Democratic

Welcome once again to our year-end wrap-up and awards ceremony. Honesty dictates that I immediately genuflect to The McLaughlin Group, from whom I have stolen all these award categories.

Progressives who oppose this bill are not being obstructionist. Rather, they are taking the position that when real opportunities to reform health care arise, it is essential to get it right.

Other interesting news from Republicanland is a new poll showing that, given three choices, voters state who they'd likely vote for in the 2010 election in the following order: (1) Democrats, (2) Tea Partiers, (3) Republicans.

Let's look at the poker hand we've been dealt on health care reform. Democrats have now officially gone from "pot committed" to "all in." The stakes, to be blunt, have been raised until they are as high as they can go.

Harry Reid thinks he's got enough votes, but then this is the reason why the vote keeps getting pushed back -- because he's obviously still scrambling for the final few votes before he moves ahead.

No matter what healthcare bill passes, it is not going to remain static. It is going to be revisited again and again over the next few decades. That's how lawmaking works.

I think last year's vote proved people voted against Bush, and not for Obama. Today's votes are about the economy and jobs in the respective areas, not Obama policies.

Happy Samhain, everyone, if that isn't an inherent oxymoron. For those of you who expected (and were, of course, waiting for with bated breath... what...

The real head-scratcher for serious media-watchers right now is what the "war" between the White House and Fox News was meant to distract us from this week. The "war" itself is laughable, for a number of reasons.

A football locker room. Hundreds of Democrats are sitting on benches, to hear Coach's halftime pep talk in the Health Care Reform Superbowl. Some appear exhausted, some appear battered.

The plan isn't going into effect until 2013. Think you're tired of TV ads and screaming folks at town hall meetings now? Picture a more local version of that for the next four years -- not a pretty sight.

First, let's get rid of the distractions this week. Chicago will not be getting the Olympics in 2016, even after President Obama went over to Copenha...

Mr. Reid, 69 years old, is facing mounting criticism in his home state and is trailing in the polls against two Republican challengers for his Senate ...

The progressives and Blue Dogs are going to have a showdown. It is going to culminate not in statements to the press (or the lack thereof), not in some whispered whip count, but rather in a very public vote.

Baucus' was supposed to be the "bipartisan" bill, but the only way it can truly be referred to as such is in the growing bipartisan distaste for the bill.

The code words change over time (from "nullification" to "states' rights" to Pawlenty's "state sovereignty"), but the idea is the same -- we retain the right to ignore any laws we don't feel like following.

Political discussions in America are fast becoming solely theological in nature.. Each side has their beliefs. Each has their tenets which they fervently defend. Much of this is done on faith.

Stylistically, the speech was reminiscent of Obama on the campaign trail. But the bar for him is so high that this was only remarkable because it has been so absent of late from Obama.

Obama absolutely loves the phrase "everything's on the table." But the time for piling "everything" on "the table" is over. Everything being on the table means that no decisions have been made.

Sadly, Obama's speech to school children has become mired in manufactured controversy from the right, with typical sky-is-falling rhetoric about the evil, evil man who occupies the Oval Office.

Calling for some sort of decorous avoidance of politics during politicians' funerals is downright ridiculous. It'd be like eulogizing Charles Lindbergh and not mentioning airplanes.

Ted Kennedy is putting both his legacy and his sense of entitlement to his office before the interests of his constituents.

Our look back at Obama's second 100 days will begin with a short overview, and then move on to the categories: "the best of times," "the worst of times," and "the age of (media) foolishness."