This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, March 4, 2008. I'm Caleb Brown.

Barack Obama's inspiring rhetoric has helped him take the lead in the race for the

Democratic nomination for president. But what about Obama the policymaker and the regulator?

What does he mean by managed competition for American health care and what kind of new

mandates would he impose on businesses? Does he have any inclination toward federalism?

Michael Tanner, Director of Health and Welfare Studies at the Cato Institute,

tallies up the balance sheet. Brian Kaplan over at George Mason University talks about this idea of pessimism bias.

That is, libertarians perhaps, when hearing a right-wing Republican talk about free trade and free markets and it's your money and things like that

tend not to take them at face value

believing that oh well they don't necessarily really mean it.

However when they hear Democrats talking about lifting the cap on taxes for

Social Security or entering some sort of socialist system of managing

some aspect of the economy, absolutely believe it.

I think they may have had been proven by experience. The fact is that by and

large, conservatives have not followed through on their promises and at the same time the

left has been much more focused.

They may not actually be able to achieve their goals because of political circumstances but they certainly seem to have a core set of

beliefs that often eludes most so-called conservatives.

So you might argue that it's not necessarily a bias at all.

I would suggest it's probably careful observation.

Okay. Barack Obama walk us through some of his issues.

If you just listen to Barack Obama's rhetoric, it's pretty hard not to be inspired.

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