Some early handicapping for Person of the Year

Douglas Elmendorf, director of the CBO.

There had been serious unease with various aspects of the Democrat’s healthcare plan but the plans were not made public through the spring and early part of the summer. Rhetoric was heated but the Democrats could always deny the charges made against their plan because nothing was finalized and the most heated of the attacks were along ideological lines (funding of abortion, for instance).

Then in June, the Congressional Budget Office, came out with the figures for how much Obamacare was going to cost which contradicted, directly, the cost-savings claimed by the White House and all bloody Blue Dog townhall hell broke loose.

Now, instead of rhetorical/ideological battle lines being drawn, you had numbers and geometric and exponentially-increasing debt and deficit graphs that could be easily absorbed by moderates and independents.

Look at the pretty colors



This broadened the base of support against healthcare reform and is responsible, we believe, for the uphill struggle that the Democrats now face in getting healthcare reform passed. Healthcare reform that is the centerpiece of the Obama agenda.

For not being squeezed by the Chicago boyz, we’re getting our marker in early for Mr. Elmendorf. (Incidentally, when Elmendorf was appointed the position, it was hailed as a victory for the “left-leaning Brooking Institute).

They’re long odds now, but if and when healthcare goes down, those odds will shorten dramatically and you’ll have wished you listened to us while holding your 1-5 Barack Obama ticket. See ya at the windows.