Friday Reflection: Rothschilds, Rednecks and John McCain

Form The Sleuth, by Mary Ann Akers, Wash.Post
Posted at 1:28 PM ET, 09/19/2008

Our favorite political story of the week by far was news of John McCain's highly touted endorsement from one Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild, a "Hillraiser" who chose to support the GOP presidential nominee over Barack Obama, the man who defeated her dear friend Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary.

De Rothschild didn't stop making news with her endorsement. Later in the week, the famously wealthy London socialite went on to call those working-class Americans who Obama insulted during the primary "rednecks."

"Barack Obama went and called the people who have guns and cling to their religion bitter," de Rothschild told CNN's Campbell Brown. "The people out - who are the rednecks or whatever - are bitter."

Click here to watch a YouTube clip of milady's redneck riff. When, do you suppose, was the last time Lady de Rothschild knocked back a few Pabst Blue Ribbons with a redneck, perhaps over NASCAR or wrestling?

The GOP presidential campaign made much ado this week over the New Jersey-born Baroness for Hillary crossing over to become an Aristocrat for McCain - in the midst, of course, of the nation's worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression, and as both McCain and Obama are desperately trying to woo middle-class voters hit hardest by the ongoing credit crisis. But hey, far be it from the Sleuth to judge when a presidential candidate should roll out the red carpet for a baroness embracing him with open arms and purse.

Lady de Rothschild's decision to back McCain may have had less to do with loyalty to Hillary than it did in joining the rest of the aristocratic clan she married into.

The Rothschilds lent their name and historic property for a fundraiser held for McCain back in March at the storied Spencer House, which is owned by the famous banking family of England. (Mrs. de Rothschild's husband, Sir Evelyn Rothschild, recently sold his stake in the family banking empire, for a reported $600 million.)

Lady de Rothschild - "the flashiest hostess in London," as Portfolio magazine calls her - says she'll be spending much of her time between now and Election Day campaigning for McCain.

But something tells us we probably won't be seeing as much of milady as she thinks we will. Would she really be the most appealing of McCain surrogates to all those "rednecks" clinging to their 401k plans?

Patients Without Borders

Note from Greetings: It's a sad statement when our country is in need of 3rd world services due to the inactions of this country

November 18, 2007

By SARA CORBETT, NY Times

Long before the dentists and the doctors got there, before the nurses, the hygienists and X-ray techs came, before anyone had flicked on the portable mammography unit or sterilized the day’s first set of surgical instruments, the people who needed them showed up to wait. It was 3 a.m. at the Wise County Fairgrounds in Virginia — Friday, July 20, 2007 — the start of a rainy Appalachian morning. Outside the gates, people lay in their trucks or in tents pitched along the grassy parking lot, waiting for their chance to have their medical needs treated at no charge — part of an annual three-day “expedition” led by a volunteer medical relief corps called Remote Area Medical.

The group, most often referred to as RAM, has sent health expeditions to countries like Guyana, India, Tanzania and Haiti, but increasingly its work is in the United States, where 47 million people — more than 15 percent of the population — live without health insurance. Residents of remote rural areas are less likely than their urban and suburban counterparts to have health insurance and more likely to be in fair or poor health.

According to the Department of Health and Human Services, nearly half of all adults in rural America are living with at least one chronic condition. Other research has found that in these areas, where hospitals and primary-care providers are in short supply, rates of arthritis, hypertension, heart ailments, diabetes and major depression are higher than in urban areas.

And so each summer, shortly after the Virginia-Kentucky District Fair and Horse Show wraps up at the fairgrounds, members of Virginia Lions Clubs start bleaching the premises, readying them for RAM’s volunteers, who, working in animal stalls and beneath makeshift tents, provide everything from teeth cleaning and free eyeglasses to radiology and minor surgery. The problem, says RAM’s founder, Stan Brock, is always in the numbers, with the patients’ needs far outstripping what his team can supply. In Wise County, when the sun rose and the fairground gates opened at 5:30 on Friday morning, more than 800 people already were waiting in line. Over the next three days, some 2,500 patients would receive care, but at least several hundred, Brock estimates, would be turned away. He adds: “There comes a point where the doctors say: ‘Hey, I gotta go. It’s Sunday evening, and I have to go to work tomorrow.’ ”