Update [2008-2-2 15:9:10 by susanhu]: Below, I've added the images from Obama's attack mailer.

In Thursday's debate -- as he did in previous debates for which Edwards excorciated him -- Barack Obama defended the failure of his health plan to cover 15 million people. Obama thinks that giving Americans a CHOICE is superior to a mandated plan. Below are experts' must-read opinions on why Obama's thinking is so flawed.

First, though, let me opine for a minute.  Steve Clemons writes at Huffington Post that he received this argument for choice from an Obama surrogate:

We as a nation have to decide, do we want to be forced to pay for universal medical insurance, like we are mandated to pay for auto insurance now? Or would we rather have the option of CHOICE -- to be able to decide whether or not we want to buy our medical coverage when we think the time is right?

Barack Obama's plan thoughtfully does not want to put another mandated cost, like auto insurance, on the backs of the people, especially the young, who already have college costs to contend with. However, the coverage is always there for you, if and when you need it. That is our decision and our choice!

WTF??? So if some drugged-up 17-year-old hits my car on the highway, it's okay with Barack Obama that he doesn't have car insurance (even though it's required by law)? And that my county's hospital (whose budget is already stretched to the max) will have to eat the costs of his emergency and long-term care?  So it's okay that I have to pay extra on my own policy to cover uninsured motorists?

There's more...