Companies across the subsectors collectively thought of as the healthcare industry are growing more nervous as Democrats change tactics and try to reorient the debate over business models in healthcare product and service fulfillment as an us-versus-them choice - vote another Republican into the White House and greedy healthcare executives and mercenary lobbyists will join them for payback; or pick a Democrat and it'll be universal, free healthcare and drugs for everybody.

But this week, our plucky, but distant third place contestant in the run for the Democratic nomination, John Edwards, finally delivered the most detailed proposal of his vision for a universal healthcare system, even as his wife battles breast cancer. Seizing the opportunity to position for appeal between the decidedly female base of rival and heir apparent, Hillary Clinton, herself having offered up precious few new ideas (although, in case you forgot, Hillary's nascent attempts at reform during her husband's administration nearly sunk him, but at least she never admitted to being wrong in her Senate vote on going to war in Iraq) and supporters of Barack Obama, the true-left's only choice and credited with a proposal that might be smart and serious, but is still vague and unarticulated.

After reading Jacob Weisberg's Slate.com piece on Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden's plan to solve the healthcare crisis in the U.S., I've decided we should draft him to run for President... or at least, Vice President. And I'm a Republican. But as a critic of Hillary's last go-round with that issue, he'd make a better running mate for someone like Edwards or Obama (or better yet, teaming with McCain or Romney for a potent [though unlikely] mixed ticket). The excerpt below tells you why:

Wyden is a politically savvy wonk, who in drafting the bill he recently introduced has tried to learn from previous Democratic mistakes. He recently told me he had read The System, David Broder and Haynes Johnson's massive tome on the failure of the Clinton health-care reform plan, no less than five times. (Apparently, Starbucks now offers an intravenous drip.)

Wyden's bill is 166 pages against Hillary's 1364, and he thinks he can pare it further. When he was getting started, Wyden drew a grid of the major interest groups and made sure there were plusses as well as minuses for each in his bill. He has support from CEOs, labor leaders, and even one maverick health-insurance executive.(read more)