ANOTHER VOTE OF CONFIDENCE – AT 5:04 P.M. ET:  From the Washington Examiner:

Just when it appeared that the numbers for the Democratic health care proposals passed by the House and Senate couldn't get any worse -- they have. A new poll by CNN and Opinion Research, taken from January 22 to January 24, shows that 69 percent of respondents say Congress should dump the current Democratic health care proposals and either write an entirely new health bill or stop working on the subject altogether.

"What do you think Congress should do on health care?" CNN asked. "Pass a health care bill similar to the legislation that Congress has been working on for the past year, start work on an entirely new bill, or stop working on any bills that would change the country's health care system?" Thirty percent said pass a bill similar to the current ones, while 48 percent said start work on a new bill and 21 percent said stop working on health care. Add it up, and 69 percent say Congress should either write a new bill or stop working on health care altogether. (When CNN asked only about the existing bills, 58 percent said they oppose the bills, while 38 percent say they support them.)

The numbers make it easier to understand why many Democratic lawmakers who voted for the bills in the House and Senate are now running away from the issue. Despite those numbers, however, Democrats remain under pressure from the left to use their last remaining maneuver -- House passage of the Senate bill, followed by revisions passed by the Senate using the 51-vote reconciliation process -- to pass the existing bill.

COMMENT:  The left has the potential to sink the Democratic Party. 

Periodically, our parties have had to be saved by leaders who understood the need for correction.  Dwight Eisenhower saved the Republican Party from itself in 1952, as that party was having difficulty entering the 20th century, and maybe even the 19th.

Bill Clinton, with all his faults, saved the Democratic Party from irrelevance in 1992, although his election was made much easier by Ross Perot's egomaniacal campaign, which took votes from Bush 41.

Who will save the Dems now?  Who will save them from a Congressional faction that actually looks to Fidel Castro for lessons on health care, and which believes 9-11 was just a cultural dust-up?  There's only one current guy who can save them, and he'll be speaking tonight.  The trouble is, the bulb over his head hasn't gone on yet.  No bulb, no salvation.  That's a political rule.

January 27, 2010