While I don’t agree with everything Frank Rich wrote in his column today — for example, Rich seems to think Congress should abandon health care reform — but he’s right here:

Obama’s plight has been unchanged for months. Neither in action nor in message is he in front of the anger roiling a country where high unemployment remains unchecked and spiraling foreclosures are demolishing the bedrock American dream of home ownership. The president is no longer seen as a savior but as a captive of the interests who ginned up the mess and still profit, hugely, from it. …

…Obama has blundered, not by positioning himself too far to the left but by landing nowhere — frittering away his political capital by being too vague, too slow and too deferential to Congress. The smartest thing said as the Massachusetts returns came in Tuesday night was by Howard Fineman on MSNBC: “Obama took all his winnings and turned them over to Max Baucus.”

President Obama is only one year into his term. Can he reboot his administration? Can he recapture some momentum? I think it’s possible for someone of great political skill — Bill Clinton comes to mind — to dig out of a hole and reclaim public confidence, but whether Obama can do it remains to be seen.

The return of David Plouffe indicates the White House knows it has to change course. However, it shouldn’t be the job of a political adviser to tell the President to stop being vague, slow and deferential.

Other Stuff to Read: Bob Herbert, “They Still Don’t Get It”

Update: It won’t happen, but here’s one way the Obama Administration could shake things up.

E.J. Dionne writes of the resistance in the House to pass the Senate hcr bill:

The core problem is that the House Democrats no longer trust the Senate Democrats. And let’s be honest: There is no reason in the world for House Democrats to trust the Senate Democrats at this point, or even to feel very kindly disposed toward them.

That’s why there is resistance in the House to the most straightforward solution, which is for the House to pass the Senate health-care bill and send it to the president, and then to use the reconciliation process (which requires only 51 votes in the Senate) to pass the changes in the bill that House and Senate negotiators have agreed to — or, at least, as many of those changes as is procedurally possible. They can’t get all the changes into law that way, but they could get a lot of them.

The catch is that the House Democrats don’t believe the Senate Democrats will necessarily keep their word and pass the reconciliation bill containing the amendments. And it’s not only the question of trust: anyone who has watched the Senate for the last year can be forgiven for wondering if it is even functional enough (given Republican obstruction and a lack of cohesion in the Democratic caucus) to keep a promise sincerely made.

I hadn’t thought of it that way, but Dionne probably is right. Dionne goes on to say that the leaders of both houses are trying to find a work-around that would allow the House to have the final vote on any final bill, but I’m not sure I understand exactly how that would work.

News of what’s going on now changes hourly. I hear there are talks; I hear there is no plan; I hear that the Obama Administration wants to both slow down and speed up the process. So, nobody really knows what’s going on.

The most significant development today may be that David Plouffe, President Obama’s campaign manager in 2008, is stepping into the role of White House adviser. Maybe he’ll get the Dems in Washington to re-think their priorities.

I’m way too depressed about what appears to be the utter collapse of the Democratic Party in the face of one bleeping election loss to blog about anything. Here’s some other stuff you can read:

Karen Tumulty, “Why Incremental Health Care Reform Won’t Work”

Paul Krugman, “Do the Right Thing”

Ezra Klein‘s last several posts.

Dahlia Lithwick, “Watching as the Supreme Court turns a corporation into a real live boy“

Nancy Pelosi says there aren’t enough votes in the House to pass the Senate health care reform bill.

Josh Marshall: “In other words, plug pulled. Health care reform over.” That’s how I see it also. Greg Sargent is more hopeful:

The key is that Pelosi said the bill can’t pass the House “at this time” or “right now.” What’s more, this doesn’t address another possibility being studied by House leaders right now: Passing the Senate bill while simultaneously creating a mechanism that would make it possible, or even mandatory, to fix the bill later through reconciliation, meaning those fixes would only require 51 votes in the Senate.

The roller coaster is too much for me. I want to go somewhere quiet where there are puppies and kittens to play with. Let me know when it’s over.

In another blow to progressive hopes, the Supreme Court today overruled prior rulings that allowed government to restrict how corporations and special interest fund candidates. They can now spend all the money they want expressly calling for candidates’ election or defeat. And just in time for the midterms!

Once again, Justice Kennedy was the swing voter who sided with the troglodytes Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, and Alito. Dissenting were Stevens, Bader Ginsburg, Breyer, and Sotomayor.

There seems to be some movement in the House toward passing the Senate health care reform bill so that something can be signed into law, and I think if the Dems in the House had any clue what’s good for them, they’ll do that. And the sooner they do it, the better for their re-election campaigns this year.

Matt Yglesias says that it’s too late for House congress critters to say they aren’t really for that crazy liberal health care reform thing, because they already voted for it once.

And of course if health care dies, the instant CW becomes that health care was too left-wing. That America hates those lefty left-wingers who voted for it. Lefty left-wingers just like Representative X. If you pass the bill, you can try to make the case for it. If you don’t pass the bill, you’ve made your opponent’s case for you. Which might not be so bad except you already voted for the bill. Once you vote for something, you’ve got to try to pass it.

If the wimps are so afraid Republicans will be mean to them, the worse thing they can do is let hcr die. Because then the Republicans will take it up, put a big FAIL sign on it, and hang it around Dems’ necks.

As for the Senate — Josh Marshall got an email from a Senate staffer that read in part —

The worst is that I can’t help but feel like the main emotion people in the caucus are feeling is relief at this turn of events. Now they have a ready excuse for not getting anything done. While I always thought we had the better ideas but the weaker messaging, it feels like somewhere along the line Members internalized a belief that we actually have weaker ideas. They’re afraid to actually implement them and face the judgement of the voters. That’s the scariest dynamic and what makes me think this will all come crashing down around us in November.

All the more reason not to call upon the Senate to come up with yet another bill. Let the House pass the Senate bill and let it be signed into law, and go on to economic stimulus and job creation. Now.

Ezra Klein says the Dems’ best option is for the House to pass the Senate bill and then “run their fixes through the reconciliation process.” He also makes an alternative suggestion

Medicare buy-in between 50 and 65. Medicaid expands up to 200 percent of poverty with the federal government funding the whole of the expansion. Revenue comes from a surtax on the wealthy.

And that’s it. No cost controls. No delivery-system reforms. Nothing that makes the bill long or complex or unfamiliar. Medicare buy-in had more than 51 votes as recently as a month ago. The Medicaid change is simply a larger version of what’s already passed both chambers. This bill would be shorter than a Danielle Steel novel. It could take effect before the 2012 election.

If health-care reform that preserves the private market is too complex and requires too many dirty deals with the existing industries, then cut both out. But get it done. Democrats have a couple of different options for passing health-care reform this year. But not passing health-care reform should not be seen as one of them.

President Obama is talking about “a stripped-down measure with bipartisan support,” which tells me he learned nothing from the stimulus package episode last spring. He’s had a year in office now, and while he’s made some moves in the right direction, overall he’s been underwhelming. If he doesn’t make some adjustments pretty soon he may not get a second term. See also Paul Krugman.

Paul Krugman wrote this afternoon:

It sounds as if House Democrats — or at least their leadership — are prepared to pass the Senate bill if, as expected, they lose today’s special election.

That’s a shame: the House was in the process of making the bill better. But as Ezra Klein says, they should do what’s necessary — not as a matter of political advantage, although it’s probably better for them even in that sense, but because it’s the right thing to do. Imperfect as it is, the Senate bill would save tens of thousands of lives, save many Americans from financial catastrophe, and partially redeem us from the shame of being the only advanced nation without some kind of universal care.

I hope all the leftie activists who think punishing Dems at polls will push them to the left are paying attention.