Just Take the Vote!

Day after weary day passes as the Democrats try somehow -- anyhow -- to find the votes for a health care bill hated by their employers, the public. (Far left, pro-single-payer Dennis Kucinich no doubt is going to sign onto it today, and that fact suggests that (1) the Democrats truly are desperate for every vote they can get and (2) Nancy Pelosi has privately been offering assurances that it's only the first step toward a totally government run health plan).

As the President and his party keeps pushing this day-after-day drama of intranational brinksmanship and division (division that's now spread even into President's own party), it's worth wondering if they understand the toll it's taking on good will toward them and their agenda -- whether one is for health care, or not. Americans are busy people, and they don't generally seek to hire a group of politicians who will require that they monitor every detail of the nation's business -- and what's more, show a marked tendency to ignore their expressed wishes.

However the endgame ultimately plays out, every day this stand-off continues is a bad day for America. But it's also a bad day, politically, for Democrats. Americans are not drama-seeking, crisis-oriented people.

And they resent being dragged into an unnecessary political free-for-all because simply because the President and Democrat leaders have too much ego (and political investment) in a bill voters hate.

Whatever the outcome, it is going to be very hard for Obama and the Democrats ever again to convince regular Americans that they "care" about them -- after ignoring their views and imposing this sort of high stakes internal political brinksmanship upon them day after day.