Gratifying that President-elect Obama has gone for a quick start on a national system of electronic medical records. Actually as we pointed out, this could be risky; you don’t want to spend millions on incompatible systems. But there are things you could do while working out the common standards with all deliberate speed.
But we at the influential RBC also supported Candidate Obama’s plans for a national electricity grid (here and here). But sadly no mention of this equally fast-trackable plan in the speech. Why? There already is a designate Health Secretary lobbying for his stuff, but no Energy Secretary. Go to it!
Admittedly Obama has a severe problem in leading just now. As Barney Frank memorably quips:
He [Obama] says we only have one president at a time. I’m afraid that overstates the number of presidents we have.
(h/t Josh Marshall)
