Health Wars (Most Historic Speech Yet Edition)

The "blockbuster" assertion:

The president told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-CA, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV, that it is important for them to pass health care reform bills soon, the sources said.

Both leaders told the president that despite the difficult rough and tumble of the legislative process in the last few weeks, they are optimistic that both the House and Senate can pass health care reform legislation.

Hmmm; isn't that what Crazy Nancy said before the August recess?  Isn't that why the White House wanted Congress to blitzkrieg BarryCare to his desk?  To avoid the erosion of ferocious public opposition?  If Granny Rictus McBotox claimed to have the votes for passage six weeks ago and couldn't deliver, is there any reason, even for False Messiah, to believe that she and Senator Pencil Neck can make good on this boast now?

AP, as is his want, supplies an excellent followup query:

One minor detail that’s omitted: Which proposals, precisely, do they have enough votes to pass? The public option? A “trigger” for the public option? Health-care co-ops? A mandate to buy coverage? The One might have lowered his demands to the point where only the barest bones reform plan is still on the table; assuming that they do have the votes, the fact that he wants something passed immediately only proves how fragile the coalition must be.

This, of course, assumes that B.O. HAS lowered his demands.  But I still think what I thought at the end of July: If they hadda, they woulda; and since they dinna, and have less support now....

Let's just say I'm skeptical of Barack Obama's willingness to commit ideological suicide, even to avoid the political equivalent.

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The health care debate's Duke of Wellington throws down the gauntlet at Godbama's clay feet:

This is an offer The One dare not accept, even if he does plan on bipartisan conciliation tonight.  He'd just as well unscrew the top of his empty head and bend over for the nation-wide video feed.  Can't make it even more obvious than it already is that sixty-eight million Americans thought they were electing a mix of Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, and Jesus Christ and ended up with a twisted brew of Jimmy Carter, Kanye West, and Beelzebub instead.

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I don't think merely another "most historic speech evah!!!" is gonna cut it tonight; The Li'l President is going to have to employ full-scale mind control:

Political momentum appeared to swing sharply against the public health insurance option prized by liberals Tuesday, on the eve of President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress.

Democratic leaders in the House and Senate on Tuesday signaled they are increasingly willing to pass healthcare reform without a public insurance option, even while Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) again insisted it must be included in a House healthcare bill. …

But a Democratic leadership aide who sat in on an administration briefing Tuesday said that while Obama will offer support Wednesday for a public option, the president will not insist on it.

“He’s going to say it’s the best tool for reducing costs,” the aide said. “I think he’s going to be a bit noncommittal.”

Forgive me, Mr. Anonymous Donk Aide, but what's the practical difference between "insisting" on the public option and "strongly recommending" it?  Doesn't sound to me like "noncommittal-ism".  And does the recommendation of a president who's spent the past few weeks playing the public option hokey pokey and whose approval numbers are within shouting distance of the ones with which his predecessor left office really carry the weight necessary to bulldoze the entire Blue Dog Coalition into walking the electoral plank?

My interpretation?  He'll wink-wink nudge-nudge the hard left on the public option while trying to finesse support from the BDs by not formally demanding it, trusting in his "inspiring, soaring, light-bringing" oratory gimmick to save the day once again.  My prediction?  It won't "move the needle" one jot or tittle - assuming his thrusting his face in our faces yet again doesn't move it in the opposite direction.

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More Obamedia polling that stacks the deck as much in B.O.'s favor as it can, and still heralds his presidency's collapse.

There's a word for that: it's called disarray:

Rotsa ruck with the "Hail Barry," Barry.  And don't forget to duck.