CHANGE YOU CAN BELIEVE IN: “Sen. Barack Obama’s wife and three close advisers have been involved with a program at the University of Chicago Medical Center that steers patients who don’t have private insurance — primarily poor, black people — to other health care facilities.” I’m not sure the program is actually a bad idea when you read the details, but if a Republican did it, it would be evidence of cruel, racist, capitalism.

Plus, it does seem a bit incestuous:

Obama’s top political strategist, David Axelrod, co-owns the firm, ASK Public Strategies, that was hired by the hospital last year to sell the program — called the Urban Health Initiative — to the community as a better alternative for poor patients. Obama’s wife and Valerie Jarrett, an Obama friend and adviser who chairs the medical center’s board, backed the Axelrod firm’s hiring, hospital officials said.

Another Obama adviser and close friend, Dr. Eric Whitaker, took over the Urban Health Initiative when he was hired at U. of C. in October 2007. . . . Axelrod’s firm also suggested the program’s name be changed. “Some participants view the word ‘urban’ as code for ‘black,’ ” according to a poll the firm commissioned.

Read the whole thing — since it’s probably the only major press report of this affair that you’ll see . . . .