Last night Chris Mathews, the commentator famous for getting a tingle in his leg when Obama speaks, hosted a panel discussion reviewing Obama’s first year in office. The panel cover the spectrum of opinion one would expect on NBC, ranging from overall approval to adoration. I did sense that the obsequiously worshipful category was a bit weak, perhaps due to the bitter realities the past year served up.

One point stumped the panel. All agreed that American are unusually welcoming to foreigners visiting the US. One much-traveled panelist claimed that Americans were clearly the most welcoming in the world. The conundrum, then, it why Americans have not been notably impressed with Obama’s efforts to curry favor with the international community. I’m here to help explain the mystery.

Obama remains popular because many middle-ground voters have not associated him with the implementation of the policies of his administration. The committed Left and the committed right have no trouble associating Obama with Obama policies, but few in either of those camps have changed their opinions about Obama since he was elected. The middle ground perceives health care as a product of Congress, not the President. The President wants only wonderful things: lower health costs, universal coverage, preserving what you now have, and no increase in deficits. He is firm on all those things, having asserted them in 112 speeches on the subject.

President Obama made the point in his speech this week that H.R. 3200, the leading health care bill in the House, specifically excludes coverage of non-citizens. That brought the infamous outburst, “You lie!” from South Carolina Republican Jim Wilson. Wilson’s outburst was inexcusable, and he rightly apologized. But what is the planned coverage for illegals, and what should it be?

There is a difference between a lie and a mistake and also between hypocrisy and just playing the cards you are dealt. These conceptual differences arise regularly in political debate, and now in in the health care debate. Let’s start with hypocrisy.

The current debate on health care is confusing. I focus on five central issues. The debate would be improved if these specifics were in the forefront. My points are, (1) heath in the US is more a product of lifestyle than the care system, (2) insurance company profits are a trivial part of health care costs, (3) justified changes in insurance regulations do not require the much large health care package, (4) a person will not be able to keep their present health insurance if employers drop the option, and (5) critical details of the new system are not disclosed.

The first thing to understand about “no bid” contracts is that there is literally no such thing. What is referred to as “no bid” really means “sole sourced.” Sole sourced contracts are not put out to competitive bid, but are rather aimed at one supplier. The single supplier is given a request for a bid on a specified item or service, the supplier responds with a bid, the government accepts or rejects the bid, and if accepted, a contract is then negotiated and signed.

Today President Obama spoke before the American Medical Association, explaining his plans to “reform” the medical care system in the United States. You can tell I’m skeptical, because I put “reform” in quotes. I hold open the possibility that not all plans to spend huge sums of taxpayer money are actually reforms. If the health care plan actually saves money, then it should be funded entirely from the savings achieved. I’ll grant some startup costs, but after a few years money should be flowing into either the Treasury or into the pockets of taxpayers. That, however, is not a part of the plan.

President Obama has taught us that the words used to say something are not nearly as important as who says them and how they are said. Unfortunately, Darth Vader is unavailable to do the job, so Vice President Cheney will have to suffice. What Cheney would say is not substantially different from what any other representative would say. The message is in who is saying it. The move would have the greatest potential for resolving the situation peacefully by causing Dear Leader to back off.

President Obama: I need a calculator, and I’d like to get a good one. Do you have the models that talk and have artificial intelligence?

Clerk: Yes, Mr. President. We feature the Autoconglomerator Ultra Turbo 971B. It’s one of the best. We call it the Aut9 for short.

PO: Very good. I’d like to interview it to see if it meets my needs.

There was not too much new in the memos. We all knew that waterboarding had been used, and that seems to be more of an issue than the revelation that a caterpillar, pre-certified as harmless, was used to scare a terrorist. The harm is making it abundantly clear that there is negligible downside risk to being a terrorist. Before making it official and pounding the point home through international publicity, terrorists had some reason to worry about being caught.

Politics has continued to move down the priority list for most people, and candidates have responded with ever-simpler messages. One might suppose that the press would provide a counter influence, demanding more thorough treatment of complex issues. That has not happened. The press lives in the world of sound bites, and they know that if they spend more than thirty seconds on any issue, their audience is likely to change channels to find something fresh.