Sunday was a refreshing day. Seeing Obama on This Week with George Stephanopoulos's Hair (as the Rude One refers to it) help put me at ease. Just listening to him talk about the issues, even when he was saying things I didn't want to hear, was a world of difference from the smug, insistent manner Bush and his cronies always used. And then the fact that there was negotiation with the Dem leadership, come on, how encouraging was that.

And one of the things I keep forgetting that Obama's team understands that so many other seem not to is the issue of promoting electronic medical data. This is the area of IT I work in. All through the campaign and even since then people have complained that his plans don't match up with the revenue he'll need. The problem they are overlooking is that a $1 investment in electronic medical records is not a $1 return. It is drastically higher. I've seen communities spend $200K on implementing software, central shared data, etc. and see a $40 million savings in inappropriate ER visits. That is staggering on the national level.

It's great to look forward to a president who understands you don't just buy down problems, you invest in solutions that provide far greater returns.