There was a big "presidential" healthcare forum in Las Vegas earlier today, but it looks like the only one who attended were from the Democratic Party. Realizing that I didn't watch it and I'm only relying on a few blogger reports, it looks like there was probably more debate involved at the Third Plenary Soviet.

The moderator was Karen Tumulty of Time, and you can read her nearly content-free round-up here [1]. About the only thing newsworthy she can point to is that someone tripped up Obama, making him look bad because, while he supports universal healthcare, he doesn't have a detailed plan on his website. Apparently the question about that was the toughest question that was asked; weep for "journalism".

From our comment-deleting friends at MyDD [2]:

The first question from Tumulty asks how long it would take to achieve universal healthcare under his plan, to which [Bill Richardson] replied that his plan could achieve it within a year. The second question centers on the Schwarzenegger healthcare plan, which covers illegal immigrants. Richardson says, "They're children... and we should cover children." He also says that we need to deal with immigration through securing the borders (not through the "stupid" wall) but also through legalization. The next question, from the audience, centers on the healthcare accessible to members of Congress and federal employees. Richardson says that this is the "cornerstone" of his plan, that these programs should be open to all Americans... ...One other questioner asked if Berger and Podesta were unhappy with the fact that none of the candidates, other than Edwards, seemed to speak to how they will pay for their plans, Berger notes that other candidates actually did speak to some if this question. On the question of healthcare for illegal immigrants, Berger noted that the position of SEIU was that people should come out of the shadows and that all Americans -- all Americans -- need to be covered.

Bolding in original, as is the inability to understand that, unless we're talking in purely geographic sense, only U.S. citizens are "Americans", and that appelation does not include illegal aliens.

Needless to say, no one bothered to ask Bill Richardson whether he was speaking for himself or for the OAS.

[1] time-blog.com/swampland/2007/03/re_las_vegas_health_care_forum.html
[2] mydd.com/story/2007/3/24/115150/071