The Search for 60

Whither health care reform and, thus, whither Barack Obama? First things first: it’s not dead yet. I make no judgement on whether it should be killed or not even though, like others, all my prejudices instincts tell me it is indeed a monstrous frankensausage. But I do suspect that the sudden re-emergence of the liberal-left arguing that, Joe Lieberman or no Sanctimonious Joe, the Senate version of the bill should die, is very useful for the White House. Apart from anything else, it grants Obama the chance to advance liberal ends by centrist means or, at least, under the cover of centrist rhetoric. That’s his form of triangulation. This is less a question of Congressional arithmetic than helping rehabilitate HCR in terms of public opinion.

As a regular correspondent argues this really is, for Democrats, potentially their biggest legislative victory in more than 20 years:

What’s going on is incredibly disappointing, but I think there has to be some perspective to temper that disappointment.