[Hugin]

Axelrod's advice surely ranks among the worst campaign miscalculations in American political history. And it is indeed difficult to account for an error of such magnitude without thinking that Obama and Axelrod ignored what they surely could see with their own eyes.

So many Washington insiders simply cannot believe that any pol could put something as a higher priority than the next election. So when Obama said he wants to "fundamentally transform" America, and that he would rather be a one termer who got stuff done than a two termer who didn't, everyone dismissed it a rhetoric, aside from those of us who as Rush puts it, "live in Literalville".

[goldstategop]

The Democrats were willing to throw away their majority to achieve their ideological goals. They’ve put in place the means to get to a single payer system. They’re drawing the opposite lesson from this from what every one else is drawing. The political blood-letting is worth it. Obamacare can’t be repealed. And they’re willing to bet that they can revive it the next time they’re back in power. The heavy lifting has already been done.