Senate Conservatives Fund — Obama doubles down

The President's speech last night was not a speech given by someone whose strategy is to win Republican support for his health care reforms. It had a few token lines giving lip service to alternative reforms, but the overall tone of the speech was very partisan and the substance was wildly liberal.

There's only one logical conclusion we can draw from this. The President has decided to force Congress to pass the most extreme bill possible. Yet he knows that Democrats in his own party are the biggest obstacle to achieving this goal.

That is why he gave a speech designed to energize the Democrat base for the fight ahead.

The President is about to ask a number of Democrats to walk the political plank to pass this legislation, and he needed to psych them up for it. In the end, he will likely have to convince a group of Democrats to sacrifice their political careers for his ideological agenda.

Based on early reactions to the speech, it appears that the President was successful in firing up his base. Just look at what Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) had to say to Rachel Maddow:

We all have to do our part and, boy, am I ever ready to go. I bumped into the president — just, so lucky. I was on my way back to my little office. And there he came, and a congressman was asking him to do some autographs. I said, I dont want an autograph. I just want to tell you something. And I leaned over, gave him a kiss on the cheek and said, You hit it out of the ballpark, Mr. President. And you know what he said? Now lets get it done. And he says out loud — everyone heard it. He had a look of determination on his face I havent seen in awhile.

This euphoria will last a while and the President's plan may even get a quick boost in the polls, but then support will begin to settle down and could even sink deeper than before. That's why he's got to get this done before Democrats wake up and realize what's going on.

Here's a list of the Democrats who need to be brought back to earth in the coming days and weeks. They will likely determine whether the government takes over our health care decisions.

Lincoln, Blanch (AR)
Nelson, Ben (NE)
Bayh, Evan (IN)
Landrieu, Mary (LA)
Tester, John (MT)
Webb, Jim (VA)
Warner, John (VA)
Bennet, Michael (CO)
McCaskill, Claire (MO)
Conrad, Kent (ND)
Dorgan, Byron (ND)
Hagen, Kay (NC)