What A Difference A Year Makes

As Bill Kristol writes, “Obama turned out to be quite an effective community organizer. But the community he organized was a majority of the American people in opposition to his agenda of big-government liberalism.”

Advertisement

You can see the vanguard of that movement in this photo essay by Zombie, documenting a year of Tea Party activism.

In between now and November though, Nancy Pelosi is calling on Democrats to fall on their swords to pass ObamaCare. Mark Tapscott and Andy McCarthy explain why it’s her — and Obama’s best interest to do so. On the other hand, as a commenter at the Brothers Judd Website writes, “Here’s a free political tip: When A Leading Politician exhorts his or her colleagues to give up their jobs for the sake of A Necessary Piece of Legislation, that Necessary Piece of Legislation is D-E-A-D, dead.”

Jennifer Rubin sounds like she concurs:

Reconciliation has been the buzzword of late, but it is becoming apparent that it’s a dodge intended to keep the hopes of the liberal base alive and to force the House to go first, which then might produce some magic key to unlock health care. But if the Senate budget chair is forcefully calling foul on the process, what then is the point of the House vote? According to Conrad, whatever the House came up with will have to go back and be put through the normal legislative process, subject to the filibuster.

Well, as with so much else on ObamaCare, one has the sense that this is a charade. No bill, no clear process, no public support, and no House majority. Had the summit been the breakthrough moment the Obami had hoped for maybe a groundswell of support could have shaken the pieces loose and then sharp deal makers could have sifted among the debris and constructed an ObamaCare III or whatever they would have called it. But the summit was a bust for the Democrats, and we’re talking specifically about Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, who proved to be just as unlikeable and ineffective as many suspected.

The end of ObamaCare isn’t here yet, but we’re getting close as the artifices fall one by one and the chattering class comes to suspect there simply isn’t any way for largely ineffective Democratic leaders to get a monstrous, hugely unpopular bill through both houses. And this, they will tell us, is a great sign of failure and of gridlock. Well, perhaps it’s simply the long-overdue triumph of popular will over elected representatives.

Advertisement

But if not, what happens next?

Related: “An open letter to two NPR reporters.”

Related: “In the span of a single year, then, [Frank] Rich has gone from declaring the Tea Party movement a fizzle to denouncing it as a menace to public safety.”

Of course, as the Jim Treacher points out in the Daily Caller, leading the list of “Things You Never Hear” is, “Gee, I didn’t realize how wrong I was about everything until I read this Frank Rich column.”

Recommended

Trending on PJ Media Videos

Join the conversation as a VIP Member

Advertisement
Advertisement