Can I add that whether your political opinions....one can't help but admire what Pelosi pulled off?

I admit, I've called Madame Speaker a ton of names. Skeletor, Useless, Gomez, Frankenstein, etc. But with Healthcare once again dead as a doornail just more than a month ago, she was determined to get the sucker passed, boom or bust. And she got it passed at the House.

And one must realize this: I believe Obama, Pelosi, and Reid knew the party was likely (unless the economy improves over the summer) to get their asses kicked in November. So they figure if that is the case, well let's go out with a bang and at least have something passed that they could be proud of having accomplished.

That is a reminder to everybody: Elections matter. Generally, especially last decade, we've had this unofficial Congressional maxim that everything was about the next election cycle, that do what was political expedient, damn the promises to that base who worked their asses (and donated much) to get them elected to the Hill. The base will mindlessly continue pumping money and volunteers, don't worry.

Whether Democrat or Republican, we want people up there to do what we want done. Cutting taxes, Healthcare, whatever. Well, many Democrats wanted Healthcare. And they got it passed even over the majority of their own conservative wing. Some things are worth losing an election over. Goldwater's supporters in 1964 realized that. The GOP in 2010 have forgotten that.

Healthcare has been bandied about for over a century after Mr. Badass himself Teddy Roosevelt proposed it. Then Democratic Presidents from FDR to Truman to JFK to LBJ to Carter to Clinton have talked talked talked and hoped it could happen. It finally happened under that black guy with the foreign name who picked the wrong college to win the Final Four*

Whether he was the ideological muscle or not**, after a year of shit progress the President decided to quit letting Congress those clueless jackoffs run this debate and gambled to finally put his team on one bill and become the face of it. The ball was fumbled, he picked it up, could have gotten fucking buried this side of Lawrence Taylor on Joe Theisman's leg. Instead Obama somehow, by luck and persistence and politicking, ran for the touchdown.

Or to put it another way, he can finally tell Bill Clinton to go suck his dick. Clinton with the best economy in American history with no major foreign policy problems couldn't get it done. Obama with maybe the worst economy since the Great Depression, inheriting two never-ending wars in Asia, will sign the bill.

*=Though to be fair, I think almost 90% everybody else figured Kansas would win too.
**=I think it was Pelosi, but Obama definately is easier an easier face to sell than hers. YEECH!