Some might say that this was a sign of desperation:
President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room.
One caucus member told POLITICO that Obama won him over by “essentially [saying] that the fate of his presidency” hinged on this week’s health reform vote in the House. The member, who requested anonymity, likened Obama’s remarks to an earlier meeting with progressives when the president said a victory was necessary to keep him “strong” for the next three years of his term.
Another caucus member, Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.), said, “We went in there already knowing his presidency would be weakened if this thing went down, but the president clearly reinforced the impression the presidency would be damaged by a loss.”
Added Serrano: “He was subtle, but that was the underlying theme of the meeting — the importance of passing this for the health of the presidency.”
(…)
“The White House is raising the stakes so high, they are basically telling [House Democrats] that failure is not an option unless you want to sink the president,” said health industry lobbyist Steve Elmendorf, a onetime adviser to Rep. Dick Gephardt, a former Democratic leader.
Of course, as I point out in my column at Pajama’s Media, the Democrats are basically screwed no matter what happens with this bill.
But there must be some desperation at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, because Obama has cancelled his planned vacation trip to Asia to lobby for the health care vote.
They realize they are going down with or without HCR passage. Their thinking is, at least with HCR passage, they go down and gain something of perceived value. Unfortunately for the democrats, this will be a catalyst for a complete ouster from the political system for decades and possibly putting in power conservatives, who, seeing the recklessness and unconstitutional parliamentary tricks of the left, will no doubt employ the same maneuvers at least as vociferously over 10x the governmental period. This will result in a ”
win”. The left/right politics was always a 40 to 40 yard line game, but the Obama disaster has shown each side that a win is possible. If the dems hand the Repubs the win in November, the rewritten game rules will execute to completion now on the conservative side.