I'm not sure what Nancy Pelosi is so excited about.  The Health Care Destruction Act passed tonight.  But she lost 39 of her own party to the opposition for the vote.  Her bill has very, very little in common with the bill in the Senate, and any attempt at consolidation is going to be a farce.  And even the Senate Bill, which is much less extreme (by reputation--nobody really knows because it doesn't exist in a form that Harry Reid is willing to let us read), is facing massive obstacles to passage to even get it to a point where they can start reconciling the two bills.  The opposition to the bill did not lose today.  Do not be disheartened.  The fact that Nancy lost 39 of her own caucus on this issue is a sign of hope for embarrassing failure to come.

No, the real loser of today was Barack Obama.  That may sound like a ludicrous statement, but that's only because you are missing some critical information.  As reported by the Associated Press, Obama entered a closed-door session with the Democratic representatives today to drum up some last-minute support, and according to Democratic Congressman Robert Andrews of New Jersey, Obama made the argument that the 13 soldiers murdered at Ft. Hood this week demonstrated what real sacrifice, is, as opposed to "casting a vote that might lose an election for you."

Excuse me?  I would expect MSNBC and Moveon.org and Code Pink to use an act of domestic terrorism against our military to make political points, but not the commander in chief of that military.  The fact that Obama can't make the mental distinction between campaigning and leading is a reality that he seems intent on reminding us of on a weekly basis.  But this is by far his worst betrayal of his own incompetence. Even if he were sincere in his value and appreciation of the sacrifice our military service members offer on the altar of freedom (which I doubt), to invoke it in the pursuit of his own self-serving agenda, in the presence of a group of people who if they had their way would have de-funded military operations in 2005 and 2006, is a stark reminder of how much he has not grown into the role this country elected him to.

And here's failure number two: his comments illustrated his contempt for the ideal of a representative Democracy.  He basically instructed his Democratic minions: forget your constituents.  They don't matter.  Their opinion is nothing compared to my agenda and my glory.  What other possible translation of "vote for this even if it costs you the next election" could there be?  Don't worry, Congress--the idiots that vote for you and whose priorities you are supposed to represent don't matter.  They can't possibly be expected to know what's best for them.  History demands that you sacrifice your job and the interests and values of your constituents upon the altar of Barack Obama.

Failure number three: Congressman Andrews reports that Obama said Democrats have a 70-year history of creating and defending programs like Social Security and Medicare.  He quoted Obama as saying today's vote "is going to define the difference between the Republican and Democratic parties for decades." I don't argue with this.  One of the few true statements Obama has made.  Democrats have a 70-year history of creating and defending government programs that have wasted taxpayer money, squandered precious resources, enlarged the scope and scale of the federal government so far past the limitations of Constitutional authority that it is hopeless to bring it back in line with our Law, and redistributed trillions of dollars of hard-earned wealth in order to create entitlements for people who are entitled to nothing--in order to buy those people's votes.  The Democrats create these programs regardless of the damage they do to the economy and to the middle class.  The defend these programs in spite of ludicrous cost over-runs and budget deficits, historical proof and empirical evidence that demonstrate beyond rational doubt that the programs are colossal failures.  It is precisely votes and programs like the one in the House today that define the difference between Republican and Democrat.  (Or at least between Conservative and Liberal.  Hopefully the Republicans have learned a lesson from their 2000 - 2006 forfeiture of conservative principles.) Obama's failure is that he doesn't understand that this fact proves his contempt for our society and for our Constitution.