The US Senate and Health Care

The New York Times: Reports that Democratic US Senators have agreed a way around the public option argument within their own ranks, the NYT writes the following, " senators said the tentative agreement would sideline but not kill the “public option” ". Thus we shall see if Liberals can take the deal and if moderate and Conservative Democrats can sell the deal back home. At the end of the day its about 60 votes, if the Democrats can get that then they have a bill if not they don't. It will be fun to see how much the Democratic Leadership have to pay for votes, the last one was a hundred million dollars.

Quinnipac Poll - New Low Poll Rating

RCP Blog: Reports on a new poll that shows that President Obama's approval rating going down, the Quinnipiac Poll has Obama at 46% approval rating, while 44% have a negative view of the President. The White House and the Democratic Leadership in the Hill are using the argument that once Obama's health care reform bill is passed his polls will go up, what if they are wrong, lets recall that in the 1960s LBJ pushed for civil rights, it was the right thing to do, but it handed the South over to the Republicans. This is one of the reasons that the White House on the whole was in Republican hands after the 1960s from Nixon to Bush 43. What if by passing the health care reform Bill the Democrats are breaking the camels back, lets recall that after 1945 and the introduction of the NHS in the UK the government for the majority of the period was not in Labour hands but the Conservatives. This is not late 1983/84 when the economy turned around and saw Reagan thrash Walter Mondale by 49 States and 525 Electoral Votes. All the Obama Taxes to pay for his health care reform bill could damage the recovery, thus it could be slow and thus by 2012 Obama could find that he wants to spend more time with his family and decides not run, he does not want to be one term President but to lose in 2012 would be worse, thus Obama might nor run in 2012.

Afghanistan is not Iraq - General Petraeus

Fox News: Reports on the statement by General Petraeus that results in Afghanistan will be slower that the quick results in Iraq. The USA could be in Afghanistan for fifty years and the result will be the same folks, Afghanistan is just one of those places that if your Western power you run the other way. The terrain and the people do not fit some Western model of state, even the British Empire learned that lesson the hard way, thousands of deaths in the 19th Century. This is my prediction for Afghanistan, at the end of the day, the West under leadership of the USA will pick a strong man and hope he can keep power in Kabul. Or the Obama Administration will do a deal with the Taliban as long as they keep Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan and don't support the Taliban of Afghanistan.

UK in DEBT and in the TOILET

BBC News: Reports on the statement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling that the UK is debt to the tune of 178bn. That's the problem with Labour at the end of the day, they ruin the economy, lets recall the Winter of discontent of the 70s, how the UK was seen as the sick man of Europe. All that hope from the election of New Labour in 1997 has long gone, what we have left is the very bitter taste of failure.