During ObamaCare arguments Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked, “What’s wrong with leaving this in the hands of those who should be fixing it?”

Were Sotomayor referring to the free market, which has been all but removed from the healthcare industry, we could admire her insight. But when we understand that she’s referring to Congress, we must question her loyalty to, and understanding of, our Constitution. We might even question her sanity.

The U.S. Constitution doesn’t grant Congress the power to force citizens to purchase anything, including health insurance. Such federal power is neither expressed nor implied, therefore it doesn’t exist. But even if Congress were authorized to provide, manage, or mandate health insurance, who in their right mind would defer to Congress’ wisdom?

The Congress that passed ObamaCare, to which Sotomayor would defer, was under Nancy Pelosi’s direction, and Pelosi is contradiction personified. She recently told reporters that her Congress “wrote our bill [the Affordable Care Act] in a way that was Constitutional.” That’s beyond unbelievable, coming from the person who said ObamaCare must pass so we could discover what the bill contained. It’s even more unbelievable when we consider that this same Nancy Pelosi piously dismissed a reporter’s concern about Congress’ constitutional authority to enact ObamaCare. And yet Sotomayor trusts Congress, which has proven inept at nearly every subject it addresses, to correct problems within the healthcare industry? That’s psychotic.

If Sotomayor’s views were isolated, or represented a worst case example of judicial reasoning, we might dismiss them out of hand. But her opinions are neither isolated nor a worst case scenario. Justice Elena Kagan upped the ante. One of the key arguments against ObamaCare is its coercive nature, to which Kagan responded, “Why is a big gift from the federal government a matter of coercion?”

Kagan possesses, at best, a warped appreciation for giving. A gift is, by definition, free. ObamaCare isn’t free. The cost may be reflected in mandates, fines, or coverage for the uninsured, but ObamaCare carries an unavoidable price. State governments, insurers, medical professionals, and individuals must absorb the cost of Obama’s supposed gift while navigating the regulatory maze the requisite bureaucracy will create. A gift with such strings attached is better left unwrapped.

Because Sotomayor and Kagan are Supreme Court justices their opinions, however incredulous, are granted credibility. It needn’t be so. Ronald Reagan warned us, “Don’t be afraid to see what you see.” While both Sotomayor and Kagan are educated, education doesn’t invariably grant wisdom to its possessor. When we hear Sotomayor and Kagan speak on ObamaCare’s constitutionality and benefit, let us not be afraid to see their incompetency and the threat to liberty it represents.

Today The One took to the rose garden podium and boldly declared that the Supreme Court should avoid the appearance of judicial activism and vote to uphold the government takeover of all things health related. Declared The One:

We are confident that this will be upheld because it should be upheld. The reason is because in accordance with precedent out there, it’s constitutional.

To quote the old country song, “wishin’ don’t make it so.” Perhaps The One was too busy hobnobbing with the Russians whilst the Supremes were debating whether or not there was constitutional precedence to uphold the 2,700+ page monstrosity. Never mind the fact at least one Supreme declared that being forced to read such a bill would violate the Eighth Amendment. The best anyone could do trying to find precedent for forcing a citizen to buy a product or service was a Revolutionary War statute requiring conscripts to show up with a musket and ammunition.

I’m no legal scholar, but I’m hard pressed to find one who believes the Solicitor General acquitted himself well on the nation’s biggest legal stage last week. Never mind that. The One has declared his signature piece of legislation to meet constitutional muster and laughs in the general direction of the Supreme Court when they question his wisdom.

Ummm…excuse me, Mr. President. There’s just one slight problem with your argument: Determining the constitutionality of any given statue is the express domain of the Supreme Court of the United States. Yeah, those nine people in black robes who show up each January (well most of them do) to your State of the Union Show. Those same nine legal scholars you saw fit to upbraid on national television because they dared to disagree with you on campaign finance law. Oh, and your declaration that tossing it out would be “unprecedented, extraordinary step” based solely on the fact that said statute was passed by a majority of both houses of Congress? I guess you really don’t understand how the constitution is set up. Tossing out badly written, poorly worded and, oh yeah, unconstitutional statutes is what the Supremes do. It’s their job. You keep using that word “unprecedented”. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to call the Supremes out on the national stage. It might turn out that The One isn’t the only one keeping score.

At least 10 primary care trusts (PCTs) have told hospitals to increase the length of time before they see patients in order to save money, an investigation by The Daily Telegraph has found.

In some areas, patients endured delays of 12 or 15 weeks after GPs decided they needed surgery, even though hospitals could have seen them sooner.

The maximum permitted time between referral and treatment is 18 weeks. In one case a manager said the policy keeps patients in line as “short waiting times also create more demand for treatment due to the expectations this raises”.

It comes after an NHS watchdog suggested that if patients are forced to wait a long time, they will remove themselves from lists “either by dying or by paying for their own treatment”.

Let’s recap.

The government will save money in its inefficient healthcare system if it makes people wait longer for surgery because more people will die off and more people will willingly die off because the government has so lowered expectation that people expect nothing better.

This is a necessary reality under such a system and it will eventually happen in the US due to scare resources and no incentive to innovate. Not to say that our current system is not a disaster, it is, but government healthcare is not the answer.

Today in our country only 53% percent of all workers pay 100% of the federal income tax bill. Therefore 47% of workers pay no taxes. Additionally 40% of workers actually receive additional funds when filing their taxes redistributed from the group that pays all the taxes. I’ll even point you to that evil conservative news source NPR for this data (though it is widely available).

Further, in research released yesterday, “government social benefits . . . were equal to 35% of all private and public wages and salaries in the 12 months ended January, up from 10% in 1960 and 21% in 2000.”

Meanwhile, the government is working diligently to implement its takeover of an additional approximate 15% of the economy through the healthcare law. Yet, over 1,000 waivers to the law have been granted and now the entire state of Maine has been exempted for the time being.

When you also consider that the United States Department of Justice, whose role is to defend the laws of this land, is only selectively defending laws its leaders and likely the White House (for personal or political reasons, we do not know) agree with, as in the case of the Defense of Marriage Act*, you have to wonder, what is next.

We are creating a great block of voters, who will soon be the majority of voters, who pay no taxes. At the same time, our federal government grants broad exemptions to laws or chooses not to defend the law altogether.

As the federal government has never shown any signs of actual restraint, where does it all end?

*It is my view that marriage should be defined by the states, not the federal government. It is not a federal constitutional issue. Don’t get sidetracked on the nature of the law, the point is the DOJ not defending an existing law, which is their responsibility.

exceeds the constitutional boundaries of congressional power.”

Read the rest.

I suspect many of my friends did not vote for President Obama in 2008 and would not have voted for Nancy Pelosi if they lived in her district. Frankly, most of them are more likely to vote for Katy Perry in 2012 than to give the president a second term.

But my defense of the nation’s most powerful democrats isn’t about policy or ideology; it’s about passion and principles.

It hasn’t been that long since we had a president so consumed with polling that it defined how he led and where he vacationed. Like many before him, they move with the political winds to ensure another day and another term. So many across the spectrum lead by staff-drafted talking points, one wonders if they’re hardwired that way, unable to take a stand and defend it.

During the most recent midterm election cycle we saw a prominent senator switch political parties because he admitted publicly it was the only path to reelection. Whether democrat or republican, turning your back on the party whose checks you’ve cashed for decades doesn’t seem like passionate, principled leadership. It’s notable that this particular senator will be fishing during the next session of Congress.

Many members of the House of Representatives, sensing the likely tidal wave from one party to another, declined to seek reelection altogether. Better to retire on their terms, they reasoned, than to put their beliefs, their voting records and their principles on the ballot one more time. What a shame they were so afraid of being convicted for their convictions.

In order to win nominations, most democratic horses run to left to appeal to their base. Horses on the right do the same in the opposite direction. It’s a time-honored tradition.

If they’re lucky enough to become the nominee of their respective party, these horses suddenly gallop back to the middle and work long hours to become more palatable to middle America. After all, they’re the ones who typically determine who wins and loses national races.

It’s a dance that takes place every four years, and if you listen closely you can already hear the music playing for 2012.

Given the culture of leadership by polls and public opinion, it’s almost refreshing that the current president doesn’t give a hoot about public polls.

Whether you agree or disagree with the president’s health care overhaul, it’s law because he believed in and fought for it. He found enough to support among democrats, even in the face of an electorate who largely disagreed. Many of those democrats, including more than a dozen freshmen that spent just two years in the House, voted their conscience and are now back home polishing their resumes.

Political suicide? Yes. Worthy a dose of admiration for making a difficult vote that ended their career? I say yes.

Consider soon-to-be former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. You may not agree with her on policy, and polls suggest not many of us don’t, but that doesn’t stop her from fighting for the agenda she believes in.

History suggested that when the Speaker led her party to historic losses in the recent midterms, she would resign from party leadership and, perhaps, from the House itself.

She didn’t. She believes in what she believes, and until someone challenges her and sends her home, kudos to her for fighting and for unwaveringly representing the will of her constituents in San Francisco. You may not like her principles, but at least she is principled.

The same can be said for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. It might have been easier for Reid to back off the Obama/Pelosi agenda. But during the race the Harry Reid on the ballot was mostly the same Harry Reid voters in Nevada have known for years. Once again, you might not agree with his principles, but at least he has them.

To be clear, this is not an endorsement of these leaders or their positions. But in a day when politics is a nasty, personal business, where most politicians are driven by job security and polls, PR spin and staff pressure, here are three whose poll numbers aren’t high and who don’t seem to care.

At least they know what they know, and believe what they believe, and there’s something to be said for that.

Imagine a country of leaders who lead by conviction, where the debates are fair and honest, and where you never have to wonder what are elected officials believe.

Or for how long they’ll believe it.

So, is this a sign of things to come? (States saying no thanks — see also Virginia’s law suit). Or more proof that people didn’t want Obamacare to begin with or something else? We also must ask if Atty Gen Eric Holder and his Department of Justice will sue Missiouri?

Let the crazy times roll…

Take for instance the salt issue. Earlier this week the FDA announced its plans to regulate the amount of salt in processed foods (a.k.a. a lot of the stuff you buy at the local grocery store). The government interfering in our lives again? I know. Hard to believe.

At least a woman can decide whether or not to kill a fetus inside her womb. But salt? That’s dangerous! What’s next? A recall on all the salt shakers sold in the US?

Pretty soon we’ll be on a monitoring system for carbonated beverage consumption. Or potato chips, Oreo cookies, and Hostess cupcakes. You know…..kinda like buying Sudafed or any nasal decongestant at your local drugstore.

Forget about personal responsibility and self-reliance. Maybe we should hand all decision making over to the Feds. In fact, I’m thinking we need a Food Czar. Just imagine the possibilities! Hmmm. Who could we nominate for that position?

To top it all off, a report claims that school food is making kids unfit to serve. That’s right; I forgot how those evil lunch ladies tie down the students and force them to eat high-calorie meatloaf. Did it escape anyone’s mind that no one actually makes students buy school lunches? Here’s a concept: Bring your own dang lunch!

I’m so glad we have these reports to pin down reasons why kids are unfit to join the military. Because I’m sure that PlayStation, Facebook, text messaging, surfing the web, and overall lack of physical exercise has nothing to do with the obesity “epidemic” amongst youngsters.

Hold on to your chocolate folks; that could be next!

In Virginia three of the last seven governors have been AGs. In part, this is because Virginia has a very short ballot, electing only the lieutenant governor and attorney general in addition to governor, and the governor is limited to one consecutive four-year term. (Virginia is the only state remaining with such a prohibition.) The other statewide elected officials are naturally considered in line for the statehouse, and they often run flat out for four years to get the promotion.

Virginia State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli has made headlines recently with his suit against the federal governemt charging the recently passed healthcare law to be unconstitutional. He recently spoke publicly about the upcoming suit:

“Our focus is not the policies that are included in that bill. Policies are what elections are for. My job is the protection of the Constitution and the laws of Virginia and that is the narrow focus of what we are doing … in our lawsuit against the federal government. Virginia was the first state to pass a law on a bipartisan basis protecting Virginia citizens from being mandated to purchase health insurance. No one here. under Virginia law, can be ordered by anyone to purchase health insurance. Period. Obviously, those two laws are in conflict.”

So, Cuccinelli has put himself front and center. On one side the lowly AG from Thomas Jefferson’s Commonwealth; On the other, the mighty Barack Obama. Will David slay his Goliath? Or is this another swing for Casey up to bat? Imagine, Cuccinelli on the plate in Mudville:

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville — mighty Cuccinelli has struck out.

After conducting a poll amongst their supporters, the Democratic National Committee has decided to use Vice President Biden’s well-publicized gaffe to replenish their coffers. For just $25, you can buy your very own “Health Reform is a BFD” T-shirt!

It’s the perfect thing to wear when your Dick Cheney and Spiro Agnew shirts are in the wash. You can also use it as an improvised bandage, should the feverish predictions of Obama’s health care opponents come true.

Life’s not fair. From what I hear, Obamacare is supposed to fix that. We shall see.

But I digress.

Diabetes is not a fun disease to have. When you look at the morbid numbers, diabetes kills more people than AIDS and is the leading cause of blindness, heart disease, and kidney failure. Also up there among the effects are poor leg circulation. If you ask The One, there are a good number of doctors who make a lot of money amputating legs instead of treating the disease. Whatever the side effect, let’s just say that diabetics like me have a big stake in maintaining “normal” blood sugar levels.

This is much harder than it sounds. It involves taking blood and analyzing it for its sugar level and then calculating how much insulin one must inject to cover the sugar contained in whatever meal one is about to consume. You learn a lot about carbohydrates and you learn to live without things most normal people take for granted. As an example, I haven’t had a sugar loaded soft drink in six years.

Sugar levels are everything. Too much sugar and you go into a diabetic coma. Take it from me, that is no fun. You end up in an ICU with tubes sticking out of places you didn’t think tubes should go. Not fun. Too little sugar and your brain shuts down. Also not good.

Before I joined the diabetic club, I seldom if ever went to a doctor. Now I go once every three months or so whether I want to or not. I sit down in an office with an endocrinologist and we discuss my weight, my general health and most of all my Hemoglobin A1C level. This is a very important number for any diabetic. It basically tells you what your average sugar level has been over the past three months.

About four years ago I got an insulin pump. I did this principally because I wanted to stop stabbing myself in the gut three or four times a day to deliver insulin to my malfunctioning body. I use a Medtronic Minimed Pump. In the interest of full disclosure, no, Minimed hasn’t paid me to write this.

The aforementioned HA1C test is very important. Diabetics are told to keep this level under 7%. Even with the pump therapy, this is hard to do. As of six months ago, my level sat someplace between 8 and 9%.

This year I added what is called the Continuous Glucose Monitoring package to my pump therapy. Now instead of stabbing my fingers three or four times a day to read my blood sugar, the CGM device monitors it constantly. I can adjust my insulin levels faster and thus have better control. After my most recent trip to the doctor, I came out with an HA1C level of 6.7%. This is a good thing.

If you’ve gotten this far, I’m sure you’re wondering why it is that I’ve explained all this. Rest assured, I have a point.

You see, my Medtronic Minimed insulin pump is a “medical device”. As such, it is now subject to a tax associated with Obamacare. Minimed estimates the cost of this tax to their bottom line will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $150-200 million per year beginning in 2013. Why the medical device industry got kicked in the teeth with this arbitrary tax is a mystery to me. I guess the Botox industry has better lobbyists. Maybe The One wanted to punish the industry responsible for the production of Dick Cheney’s pacemaker.

Whatever the reason, dear reader, $200 million dollars a year is going to be siphoned off from Minimed’s bottom line in order to fund Obamacare. That means there will be $200 million less dollars available for product improvement. Minimed will have to pass this cost along to the people who depend on these devices for their continued daily existence on the right side of the grass.

In short, the decision of The One, The Pelosi, and Dusty Harry along with the rest of the democratic party to punish a life saving industry will result in fewer people being able to make use of the very technology democrats say will reduce costs. Limited, dare I say rationed, access to this type of medical device will lead many people to an early grave. It really is that simple.

Minimed makes a product which has greatly improved the quality of my life. It will most likely give me more time on this earth to enjoy with my wife and children. My insulin pump and CGM system enable me to more fully participate the pursuit of happiness envisioned by Jefferson. Minimed turns a good profit by producing this device for me and people like me. Would they have done so under a socialized system similar to the one dreamed of by The One, The Pelosi, and Dusty Harry? Methinks not. Evidently, profitability is no longer part of the American system.

I’m sure this is somebody’s idea of Hope & Change, its just not mine.

In my opinion Matt Drudge is the most important and influential single figure in American media. In terms of daily and ongoing influence he is more influential than The New York Times, the television networks, cable news or anyone else.

Read the rest.

So, this “historic” healthcare reform is now law.

We all know, we’re bummed, we’re mad, etc, etc, etc. In fact, I had my own verbal in person and online temper-tantrum yesterday. Believe me it was good, but in no way pretty! My very calm and mild-mannered husband even let a few choice words slip too. On facebook all sorts of new groups sprung up:

1 Million against Obamacare!
10 Million against Obamacare!!
I Hate Obamacare!!!

And my personal favorite:

345,267,196 Against Obamacare!!!!, my brother joined that one for the snark factor I’m sure.

Ok, let’s just agree on a few things; there are a lot of us out there that don’t like Obama and his healthcare. We can agree we think he hangs out with skeevy people, and that he’s hung the ‘KICK ME’ sign out on the front door of the USA.

So what?

Yes, you read that right, so what!

The pity party needs to end and we need to move on, roll our sleeves up and get our hands in and get them dirty. It’s what we always do as Americans. I for one will always choose this to just letting life pass me by. I’m going kicking and screaming into the dark night.

What are you going to do to ‘take back the country’ or ‘defeat the liberal menace’ or however you want to phrase it? What are you going to do? Have you joined your county GOP, or Conservative, or Libertarian Party? Have you volunteered to be a ward chairman or a precinct chair? Have you signed up to be an election judge? Will you knock doors circulating petitions? Have you decided to run for school board or city council? Have you invited your friends into your home to talk about how to make a positive impact on your community? Are you recommitting yourself to calling and writing your representative? Will you attend a Tea Party rally, or a tax protest? Will you attend ‘office hours’ of your elected officials? What are you going to do?

We have to get involved and make a difference even more. The pity party and grouse fest must end today. I’ve joined the county GOP and will be attending a Tax Day Tea Party. I’m going to volunteer at election HQ as the primary and general elections near. I’m going make sure my friends know what I belive and why. I am going to pass on the information I have on the issues and make sure that my family and friends know what’s going on. Because I am a religous person, I am going to pray more too. I am going to teach my son American History and why this nation was founded and why it is GREAT!! I am going to be a good American.

Now, who wants to get out and work?

Memo to The One, The Pelosi, Senator Dusty Harry (D-Circus Circus), and especially my sorry excuse for a congressman, the (less than) honorable Gerry Connolly (D-Nancy Pelosi): The wind is coming in November. End Memo

In short, my congressman is a weasel. And a cowardly one at that. He voted for Porkulus, Cap & Tax & Tax & Tax & Tax, and is a co-sponsor of the Obamacare bill currently set for a House vote tomorrow morning. He has lashed himself to The Pelosi and does a far better job representing her interests than he does mine.

Now, dear reader, for all my bluster here at PD and on other sites in the Blogosphere, I’m not exactly what one would call a “political activist”. I have a full time job, full time grad school, and a full time family. If I’m lucky, I get an occasional nap. Having said that, this impending health care “reform” package has caused me to make first contact with my congressional representative. I’ve called his office and sent him several emails letting him know in no uncertain terms my opposition to his actions.

He has seen fit to condescend to my level but once, in the form of a form-letter in which he took every single Pelosi-Reid talking point and simply cut and pasted them on the screen. Whatever his office staff budget is, it’s much too high. The guy just parrots what his party masters tell him to say. I’d love to say I’ve been able to actually meet him at one of the several town hall meetings he claims to have held over the past year. The sad fact of the matter is, the one meeting I found out about was held inside a gated community with limited invitation.

Today, I found out that my congressman has decided (most likely it was decided for him) that he will vote “yes” on the Obamacare monstrosity if it comes to the floor tomorrow. Being very angry at this announcement, I tried to call my congressman and voice my displeasure. He has three offices in Northern Virginia. Every single call went to voicemail and every single voicemail box is full. Somehow I doubt any of the messages come from grateful people who just can’t wait to turn their health care decisions over to a federal bureaucrat.

My congressman has seen fit to go into lockdown and hide from the very people he claims to represent. Thus I repeat my initial assertion: My congressman is a spineless coward. Yes, Gerry. I’m calling you out. Care to prove me wrong? Answer your phone. Answer your email. In short, do your [expletive deleted] job.

There are two Republicans vying to send the Cowardly Connolly to the unemployment line come November. Pat Herrity and Keith Fimian. I haven’t made my mind up between the two, but either one would do a better job than the current clown.

Memo to Gerry Connolly: I hope you saved the boxes from your most recent office move. You’ll be needing them shortly. End Memo.

Rather than conducting the interview with someone like Bill O’Reilly, who has a reputation for going after his guests when they don’t answer his questions, Obama chose Bret Baier, a seemingly mild mannered host.  I saw his interview with O’Reilly right before the 2008 election and I saw the interview with Bret Baier.  He should have gone with O’Reilly.

Bret – Congratulations and thank you from every American for asking tough questions and demanding answers from the President.

To everyone else in the media – That’s how it’s done.  Take notes.  You can watch it multiple times if needed.

Do you want to know how you can stop the insanity?  I have the solution (somewhat borrowed from Dick Morris).  Call members of the House and tell them to vote no.  Morris has compiled a list of House members that voted for the healthcare bill in November and are in jeopardy of losing their seats come November.  Use the phone numbers provided and call them.  You don’t have to be one of their constituients to give them your opinion.  You may not be able to vote against them, but you can always threaten to support their opponent through donations, media, etc.

I’ve also been completely unmotivated to write about this entire health care debacle. I’m so worn out of the news cycle this mess has made, it makes me not even want to watch any type of news program.

But as the potential end to a political battle that could define a presidency seems near, I felt it was time to weigh in.

I took abuse from some folks here when I said I was willing to keep an open mind on President Barack Obama. I’m always willing to give someone a chance, whether they have an “R” or “D” next to their name, I feel that its a person, and not a party, that should be judged.

So I gave Obama a chance, but he blew that chance. He blew the chance to earn any support from David Kaiser, moderate Republican. And this chance was blown not because of the health care plan specifically, but the due to his timing and stubbornness in trying to ram through for the sake of ramming it through.

Could health care use some help? I believe so. I’m not sure if the government should be playing an active role in health care, but at least they should play a role in making it work more effectively. There are models of effective health care out there in the world that seem to work, and I think we should take the time to study them, extract best practices, and then see how these practices would fit with how things are currently done.

A friend of mine, who is a small business owner and staunch Republican, told me the other day as we debating the health care topic, “Health care is not a right.” And I didn’t quite know how to react to that.

Maybe it’s not a right, but what isn’t right to me is the insane cost of health care that make it so people without benefits cannot afford even the most simple of treatments. Are the systems implemented in Canada and Europe better than ours?

It doesn’t appear so.

That doesn’t make our system right, it’s just less wrong then theirs.

Debate aside on any reform of health care, which both sides will argue ad nauseum, its not the idea of reform itself that has soured me, its the timing of this bill and the money that will need to go into it.

We are still in the early recovery phase of one of the worst economic downturns in American history. We are coming off eight years of a President who spent recklessly, and that doesn’t even include a large portion of the money he spent on two wars. A major chuck of the spending on Iraq and Afghanistan is not even reflected in the published budget numbers during the George W Bush administration. At least $200 billion of the money spent on these conflicts were kept off-budget using special supplemental resolutions.

Between the fragile state of the economy and the absurd budget surplus handed to him by the Bush Administration, no one would have faulted Barack Obama for doing nothing but concentrating on economic recovery in his first year.

It would have been the prudent and common sense thing to do, both for the country and for his popularity.

But he didn’t.

To take on an enormous task like health care in the first year of his taking office is much like a surgeon leaving an double bypass surgery half way through to go treat someone with pneumonia.

Yes, I think the health care system is sick, but it wasn’t on the verge of death.

Trying to tackle health care before the economy was well on its way to recovery was at best an illogical decision and much closer to incompetence or hubris. My take on Barack Obama when stacked up against the last Democrat to be President, Bill Clinton is simple. When Clinton saw that health care would be a bloody battle that could cripple his young tenure and may not have even been successful, he withdrew. Obama’s tact has been to charge once more unto the breach, to go headlong into the valley death with the six hundred.

In a nutshell?

Clinton was willing to lose the battle to win the war, which to him was a second term.

I think Obama wants nothing more than to win the battle, even if it could jeopardize the war.

The battle is at hand, and the result is far from clear, but there is one thing clear to me right now, and that is Barack Obama is in danger of losing the war.