Byron York: Republicans Getting Strange Feeling They Haven't Felt in Years -- "We Can Win"
Update: Democratic Senator Confesses to CNN He's "Baffled" At Obama's Demand for Immeidate Action While Showing No Leadership At All

He explains why "experiment" has become the buzzword of the day, too.

Read the whole thing. This is not nearly in the bag or anything like that -- they have the numbers, after all, and even moderate Democrats realize how badly they'll wound their party's top official if they block him. But... things are turning.

“When Americans voted for change, it was for a change from the uncertainty and economic unpredictability at the end of the Bush years,” says Alex Castellanos, the Republican message master who helped shape the RNC campaign. “But the president is giving them economic unpredictability on steroids. There is the clear sense out there that he is moving so fast on so many fronts that his health care plan cannot be well thought out.”

...

Republicans believe there’s a real chance Obama will make his own situation worse by pushing too hard. People have heard this sort of thing before. Anyone who’s bought a car, a TV or an insurance policy knows the feeling when a salesman amps up the pressure to close the deal. You need to buy this today, sign the papers right now, don’t wait another minute. When that happens, the smart customer backs off a little: Why is this guy trying to rush me into this?

...

For a long time, it looked as if Republicans were flattened and hopeless while Obama moved from victory to victory. But now, the sense of energy is palpable. The GOP critique of Obama is sharper, its discipline better, its fundraising up — all just seven months after the party got its clock cleaned in both the presidential and congressional elections.

The result of the Obama experiment might not be nationalized health care, but a re-energized Republican Party.

On Fox & Friends, they offered another good talking point: Currently 90% of all Americans are covered by insurance. Obama's vaunted plan will cover, theoretically, another 7%.

So:

We're destroying the entire system to move from 90% to 97% coverage? And that 7%, of course, includes a lot of young people who think they don't need health insurance because they're young and healthy (and, in fact, they're right, according to the statistics; even more right when you consider that each young person is forced to pay way too much for health care, as he subsidizes older customers).

Oh, and the Douchebag in Chief is going to be on television yet again, prime time tomorrow night, to tell you why you MUST ACT NOW if you want the Miracle Obama Plan with two Potato-Peeling SkinWizards (TM) included free of charge. (Now how much would you pay?)

Oh, and he will of course spend some time on his favorite topic: Himself, and how friggin' awesome he is.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times Obama intends to use the news conference as a "six-month report card," to talk about "how we rescued the economy from the worst recession" and the legislative agenda moving forward, including health care and energy legislation.

This is a bad move and it will backfire. I'm jazzed at Obama's decision to lie flatly into America's face. While pre-empting more interesting programing, like Real Housewives of Argentina.

More: Doubling down on failure.

"We're using every single lever that we can to get our message across," said senior adviser David Axelrod. That includes presidential visits this week to two hospitals, a trip to Cleveland for a town-hall meeting and a conference call urging bloggers to motivate their followers.

Followers? Well, on the left, I suppose.

And You Guys Thought That Obama's Utter Lack of Executive -- or Even Real Job-Type Job -- Experience Would Be a Problem: Democrats "baffled" as Obama votes present on pretty much every key detail of that health care plan he tells us it's time to start talking about and just pass.

Even though it's not written. Even though the basic parameters of it haven't been agreed to.

As the prospects for passing health reform by the time Congress leaves for its August recess look bleaker, Democratic grumbling about President Obama is growing louder. One Democratic senator tells CNN congressional Democrats are “baffled,” and another senior Democratic source tells CNN members of the president’s own party are still “frustrated” that they’re not getting more specific direction from him on health care. “We appreciate the rhetoric and his willingness to ratchet up the pressure but what most Democrats on the Hill are looking for is for the president to weigh in and make decisions on outstanding issues. Instead of sending out his people and saying the president isn’t ruling anything out, members would like a little bit of clarity on what he would support – especially on how to pay for his health reform bill,” a senior Democratic congressional source tells CNN.

Update: Democratic Senator Confesses to CNN He's "Baffled" At Obama's Demand for Immeidate Action While Showing No Leadership At All&bodytext=He explains why "experiment" has become the buzzword of the day, too. Read the whole thing. This is not nearly in the bag or anything like that -- they have the numbers, after all, and even moderate Democrats realize how...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 08:49 AM

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