November Retribution

This piece from the Telegraph gets it right on the money:

Never before had landmark legislation – the bill reshapes one-sixth of the American economy – been passed without even a smidgen of bipartisan consensus.

The process took 14 months and at times showed politics at its ugliest, with closed-door horse-trading (despite Mr Obama's trumpeting of a new transparency) and grubby deals like the notorious "Louisiana Purchase" and "Cornhusker Kickback".

Almost every other political priority was pushed aside and the "laser focus" on jobs that the White House kept promising never materialised.

The result could be a drubbing at the polls in November, when Republicans hope to seize back control of the House of Representatives and possibly even the Senate.

Although Mr Obama claimed that the Democratic bill health care "runs straight down the centre of American political thought", the roll call of congressional votes and opinion polls tells a different story. The reality is that in American terms it was a Left-wing measure.

A recent IDB/TIPP poll found that 66 per cent of political independents – those who will decide the midterm elections – view Mr Obama to their Left. He may sound like a centrist and even view himself as one but to most Americans he is a liberal in a centre-right nation.

In securing health care victory, Mr Obama's Democrats portrayed those opposed to the bill as bigoted, uncaring or just plain stupid. Although there were rhetorical excesses and scare tactics on the other side, that is a dangerous political strategy when a majority are sceptical about what you are doing.

Mr Obama came into office in January 2009 on a wave of national goodwill and with significant political capital. In winning on Capitol Hill, he spent all of it and more. Now, he is running on overdraft – and could find himself bankrupt come November.