Just when you think the Obami can’t get more arrogant, along comes a report like this:

In a provocative argument designed to rescue his foundering health-care plan, President Barack Obama will warn Senate Democrats in a White House meeting Tuesday that this is the “last chance” to pass comprehensive reform. Obama will contend that if it fails now, no other president will attempt it, aides said.

No other president will attempt it? Ever? Really, you have to marvel at where they come up with this stuff. Obama is apparently the only one, ever, who can pass health-care reform. And his powers, like Cinderella’s, I suppose, evaporate when the clock strikes midnight on December 31. They must do it now.

On one level, it’s jaw-dropping desperation when a White House stoops to making such a nonsensical argument. It suggests that Harry Reid has managed to drive the administration’s top priority into a ditch, and the White House is panicked. The Left is furious, the Senate looks like it’s made up of a bunch of Keystone Kops, and there’s still no bill to vote on. But it’s the arrogance that’s most striking. Of course other presidents will address health care, entitlements, jobs, and the rest. History does not begin or end with Him. But he seems to think it does.

Now if history and health care depend on Obama, why hasn’t he come up with a bill? Perhaps his magical powers of legislation — his unique ability to pass historic legislation — work only on a generic level. Otherwise one might expect that the great and powerful president would come up with his solution and get everyone on board. But maybe he’s not all that powerful. In fact, maybe he’s been inept and ineffectual in getting everyone to sign up for an obvious list of discrete reforms, one that even Republicans could support. It might be that another president could have done better, or will do better in the future. Perish the thought! It’s now or never. History hangs in the balance.