Mark Kelly on Zoom

Brenda Starr was hosting again.  She let another survivor friend and me into the call before anyone else was admitted; she wanted to be sure that the two of us made the cut - the call was wildly over-subscribed.

I don't recall that problem coming up when Sen. McSally spoke to us last week.  Is that a sign?  I hope so.

The three of us unmuted and turned on our video and chatted.  It was wonderful to share how long our hair has grown, what colors the others had chosen, how the hairdresser was a scary place to be right now.  Then, in the 4th box on the screen, appeared the candidate.... tying his tie.

He usually wears black, mostly a form fitting t-shirt.  The man isn't very tall, but he is very well proportioned to wear a tight tee.  I'm just sayin'...........

Once the others started filtering in, I began to smile.  There were Patsy and Jerry Ru..... and Bridget's iPad and Philips ipad ... all titles I'd seen beneath their faces on the previous Star-sponsored calls.  It felt like old home week.

The program started early, once all the spots were filled. The differences between the two candidates could not have been starker.  

Kelly stressed the necessity for teamwork - in space or in the Senate - where McSally had likened her time in Washington to being deployed in a combat zone.  No, Kelly said, in combat your mission is to destroy the enemy.  

"I don't think of it like that.  We're all on the same team - we are not enemies."

Can you imagine if all our representatives felt that way?

His answers were precise and nuanced.  He admitted when he hadn't thought through a policy, acknowledging the gaps in his preparation for the role - he's good at math, at science, a pretty good engineer, good at figuring things out but thinking about politics as a means to push social policy is something that he's still working on.

But his answers to specific questions on policy were quitedetailed.  He's obviously done his homework. 

He'd lower the age for people to enroll in Medicare. If you remove those folks from the risk pool (those trying to buy insurance on the exchanges) that should bring down the cost a lot. 

There's exactly the kind of answer a scientist would give. 

It's beautiful to watch his face as he talks about Gabby's influence. She showed him how politics can make a difference.  He would tackle Big Pharma's obsession with multiple patents, those messy problems that keep generics off the market for decades, and he peppered his answer with specifics: they make $20 billion, the formula remains the same, but the price to consumers has doubled.

It reminded me of my statin issue..... bringing clarity to drug pricing would make all of us better consumers.... my candidate was speaking directly to an issue that I face... and he offered a solution.

I began to feel a lot better about my country's future.