STUPAK HAS ANNOUNCED HE'LL VOTE YES. IN A FEW MINUTES, THE US BECOMES A SOCIALIST COUNTRY.

Fox is reporting a tally that suggests that by one vote, Pelosi can pass the bill. That's a guess, not a fact or else they would have had the vote already.

As of last night there were still 20 undecided Democrats, so this is more of Pelosi's 'air of inevitability meme' in action.

I should stress that no one in the media really knows what is going on, and the honest ones are admitting as much. The scenarios are that Pelosi has the votes and is just trying to pad the outcome, or she doesn't have the votes and is scrambling to get them

Its already 2:00 PM EST time and no vote yet.

Reports are that Pelosi is actively negotiating with Stupak, which suggests to me that she doesn't have the votes. It makes sense to go back to Stupak at this point and confront him with the reality that he and his gang will bear the responsibility for killing the bill. His career as a Democrat politician would be permanently over. Of course, if he votes YES, the outcome will almost certainly be the same. I don't know how he comes down on this, but if I was given a choice of political deaths--dying for principle sounds a lot better than dying as a Judas goat. He might also have the option of switching parties.