At the tea party convention in Nashville, Sarah Palin asked how President Obama's supporters feel now about all that "Hopey Changey stuff." So, how do you feel?
I look at it strategically. I feel like the lone voice calling for the White House to wake up and go nuclear: attach health care reform to the budget, which will only pass along party lines anyway, and get the job done. What other possible way is there to do it and make the first year of Obama's presidency relevant?
Surely the White House brain trust won't let all his political capital go to waste.
First though, Obama is calling for a bipartisan summit on health care. As he said in New Hampshire last week, C-SPAN watchers already had a chance to watch the hearings on health care play out on TV. What is he hoping for? Republicans won't come. Does he think the largely Independent tea partiers will put it on the movement's agenda? Maybe they'll come straight from Palin's speech in Reid's home state, or from Boston?
The White House needs to cut to the chase and stop whatever they're doing in the oval office. The hearings are over, the Republicans have been clear. Scott Brown was the anti-health care vote heard around the world. No more bipartisan appeals, unless you think the disloyal opposition likes the hopey stuff and will changey themselves. What they are doing is getting under President Obama's skin, so why should they change course?
Go nuclear and get the bill passed. Finish it. Move on the rest of the country, the rest of the world. Announce it, write it, get it done. Momentum is as high as it will be for a generation, so grab it. Or else the tea party will suck it up and put you on the list of people to go after. It is in the red zone, so punch it hard and fast.