Everyone has their own opinion as to what the federal government does best -- which government dollar is the most well-spent, in other words. Some would say the military, or Medicare, or farm subsidies. For me, it's a close tie between the Interstate Highway System and the National Park System, both of which I appreciate whenever I get a chance to use them.

Which is why it was heartening to see President Obama taking his family to visit two of the crown jewels of the National Park System -- Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Most presidents don't even get around to visiting a National Park in their first year in office, unless you count the many places in Washington, D.C. which are administered by the National Park Service (technically, even the White House would count, under this designation). And even when most presidents do visit National Parks, it is usually to make a political point or push a specific piece of legislation, with a park as a convenient photo-op backdrop.

But Obama and his family weren't pushing any environmental legislation or making any kind of political point this past weekend. They looked like any other tourist family, there to enjoy the spectacular beauty with their kids (except for the Secret Service detail, of course). Barack Obama made a trip West with his own mother and grandmother when he was a young boy, and he obviously was taking the opportunity to do the same with his children. What could be more American and more family-oriented than that?

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The healthcare reform fracas has gotten so bad, it has forced some in the media to actually do their jobs. This statement will come as a shock to anyone who has become accustomed to the way these soi-disant "journalists" present just about any issue these days -- by having a center-left politician and a hard-right politician on to "debate," and then fanning the flames by refusing to referee and provide actual facts to the discussion. But I think now (maybe) the "journalists" have finally gotten to the point of embarrassment, leading them to actually report on what is true and what is not in the entire debate. In other words, as I said, to do their actual jobs.

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One of the most striking features of the desert is its silence.

Take a walk in the desert, and you won't hear much unless the wind is blowing strong enough to whisper faintly. People are few and far between, so even human speech doesn't intrude much at all. When I planned a vacation out to some desert sights, I had no idea that the silence would be the most welcome thing about the trip. While traveling, I was not listening to any news, and therefore missed most of the town hall frenzy which took place (although I did manage to catch most of Obama's town hall in New Hampshire on television, right before checking out of a motel).

But, while the silence was indeed relaxing (in comparison to following the news as closely as I normally do), one of the most striking things to me from the trip came when the silence was broken by people talking. Because in roughly about 80-90 percent of the cases, the language spoken wasn't English.

But before I get into that, let's start with some vacation photos. These first three are from one of the most awesome natural formations anywhere on Earth -- Antelope Canyon. This is one of the few places on this planet you can go where it is almost impossible to take a bad picture. Don't believe me? Take a look:

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[Originally ran July 22, 2009 -- see note at bottom]

In a few hours from now, President Barack Obama will give a live press conference to the nation. This is part of a new and concerted media effort by the White House to make Obama much more visible in the debate on healthcare reform. But being visible is one thing, and showing leadership is another. Because President Obama has so far been unwilling to tackle the tough decisions on healthcare reform, at least not in public. And, as Obama is accusing his detractors of doing, this is nothing more than playing politics with the issue by avoiding personal political risk to himself. Disturbingly, Obama hasn't even been very good at this political cheerleading, although he has gotten better in the past few days.

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[Originally ran June 15, 2009 -- see note at bottom]

In the debate about healthcare reform, why are the loudest voices in the room the ones who seemingly are against all reform? Where are the champions of the progressive ideas? I've asked this question (at great length) before, and while President Obama has started to (half-heartedly) speak up for "the public option," so far nobody else seems to be defending the idea at all. To say this is a disappointment is an understatement. Part of the problem is that the senator all Democrats are deferring to on the issue is Teddy Kennedy. Who has his own problems with healthcare right now, which precludes his being a leading and forceful voice to the public on the issue.

Or does it?

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[Originally ran June 9, 2009 -- see note at bottom]

The debate over what, exactly, "healthcare reform" means is about to hit fever pitch (so to speak), and instead of diving into the legislative details of what seems to be emerging from congressional Democrats, I would like to make a broad suggestion in how they should be framing the issue correctly. Some may call this approach naive, but I truly believe that rather than fighting for one species of reform over the other, Democrats need to first adequately define the core principle they are fighting for. Their "values" on healthcare reform, to put it another way. And while it may not be achievable this time around, I think the goal Democrats should loudly proclaim they are attempting is a very simple one: nobody should ever go bankrupt because they get sick.

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As the Republican Party sinks slowly in the South....

That line has nothing to do, really, with President Barack Obama's second hundred days in office, but, after re-reading three months of my own columns, it was the one thing I wrote which jumped out at me as a good overview of the zeitgeist of the period.

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There has been a relentless drumbeat behind the scenes here at CW.com, in the form of emails I get from readers astonished that I have no presence on Twitter (or Facebook, or whatever...). So I figured today was the day to address these publicly. Mostly because this will be the last "live" column for a few days (more on that at the end), so the comment thread will have many days to remain open before I get a chance to read it.

The question, letting my natural hamminess speak (hamminess... let... ham...let?), I put it to you thusly: "To tweet, or not to tweet?" That is today's question.

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The term "silly season" is a lot older than I thought, reaching back into the 1800s. It refers to late summer, when governments go on massive taxpayer-funded vacations all over the world. Silly trivia: the "silly season" is known, for reasons obscure, as "cucumber season" in many other languages (you just can't make this stuff up).

Here in America, of course, we take our silly pretty seriously. August, in recent political history, was when the infamous "swift boat" ads ran, which contributed to the destruction of John Kerry's campaign for president. Kerry contributed to this as well, mostly by staying on vacation and not responding to the attacks, which (in retrospect) looks pretty... well... silly.

But this year's season could produce a bumper crop of silly. The silly, it seems, is just bustin' out all over. And it's only the beginning of August, when our elected representatives all take off work for five weeks. Who knows how silly things are going to be by the end of the month?

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Is yelling a smart political tactic? That's an abstract sort of question, but it's going to become more and more concrete in the next few weeks, because there appears to be a coordinated effort to use the tactic of shouting everyone down to disrupt "town hall" events by Democratic members of Congress in their home districts during the August recess. My question is whether this tactic is going to be effective or whether it has the possibility of backfiring.

Of course, since the ones doing the yelling are interested not in doing anything constructive, but rather obstructing legislation they don't approve of (healthcare reform), yelling may be more effective than one would normally assume. But the real question is how they will be portrayed in the mainstream media -- as forehead-vein-throbbing lunatics, or as passionate fighters for their cause. Because not a whole lot of people actually show up to town hall meetings with politicians, and most Americans only become aware of such events if the media covers them (such coverage is usually relegated to local media, and is usually pretty boring). But people screaming at politicians may rise to the level of the national media, which means the way the media portray the screamers will be key. And the mainstream media, of late, has not exactly been doing a shining job of separating lunacy from political discourse (see: "birthers"). So it will be interesting to see how this all plays out.

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