OBAMA IN A FLAT SPIN

Those few pilots who’ve survived one can tell you it’s extremely difficult to recover from a flat spin. 

Unlike normal spins, in which the nose of the aircraft is pointed down, in a flat spin the nose is pointed up — rather like the noses of Washington Democrats toward the hoi polloi who attend TEA parties.  This makes the controls unresponsive, and the airplane falls from the sky like a leaf falling from a tree.

The Obama administration is in a flat spin.  No president in the history of polling has tumbled so far in a single year from the lofty heights he enjoyed on the day of his inauguration.  But as "change you can believe in" morphed into socialism you must pay for, the administration stalled out and tumbled earthward.

Because it is so difficult to get out of a flat spin, manufacturers of aircraft prone to them, such as the old Bell P-39 AiraCobra, advised pilots to bail out as soon as they got into one.  That’s what Democrats in the House and Senate have been doing on Mr. Obama’s signature issue since Scott Brown’s stunning victory in the Massachusetts Senate race. 

How Mr. Obama himself responds to a Republican victory in a state in which only 12 percent of registered voters are Republicans will determine whether he can get out of his spin in time to save his presidency.

The victory of Mr. Brown — who campaigned on a pledge to be the 41st vote against Obamacare — could be an opportunity for Democrats to save themselves from themselves, to back away from the precipice, to point their guns away from their own feet.

The luckless Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev) is about the only Democrat in Congress who would not be better off if Obamacare quietly goes away than if it passes. 

It was principally anger at Obamacare that propelled Mr. Brown to his stunning victory (he got 75 percent of independents, 22 percent of Democrats), and it is anger at Obamacare that has senators such as Evan Bayh of Indiana, Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Barbara Boxer of California, previously thought safe, looking anxiously over their shoulders.

Mr. Bayh suddenly discovered last night (1/19) that the "furthest left" elements of the Democrat party were "attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country."  Prior to Mr. Brown’s victory yesterday, he’d had no difficulty voting for their agenda.

If Obamacare fails, voter ire will subside.  If it passes — particularly if it passes as a result of underhanded machinations — voter rage will intensify.

It’s clear now the president has made one of the greatest miscalculations in American political history.

"This health care plan is going to be a fiscal disaster for the country," said Mort Zuckerman, whose newspaper, the New York Daily News, had endorsed Mr. Obama for president.  "Most of the country wanted to deal with costs, not expansion of coverage.  This is going to raise costs dramatically."

The real test of a president’s mettle, said political scientist Jay Cost, "is how he handles the jam after he’s gotten into it.  Does he continue to do the same thing, hoping against hope that somehow someway doing the same old same old will yield a different result?  Or does he recognize he has made mistakes, try to learn from them, and ultimately make adaptations?"

We know little about how Mr. Obama responds to crisis, because before becoming president, all he had ever run was his mouth.  But in times of stress, he seems to become more partisan, not less.

That would please pundits on the left, who are urging the president to double down, to fight harder than ever for Obamacare, despite public opposition.  Sen. Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are of the same mind.

So, too, apparently, is the president.

"The response will not be to do incremental things and try to salvage a few seats in the fall," a presidential adviser told the Webzine Politico last night.  "The best political route also happens to be the boldest rhetorical route, which is to go out and fight and let the chips fall where they may."

That may be tough to do, with his troops running for the tall grass.  And telling the electorate to drop dead rarely is a wise political course.

"If the president really thinks this, they are going to be in a mess of trouble for the rest of his term, for it would mean he is too stubborn or arrogant to make needed adjustments," observed Mr. Cost.

Jack Kelly is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.