How did legal observers and Obamacare backers get it so wrong? By Greg Sargent
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This now looks like a terrible misjudgment. During oral arguments this week, Scalia invoked the broccoli argument to question the goverment’s case. He mocked the government’s position with a reference to the “cornhusker kickback,” even though that’s not in the law. As Fried notes, this language is straight out of the Tea Party guerrilla manual that was written during the battle to prevent Obamacare from becoming law in the first place.
All of which is to say that the law's proponents were badly caught off guard by the depth of the conservative bloc’s apparent hostility towards the law and its willingness to embrace the hard right’s arguments against its constitutionality. They didn’t anticipate that this could shape up as an ideological death struggle over the heart and soul of the Obama presidency, which, as E.J. Dionne notes today, is exactly what it has become.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/post/how-did-obamacares-backers-get-it-so-wrong/2012/03/29/gIQArH5wiS_blog.html
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What utter bullshit. These stupid naive know-nothings were born yesterday? They truly don't understand who and what they're up against? They're THAT gullible??!?!?!?!?!? They haven't seen enough evidence and enough proof?
I keep hearing, from Democrats, various versions of "the American people will understand!" WRONG! "They'll know!" WRONG! "They'll see the benefits and they'll get it." WRONG! "They'll see the benefits and they'll understand!" WRONG! "They'll see how health care reform has helped them, and ... " WRONG! "Those benefits will speak for themselves." WRONG! And my newest favorite: "The American people aren't stupid." WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG!!!!!!
When they're being force-fed a constant stream of negativity and criticism and distortions and lies, it wouldn't matter if Obama and all the Dems arrived at their front door with checks made out to pay for ANY of their most drastic healthcare needs for the rest of their lives! They'd STILL believe the propaganda instead of their own lying eyes. They've been trained by now, over some 30 years of carefuly crafted and shrewdly delivered CONservative propaganda to vote against their own interests because, well, that trickle-down stuff will SURELY trickle down to them someday if they just keep believing. God will provide. The GOP way will make them all rich. And there won't be any more of those annoying blacks and brown-skins or uppity women getting in their way. It'll be magic! A nice, white America like a lot of them grew up believing in while they watched "Ozzie and Harriet" and believed that was how it was or should be, and how it must always continue to be. When "the little woman" stayed in the kitchen and only left the house to go grocery shopping or to the PTA, and African-Americans were - well - out of sight and out of mind unless they were shoeshine men with their sidewalk shoeshine stands, or washing your car at the car wash where you didn't have to tip them if you didn't feel like it. And Hispanics were like Bill Dana and that old "dumb Mexican" "Jose Jimenez" comedy routine of his - that is, when they weren't waiting tables and you didn't have to tip them much anyway - they should be grateful to have those jobs. Better when they were in the back washing dishes so they, too, were out of sight and out of mind and because of that you didn't have to tip them either - OR feel guilty about not doing so.
That's the America they want "back." They want to go "back." Back in time. When they really didn't have to believe that all men were created equal - and note the slogan says "all men," and no women need apply. Especially when everyone knows they just shouldn't be bothering their pretty little heads about such things anyway. And gays? Hey, nobody around HERE is gay! It's Communism!!!!
That America is long dead, thank goodness. But it won't stop these bastards from wanting to resurrect it again. And trying their damnedest to make sure it happens.
And with ALL of that, for all these years setting up VERY painfully obvious templates based on a long track record of consistently bad behavior, these dumb-asses on our side keep getting "caught off-guard." UNBELIEVABLE.
to my own shame: i thought there was a chance. 
I still feel pretty confident they won't dump it- at least not the entire law. If a George W. Bush appointee (in a lower court) can vote to uphold the law, anything is possible. Not sure if Roberts wants to have dumping the entire law as part of his "legacy".
i was listening to NPR this afternoon about it. not encouraging, not at all. i'll try to buck up. 
