I continue to be astonished at how fast things went to hell for the Democrats. I remember the exultation by various lefty bloggers when Bush went below 40. By their political calculus he was toast.

Obama was at 44 in the most recent Rasmussen poll.

Harry Reid can't find sixty votes for the healthcare bill and the more he fiddles, the worst it gets. We'll be in the New Year in a couple of weeks--an election year. Crat partisans are trying to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, but picking and choosing poll questions aside, the legislation before the Congress is deeply unpopular. Just 40% support the measure, but the poll's internals make that number look good by comparson. Only 19% strongly support the current healthcare reform measures, compared with 46% who strongly oppose it. Seniors in particular are having a conniption--63% oppose, and 54% strongly oppose. A clear majority--54%, think healthcare will get worse in this country if the legislation passes.

If you were at the beginning of the process, you might have a chance of turning this around, but we are at the tail-end of townhalls, the Sunday show conga line, and calling everybody who opposes healthcare legislation, devils and liars. Epic fail.

Its interesting to contemplate why the Democrats have found such a hostile environment for socialism-lite, but one commenter on the Kevin Drum blog probably said it best and most succinctly when he pointed out that a Democrat party that needs so many problematic blue-dogs to form a majority, probably can never form a true governing majority in this country.

It seems to me that twice in my adult life, Democrats won the election and then utterly failed to implement their legislative agenda. All that remains is to take responsibility for an economy they stubbornly refuse to ressurect, along with ever higher taxes and deficits.

We used to call them tax and spend liberals, and apparently, we will again.