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- "Dennis Kucinich’s flip on the health care vote this morning is symbolic of a broader shift among liberals," says the analysis accompanying a new PPP poll which finds support for health-care reform among self-identified liberals to be nearly universal, with only 3 percent claiming they are opposed to reform legislation (9 percent are "unsure"). This is further evidence that the howls of protest from people like Jane Hamsher are decidedly a minority opinion, and that their increasingly personal attacks on their opponents are probably born of a frustrating realization that they have little influence on the process of passing reform.
- According to Ben Smith, Rahm Emanuel -- a.k.a. the Center of the Political Universe -- has been "vindicated" because he accurately predicted that "progressives, essentially, could be taken for granted" to vote for health-care reform. Of course, as Yglesias says, we would be blaming Emanuel's strategy if reform ultimately failed, and then blaming Barack Obama's communications strategy for the Democrats' huge losses in the midterm elections.
- It must be comforting to live in a world where your own simpleminded observations about the American character become the basis of equally simpleminded observations about American politics. Why ask Americans in any detail about their opinions on health care when you can simply aver that Americans intrinsically believe that health-care reform is the "yoke of government?" Why look for solutions to the problems caused by war when you can simply blame contemporary Americans for lacking a "tragic sense?"
- Remainders: Yet another person with aspirations for the U.S. Senate seat in New York is going in wearing a "born to lose" shirt; I hope The Huffington Post is selectively publishing ridiculous conspiracy theories to generate revenue, and not as an editorial decision; Hawaii is getting fed up with the birthers' endless quest to marginalize themselves from reality; Mike Pence is a national treasure; and what possible value could CNN's viewers get from random Twitter feeds being displayed at the bottom of the screen?
--Mori Dinauer
