The Dreidl Spins, and Having Been Spun, Moves On: Marc Ambinder now says Obama is in good shape on health care because he "survived August" in better shape than Ambinder had expected:

At the beginning of the month, I predicted that August might turn out be a bloodbath for Democrats. At the time, the Democratic self-containment on health care had dissolved, cranks were taking over constituent meetings, and that real anxiety about Obama had found a channel and political opponents of health care had an edge.

Hmm. That's not what I remember Ambinder saying. I remember him saying that health care opponent-cranks were overplaying their hand in a way that would help Democrats. Let's go to the Internets! Here's Ambinder on August 6 :

Bottom line: turning h/c town hall meetings into anti-Obama venting sessions won't convince Blue Dog Dems. to vote against h/c. I think

and on the same day

I think GOPers are of 2 minds about these protests. Or, they shld be. Even though this trend favors the left, I don't know if they will... [E.A.]

and finally in an August 11 magnum opus entitled "Conservatives Are Blowing It on Health Care":

... Democrats are beginning to notice that opponents of health care reform have discredited themselves . They ramped up much too quickly . When smaller, conservative groups Astroturfed, they inevitably brought to the meetings the type of Republican activist who was itching for a fight and who would use the format to vent frustrations at President Obama himself.  ...[T]he loudest voices tended to be the craziest, the most extreme, the least sensible, and the most easy to mock.  ... [E.A.]

Is Ambinder being spun so fast he doesn't remember what he himself "predicted" a month ago? Or is he ... spinning his own previous spin (to make his more recent spin seem more plausible). ....

P.S.--Nobody Sucks Up Both Ways Like Andrew Sullivan: Meanwhile, elsewhere in Mr. Bradley's well-padded neighborhood, Andrew Sullivan says, "I agree with most everything David Brooks has written on this subject [of health care]." Then Sullivan declares that the likely Obama compromise plan

will be a huge step forward on the accessibility front, if not on costs. (But we can come back on costs, and must, in a broader context of fundamental fiscal reform)

which is pretty much the exact opposite of what Brooks has written on the subject . Brooks argues that measures to increase accessibility aren't a huge step forward at all, because "they don't reduce costs." He wants Obama to double-down on Orszagist curve-bending now and "fundamentally challenge the fee-for-service system." Easy advice to give if you are Republican pundit who gets to pose as a far-seeing responsible type today and then later dismiss Obama as an incompetent liberal when he takes Brooks' advice and fails. Sullivan was right the second time. ... 2:29 A..M.

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