Why The Big Hurry?

"I need $800 Billion and I need it now."

That's how Obama began his term in office early this year. Governor Mitch Daniels described this tactic as "shock and awe statism": startle the punters with outrageous demands; then tell them you want them met immediately. "Don't bother reading the bill, just give me the money. Trust me." It was really a breathtaking performance. He almost got away with it.

Almost.

Sure, he got the dough. But now you hear the rumble of doubts congregating in the background. Any real stimulus does ... what? It stimulates. And what has the President's "stimulus" given us (apart from higher taxes coming to a paycheck near you)? Take your time . . .

Now, Obama is trying a repeat performance with the way we provide health care in this country. Remember that rumble I mentioned? It's beginning to grow. You may need earplugs, soon.

Yesterday, Obama had the temerity to insist that his plan to nationalize health care be passed RIGHT NOW, before Congress recessed in August. Then he compounded the temerity by insisting that "the deadline isn't being set by me. It's being set by the American people."

Really? Sez who?

Obama's haste is a trademark. It's likely part of Rahm Emmanuel's policy of not letting a good crisis go to waste.

Obama's gambit conceals a cynical and unflattering view of the electorate. "Pass this humongous, multi-trillion dollar bill to nationalize and ration health care right now or it will never pass."

Right you are, Prez.

The reason for the big hurry is Obama's recognition that were his plan to impose socialized medicine subject to normal scrutiny, it would be subject to what the internists among you would describe as a political analogue of reverse peristalsis: the public would vomit it back into the laps of Pelosi, Kennedy and Reid.

There is a larger question about Obama, that I'm not sure anyone has asked. Back when he was campaigning, some commentators assured us that, despite his hard-left associations, pronouncements, and instincts, Obama was really a pragmatist who would govern from the center. Any evidence of that, yet? As the rats desert the ship and his poll numbers plummet, one wonders whether Obama will muster the political canniness that saved Bill Clinton. Clinton's great asset was his utter lack of conviction about anything beyond his own political survival. Given his druthers, he would have liked to enact HillaryCare, expand welfare and other social programs, and pay for it all by raising taxes. But political reality intervened and he wound up enacting a boatload of Republican-inspired legislation from welfare reform on down. Will Obama opt for a similar skin-saving expedient?

I'm not holding my breath.