first nine months.

And for the first time in history, we’ve begun to put in place a new national policy aimed at both increasing fuel economy and reducing greenhouse gas pollution for all new cars and trucks sold in the United States. (Applause.)

And while I was in line, I was talking to a few folks who are involved in the environmental movement, and they will affirm — we’re not doing this with a lot of fanfare — that we have been as productive in cleaning our environment and focusing on the big challenges having to do with our air and our water as any administration that’s been around in a very long time. For decades.

If we stop now, if we didn’t do anything else for the next three months, we would have had one of the most productive legislative sessions in decades — already. (Applause.)

Now, that’s what we’ve been able to do at home. I’ve got a few things going on abroad. (Laughter.) We’ve begun a new era of engagement. We’re working with our partners to stop the spread of nuclear weapons, to seek the long-term goal of a safer, more secure world that is free of nuclear weapons. (Applause.) We are — we’re working in concert with nations on just about every continent to stem our global economic downturn and to confront climate change. We banned torture. We’re rebuilding our military. We’re reaffirming our alliances. We’ve begun to leave Iraq to its own people. We’ve made progress in taking the fight to al Qaeda, from Pakistan to Somalia to Indonesia. We’re making progress there, too.

But the reason you’re here tonight, the reason I’m here tonight, the reason Tim Kaine is doing such an extraordinary job as our DNC chair, even though he’s got another job as Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, is because we all know our work is far from over. There’s still far too many Americans who are out of work right now; they’re seeing their hours and their wages reduced. There are too many Americans who are subject to the whims of the insurance companies when it comes to their health care, being dropped or discriminated against because they’ve got a preexisting condition. Too many millions can’t afford insurance in the first place.

We know that we still face enormous challenges in this country, and that’s not news to you. Lately there had been some discussion — you know, what’s taking him so long? Health care seems to — it’s been nine months, we haven’t solved world hunger yet. (Laughter and applause.) And I try to explain to people, part of what was remarkable about the campaign that we ran, was it wasn’t easy. That’s how we knew it was worth it. We knew we were fighting against the status quo and fighting against inertia. And it took a lot of hard work and a lot of effort and a lot of defying the odds. That was part of what made it special.

And I know you guys didn’t sign up for this election because I was a sure thing. And you didn’t sign up because you thought that somehow all the fun stuff of the election would just keep on continuing into governing. You know, the poster was nice, and we had “Yes we can,” nice slogans — (laughter) — but that’s not why you did this. You did this because you understood that we were at a crossroads in our history; that the future of our children, our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren was going to be at stake, and that we were going to have to completely rethink how we were dealing with key sectors of our economy and key aspects of our national security.

So you understood that now is the time to build a clean energy economy that will free our nation from the grip of foreign oil and generate new green jobs in the process, jobs that pay well and can’t be outsourced. You understood that now is the time to transform our education system so that every child is prepared to compete in this new global economy, that now was the time to make sure that we put new rules of the road in our financial sector to prevent the kinds of abuse and excess on Wall Street that led us to this crisis. You understood that. And you also understood that the insurance companies and the banks and the oil companies might not be crazy about some of these changes; that they were doing just fine under the status quo. So nobody thought this was going to be easy. We talked about this during the campaign.

While I’m in New York, I want to stress something about this financial reform effort. The financial industry is essential to a healthy economy and to the well-being of our economy. That’s why we stepped in to prevent a collapse that would have had far-reaching and devastating consequences for the American people — steps, by the way, that were not wildly popular and still aren’t among the American people. But it was the right thing to do.

But we also know we should never again have to face potential calamity because of reckless speculation and deceptive practices and short-sightedness and self-interestedness from a few. So if there are members of the financial industry in the audience today, I would ask that you join us in passing what are necessary reforms. Don’t fight them, join us on them. (Applause.)

This is important for our country. And in the long run it will be good for the financial industry to have a level playing field in which everybody knows the rules and everybody knows that the rules will be enforced, and people are competing not by how confusing you can make things and how you can avoid rules, but competing because you’re offering innovative good products that are helping grow the American economy and putting people to work out on Main Street.

When I hear some folks who had just been taking taxpayer bailout money suddenly say, “What do you want from me?” — when I hear stories about small businesses and medium-sized businesses not being able to get loans despite Wall Street being back, very profitable, that tells me that people aren’t thinking about their obligations, our mutual obligations to each other, the fact that we’re in this together.

So what’s true for financial reform, what’s true for energy reform, is also true for health insurance reform. You know why this is so important. You know if you’re an employer, you’ve seen what’s happening to the premiums that you’re paying on behalf of your employees; and if you’re an employee, you’ve how your employer is passing on some of those costs to you. Premiums have doubled over the past decade. They could double again in the next decade.

Millions of people in this country have been discriminated against because of preexisting conditions. More and more companies are dropping their coverage; more and more families struggling to pay health care even as insurance out-of-pocket costs rise year after year.

Now, here’s the good news. We are closer than we have ever been to passing health insurance reform that will make quality, affordable — (applause) — that will make quality care affordable for people who don’t have insurance, and it will bring stability and security to people who do have insurance, and that will slow the skyrocketing costs of health insurance for our families and our businesses, our state and federal budgets.

Nothing could be more important in terms of getting our fiscal house in order than finishing the job on health reform. There’s still details to be ironed out, still disagreements that we’ve got to work out, but for the first time we’ve passed bills through every committee. They are now starting to be narrowed. There are negotiations taking place. And we’ve got people who are engaging even if they don’t want to engage because they’re starting to realize it’s not a matter of whether, it’s a matter of when.

All the bills that have been passed, despite the various differences, all of them would provide help to millions of people who don’t have coverage. Understand, 29 million — under the Baucus bill — 29 million people who don’t have health insurance would now have health insurance, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

All the bills would prevent insurance companies from barring you because of preexisting conditions. All of them would set up an exchange, a framework so that businesses, self-employed individuals, could buy in and leverage the fact that there are millions of people as part of a pool so that they can get a better deal.

So we are nearing the finish line. With your help, we are going to cross it. And there are going to be some fierce arguments in the days ahead. That’s how it should be. That’s how our democracy works. But I want all the Democrats who are in the house — (laughter) — to understand what a profound potential achievement this is, and stay focused on the goal line. Sometimes we like to have our little intramural battles; that’s fine. The American people need this.

I want all non-Democrats who may be here, or may be watching to know that I believe in a strong and loyal opposition. I believe in a two-party system where ideas are tested and assumptions are challenged. That’s how we strengthen our proposals. That’s how our democracy works. (Applause.) But what I reject, what I don’t have a lot of sympathy for is folks who are just sitting on the sidelines and rooting for failure, whether it’s on health care, or energy, or the economy. (Applause.) What I reject is when some folks suggest that we go back to the policies that got us in the mess in the first place — as if we didn’t just go through what we’ve been going through.

I said this before, last week at a fundraiser. I don’t mind cleaning up the mess that some other folks made. That’s what I signed up to do. But while I’m there mopping the floor I don’t want somebody standing there saying, “You’re not mopping fast enough.” Or, “You’re not holding the mop the right way.” (Laughter.)

Grab a mop! (Applause.) Why don’t you help clean up? (Applause.)

Everybody in Washington — Democrat, Republican — we all have a responsibility to rise to this occasion; to look past our differences; to recognize that we have to move beyond the failed policies and broken politics that allowed our toughest problems to go unsolved for decades.

When you look at the health care debate, you’ve got a whole bunch of Republicans who are saying, yeah, we should do this — except those are all retired Republicans — Bob Dole and Bill Frist and — last time I checked they’re not socialist. And they think it’s important for us to get this done. That’s a model for what everybody needs to be thinking. Roll up our sleeves and help to make this country the kind of country it should be.

In the end, the people I meet across this country, they aren’t looking for a lot. They’re not looking for government to solve all their problems. They just want a chance to succeed. They are modest hopes — they want a job; they want to be able to get an education. If they’ve got a good idea, they want to be able to get some financing to start a business. They want to retire with some dignity and respect. They want to be able to send their kids to college. They’re asking for the opportunity to make the most of their own lives. That’s it. It’s the chance every American deserves. That’s the American Dream. That’s the promise I’m working to fulfill every day.

And at this rare moment in history, I want you all to know that without your help I can’t do it. Like I said before, what we’re trying to do is big, and it’s hard. If it was easy, somebody else would have done it. And it now falls to us. And I hope that everybody here is willing to recapture that sense of excitement that comes from a big, but achievable challenge.

Not the superficial excitement that comes from Election Day, but the excitement that comes from knowing we took on something that had to be taken on; we didn’t kick the can down the road, and we didn’t push it off on somebody else, but instead we decided we were going to be the generation that puts things on better footing for those coming behind us.

That’s what tonight is about. That is what our efforts are about. And if you’re willing to stand with me and work with me and occasionally march with me, I’m absolutely confident we’re going to get it accomplished.

Thank you very much, everybody. God bless you. God bless the United States of America. (Applause.)

END
6:43 P.M. EDT

☞ Grab a mop, folks. Even if you choose no heavier a lift than suspending cynicism and rooting for success – without demanding perfection. (Demanding perfection, when it comes to a contentious situation, is just as obstructionist as fighting reform.) And if you can go a step further, join Organizing for America. And if you are so fortunate as to be able to help fund Organizing for America by contributing $30,400 for two lamb chop dinners, e-mail me your phone number. There is nothing in the world I enjoy more than taking down credit card information. (Think of the frequent flier miles!)

Steve G: “Re those $30,000 lamb chops you wrote about yesterday, maybe they could give one of these folks, below the poverty line, half a plate? This is MY party? The party of the working people? Is there no shame?”

☞ The money goes to help move the President’s agenda, which is all about the things you and I care about. Dems move millions out of poverty . . . then the other team comes in and lowers taxes for the rich, freezes the minimum wage, and watches as millions move back in the other direction. I am personally SO grateful to the wealthy folks who are willing to give these big dollars to help, even though they know we mean to raise their taxes. The good news, FWIW: most DNC money now comes NOT in big checks but from a sea of small ones.

After the President left us to our lamb chops, he motorcaded a few blocks south to a crowd of 2,700, most of whom chipped in $100 or $250, and gave virtually the same speech all over again. That video, I did find. You can watch it here.