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“Desperate”

By John Batchelor on March 8, 2010 at 8:35 PM in Current Affairs

Reprinted from the blog for the syndicated John Batchelor Show, nightly from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. ET.

Whip Hand.  

 “…I think it’s realistic because the American people are desperate…”  HHS Sec Kathleen Sebelius was the early warning system on healthcare last year, when she commented on Sunday talk that the “public option” would not survive the process.  Sebelius is honest and trustworthy, and she knows much more than she speaks.

This presentation does not sound confident.  No one has the whip count by Hoyer and Pelosi, and as of Friday 5 they were not sharing. Sebelius aims to make the process seem critical, timely, urgent, passionate; yet that facts are that there is no good whip count, or even bad whip count, right now.

The Obama administration bases its remarks on the healthcare bill on the aspiration for success with the House vote, not on the confirmation of the House vote.

The whip count is not going to become easier.  Bart Stupak of Michigan has already been targeted by the progressive partisans.  The Blue Dogs are preparing their retirements after November.  

No Good Choices.  

The best explanation I can find as to why POTUS persists against the large odds against the final bill is that there is no alternative, no other choice, no way out.  POTUS goes for the win in the House, at 216 votes, and if he wins, miracle.  And if he loses, hope.

The calculation is that neither a win nor a loss will materially change the wave building to sweep over the Democrats in the House and Senate in November.  Used to be called a tidal wave.


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