Wednesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

The President has left Moscow. He's now in Italy for the G-8 Summit hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The Italian PM is always good for some drama, so we'll see if he's a statesman or the playboy this week.

At 10:30 a.m., the Vice President is going to be making a big announcement about health care, specifically on hospital savings (in the $150 billion range.) Having had a recent. short hospital stay, even I was shocked at the costs. I was in the George Washington University Hospital for approximately 40 hours when I had my appendectomy back in March. The total bill was $19,000 -- and that didn't include services provided by the doctors. So, I'm thinking there is room for savings.

The traditional media has to start weaning itself of the Michael Jackson addiction so we may actually see some real news today. Some.

Let's get started...