At least the elder wing of the GOP will understand and get all het up about the Dems-as-evil-Japs bit. These guys are wasting their time with the Ides of March assassination-urging line; no one in their base will even get the reference.

I don't suppose it's worth noting that Italy and Japan have the second- and tenth-best health care systems in the world, according to the World Health Organization chart that puts the US at #37?

Germany's relatively low on that list (#25) so I guess that explains why for once we didn't get to hear about how national, socialized medicine was going to be Obama's Beer Hall Putsch moment or something.

Passing health care reform and then agressively and loudly touting its benefits to the American people is the Democrats best chance to stem losses in November.

If the Dems don't make this happen, they deserve the political oblivion that awaits them.

Excellent observations Steve. I hope those wavering scaredy-cats on the Hill read them.

It doesn't help that most the coverage from the MSN focuses so heavily on horserace issues and the political fallout with precious little done to actually explain what's in the bill (beyond the he said-she-said political ping-pong)

@UncommonSense
Passing health care reform and then agressively and loudly touting its benefits to the American people is the Democrats best chance to stem losses in November.

Unfortunately doing such a thing requires Democrats to display far more message discipline then they've shown thus far. More likely, healthcare passes and the Democrats who go on the air will be ones who voted against it. And the ones did vote for it will offer only half-hearted endorsements of their own vote, acting almost ashamed of it.

It's been a pattern I've seen in Congressional Democrats for the past 20 years. Even when they vote a good thing, that has strong public support, they act like they made a mistake, undercutting their own message and once again making themselves look weak.

The gravity of money...

The truth, in all likelihood, is that "the intensity of desperation" is growing because Republicans fear that the country might actually like the Democratic proposal.

For sure.
But lets not forget Kleiman's "By the way" as to why this is such a painful birth:

By the way, the health care bill, which involves a permanent redistribution of $200B per year down the income scale...

Which is all to say: Money behaves like gravity. It knots up in black holes and super stars and depletes space of its richness. Thus, a super-nova is necessary every now and then to redistribute the accounting wealth of the universe to various solar systems and small suns. Out of such explosions, new life is born...

Exactly. There's an old military maxim that goes something like "never interrupt an enemy when he's making a mistake." The Republicans' desperate tactics to keep health insurance reform from passing means that the '94 Kristol memo and the current Luntz document -- which any political journalist worth a damn should know all about -- are correct in that successful passage of health reform is a massive defeat for the Republicans, and its ultimate success and popularity a repudiation of the conservative faith.

It's hard to get someone to understand something when their salary depends on their not understanding it, but no worry -- the chattering classes won't get it, but the American people will.

@thorin-1

You wrote:

More likely, healthcare passes and the Democrats who go on the air will be ones who voted against it. And the ones did vote for it will offer only half-hearted endorsements of their own vote, acting almost ashamed of it

I wish I could say that you were wrong.

Sadly, the pathetic state of the news media and of far too many Democratic politicians makes this the most likely scenario.

If Michele Bachmann is openly encouraging citizens to defy federal law, then she becomes, by association, a direct part of the group to be prosecuted..

Think RICO here: If you can charge one member of a group with criminal activity, then you can charge the entire group with criminal activity.

Just think of all that luscious real estate, the mountains of chattel, the endless barrels of cars and boats and hunting/camping paraphernalia all going on Dear Old Uncle Sam's auction block, at pennies on the dollar. Thanks to Michele and her ilk, we just might pay off the deficit in time for Mr. Obama's second inaugural.

At the very outside, by the third.....>

"If Dem lawmakers don't notice the fear behind the Republican hysterics this week, they're just not paying attention."

There are enough DLC/DINO/Rethug-Lites among the dumbocrats to make passage of HCR problematic. Even if it does pass, the DLC/DINO/Rethug-Lite dumbocraps will never use it in a positive light. Most of them will campaign on the basis of opposition to it. And they are the ones who will get airtime on the corporate media.

Never underestimate the power of the dumbocrap party's ability to turn victory into defeat!

I went to a meeting today with some insurance people, and they are convinced that health care reform will pass because "it has to."