The Karate Kid

It’s been a bad week for liberals and I suspect that the weeks and months ahead are unlikely to be little better.

When I spoke to an avid Obama supporter last Tuesday evening and it had become clear that the Democrat had lost the election in Massachusetts, the person was almost in tears. Not for the hapless Ms. Coakley nor for the loss of “Teddy’s seat” but for Obama who, it was claimed, had worked so hard on the healthcare issue and that it now may all come to naught.

The person seemed unaware that, in fact, Obama had done very little work on the issue and had left it to the legislators in the House and in the Senate. The fact remains that there is no “Obama Healthcare Bill” or if there is I’ve seen no mention of it and I challenge anyone to produce it. Obama just wants to sign something, anything that he can claim as his signature issue. Then maybe, we'll get a "State of the Union" appearance.

Furthermore, despite claims from the left that “so many people demand such a bill", the polls are clear. No more than 35% of the people in this country want anything to do with either monstrosity and the potential combination of the House and Senate measures augurs to be even worse. You know the old definition being that a camel is a “horse designed by a committee” and you get my drift.

It seems to me that Government Healthcare is not about Healthcare at all but is all about Government.

And the election of Scott Brown reminded a few incumbents of their own upcoming contests and, to paraphrase William Wordsworth, recalled for them certain “Intimations of Mortality”. So it was not surprising that within a day or two both Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi conceded that for now, at least, the matter was, if not dead, decidedly moribund.

For me that was a mixed blessing because, while I wanted to see the abomination killed, I see it as an excellent weapon to use against the liberals in general and Obama in particular. It was for this reason that I silently applauded the demands of the Service Employees union who insisted that the effort go forward. Let’s face it, that group gave more than $60 million to the Obama campaign and they are the ones most likely to benefit by expanded governmental control over healthcare. And they’d already succeeded in getting their own “Cadillac benefit” exempted from the 40%tax due to be levied on such plans.

I’m no “Jackie Chan” but I do understand that a key component of some martial arts is the ability to use the opponent’s own weight against him and I was looking forward to the opportunity to do just that to Obama. Never mind, I have the feeling that if we just let Obama be Obama he’ll present us with more issues in the future because he just can’t help it.

So what else befell the liberals this week? Well Air America is finished and will file for Chapter 7 protection next week. And you can always rely on the loony left when all else fails.

For a start, that “brilliant” scientist, Danny Glover announced that the earthquake in Haiti was all President W’s fault because nothing had been done about “Global Warming”. And, not be outdone, Hugo Chavez contradicted this fatuous claim with his own that the disaster had been triggered by a secret American weapon as a rehearsal for an attack on Iran.

You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried even with the assistance of certain “recreational chemicals”.

As Mr. Rogers used to say, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood”.