Here we have one of the textbook examples of why you do not overreach in your campaign promises. It looks like the Democrats are in deep trouble over Healthcare:
One of the leading progressive champions of health care reform is pessimistic about the state of the debate in the Senate, saying he sees virtually no path to passing strong legislation and predicting potential congressional losses for Democrats as a consequence.
Former DNC Chair Howard Dean told the Huffington Post on Monday that Senate Democratic leadership was “in deep trouble” on health care, even after Majority Leader Harry Reid cobbled together over the weekend the 60 votes needed to get legislation to the floor. The problem was as much about politics as policy.
“I think if you passed the Senate bill tomorrow it would be OK. But then the problem is they don’t have any defense for their members in 2010,” Dean said, noting that the public option would not become operational until 2014. “On the other hand, if they drop the public option [to placate moderate members], I think they lose seats.”
“So this is really tough. I didn’t anticipate being in this position. I thought it would pass. Maybe Harry has some magic up his sleeve. But I don’t see how he gets those four votes [Sens. Joseph Lieberman (Conn.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.)] without compromising the bill,” Dean concluded.
via Dean: Dems ‘In Deep Trouble’ On Health Care, The Only Options Are A Bad Bill Or 2010 Losses.
This situation here is what happens when a Political Party gets extremely arrogant and thinks that there will be no opposition to their plans. The Democrats thought that because of the screw-ups of George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress that the Democrats would be able to run rough shod over everything and everyone and get their agenda fulfilled. They have since discovered that plan is not going to work. That is because not everyone is on board with the far leftist socialism of the White House. What we are seeing here is a repeat of 1994. When the Democrats lost control of congress; and the sitting President got moderate fast.
However, this time, I believe the Democrats have much more to lose. Such as credibility, I say that because the Democrats horrifically oversold this President and themselves in general. The Democrats had many people thinking lots of crazy stuff; and now, it seems that the honeymoon is over and many on the left are realizing that the sell job was nothing more than a well-fabricated lie. I knew this well before anyone else. In fact, I said as much on this blog, back when Obama first started gaining in popularity, that they were totally over marketing the President as a messianic figure to the Democrats and to the far-left; and it was nothing more than over-zealous marketing.
This healthcare debacle could spell the end or at least a marginalizing of that Party for a long time to come. Howard Dean knows the score; he has people on the ground. If he says the Democrats are in trouble, call the ambulance, because there is a serious problem.