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... His opponents want to cast him as a second Jimmy Carter, a weak and hapless neophyte. But even they cannot stay consistent on this, also portraying him as a commie Muslim radical — as if they also suspect there is more canniness and steel within. Last week Obama announced that he wanted a simple majority vote in both houses on the health insurance bill — to pass via a process called reconciliation, which requires a mere one-vote margin of victory in both houses. His final compromise plan was an exquisitely tempered mix of those elements that the wings of his own party might just be able to agree upon — at least by one vote in each house.

What was fascinating was the Republican response. “They’re making a vigorous effort to try to jam this down the throats of the American people, who don’t want it,” Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, spluttered. They were, in the words of The New York Times, “furious”. 

Why furious? Surely if this bill is so unpopular, it’s an electoral boon for the Republicans, who can run on repeal all the way to the next presidential election. Which is it, McConnell: is Obama politically suicidal or are you suddenly a little worried?

I would say he’s a little worried. The Republicans will give the bill nul points. If the Democrats can squeeze it through and Obama signs it, he will suddenly appear as a president who did all he could to accommodate the opposition and yet still scored a late victory. Kind of like the way he treated the Clintons in the primaries, no?...Times UK