“I am raising the stakes right now, … If this is a poker game, I am shoving my chips right in the middle of the table. I am raising the ante. Anybody who wants out, can get out.”

It was Nov 22, 2000. The New York Giants has just lost their second straight game to the lowly Detroit Lions at the Meadowlands, the fans and media were as angry as Tony Soprano when he found out Janice took out a loan on Livia’s house.

Obama has tried to give a version of this speech, but his problem is that he does not connect with people emotionally. He just doesn’t. It’s just part of his personality. Sometimes I wonder if he is a robot as he appears to often lack any emotion at all. Look left, look right, read teleprompter, speak in clipped measure, thank everybody, leave, repeat.

The most amazing aspect of this entire episode is this…they tell me Obama is the greatest communicator ever, that nobody can give a speech like him, but he can’t sell this. Obama…can’t…sell this. He can give a prepared speech sure, but anything other than that incurs a lot of ‘umms’. Since he can’t sell it, he now has two weeks to save everything. Two weeks. That’s it. If Jesus rises and this bill hasn’t passed…its dead.

AP-via WSJ (click image for source)If it passes it will pass 216-215. I would wager any amount on this. If it fails, there is a very good chance the vote is 215-216, though anywhere between 210-215 is possible. The fact that the WH is now going after people like Kucinich shows that they really don’t have the votes as they have given up trying to convince people like Stupak. The Kucinich moves smells of desperation. The possibility exists that Pelosi will believe she has 216 votes, and then on the floor someone has a moment of consciousness and changes their vote to no. It’s possible.

That said, if I had a gun to my head right now, I would say it passes 216-215.

Justice McNamara

**Update (Russ)**

I received this from JM yesterday but, being at the Surge, I couldn’t get it posted until now. News today is that, of course, Kucinich is a yes.