Healthcare "Reform" As Football

Posted this morning to remind us that it's not over until it's over (from Jeffrey H. Anderson):

"Senior White House Advisor David Axelrod said today that supporters of Obamacare are "right on the one-yard line." It is interesting that he said this less than 24 hours after Fresno State, in this season's first college football bowl game, also was on the 1-yard line very late in the game. At that point, a determined Wyoming defense stopped the Bulldogs on four consecutive plays from the one. The Cowboys, a huge underdog, then went on to win the game in double-overtime.

Axelrod's analogy is fine as far as it goes, but it isn't complete. It would be more accurate to say that the Democrats are on the 1-yard line -- with the clock running down -- but they trail by 8 points and it's 4th down. They have almost no margin for error. They need to sneak the ball across the goal line for a touchdown (at 1:00 AM, in the Senate), followed by a 2-point conversion (in the House). Then they need yet another score in overtime (back in the Senate) to win. All the while, they'll have to overcome the roar of the crowd, which is audibly and increasingly against them.

And even if they were to win, they would then have to defend their victory in 2010 and 2012, after the crowd, which is also the owner, has changed the composition of the players.
In short, there's a lot of football to be played."

Indeed.  Now is not the time to give up, give in, or give out.