Creating a health-care abyss

Apparently Obama thought today's -- yesterday's now -- marathon health care "summit" would give his and/or the Democrats' plan some traction. I suspect -- though public opinion can be a fickle mistress -- that it did the opposite. Here's the Register editorial previewing the event, pointing out that Obama's problem is not so much with the Republicans, who seemed surprisingly calm, although as Tibor Machan pointed out, they can no longer lay much claim to being the party of limited government, but with the Democrats. There are all kinds of stories about working behind the scenes to get enough Democratic votes, but abortion, of all things, may prove the sticking-point. Here's the Register's after-show review. Just to broaden the scope of reacrions, here is one of Andrew Sullivan's roundups and here is another. When I talked to Bob Moffit at Heritage the other day, we discussed the last-ditch supporters of ObamaCare, like those at the New Republic, who somehow seem to think there's a burning desire out there among the public for federalized health care and the Democrats will get plenty credit for going it alone, despite the clear evidence of the polls that a majority of Americans oppose it and wish Obama would do something to fix the economy rather than adding another crippling entitlement. Bob likened them to people at a UFO convention. I think he's about right.