I admit it, when the first diary was posted about Senator Reid postponing the heathcare decision until after vacation, I voted immediately on the poll that the Senate should be forced to work through August (after all, there's no vacation from rising health care, etc. etc.).
But now that I've had a chance to see the video of President Obama's latest health care town hall meeting, it occurs to me that once again his strategic thinking has outsmarted the Republicans and Blue Dogs. After all, they have two options--go home and face their (probably angry) constituents, or vacation elsewhere and receive criticism for not having faced their angry constituents!
On the other hand, we have President Obama, who can use this extra time to take his case to the people, one state at a time (or simply focus on the States who are represented in Congress by the worst detractors). This will energize the people, who may then put additional pressure on their congressmen to develop a program of real reform.
Perhaps I am giving him and his team a bit more credit than they deserve (in that I imply that he has been ready for this turn of events), but in any case, I am sure he will find a way to capitalize on the situation.
As an aside, I was shocked to hear some Congressman (it was a couple of weeks ago and I'm fuzzy now on who said it) say that the problem was that the President had not said exactly what he wanted in the bill (!!). It occurred to me that instead of daily prayer meetings (or at least in addition to them!) there should be daily readings from the Constitution (with exams!). That reminded me of this video on how a bill becomes a law:
I've heard the President say several times that he is the President and knows his job (he says it better). How refreshing it would be to have the sense that ALL Congressmen knew their job and felt the same degree of responsibility.
UPDATE: now with video embedded. Learned something new today!