For the umpteenth time, the overexposed president will go before the cameras tonight to attack his plan’s opponents. Well, not his plan — he doesn’t have one. But the Pelosi-Waxman plan. If you’re not on board, you are in favor of special interests and of poor people waiting in emergency rooms. Oh, you say the Democrats en masse are getting cold feet. No, disregard all that. It’s the mean Republicans’ and the special interests’ fault. And CBO’s deficit analysis? Well, we’re not “there” yet, and “there” will have a “fully paid for bill.”

Back in reality, Sen. Dick Durbin says they won’t vote in the Senate before the break. Perhaps there are dim-witted House Democrats willing to walk the plank and get eaten alive during the recess back home by irate voters and business groups while senators garner praise for thoughtful deliberation, but I doubt it.

At times like these, you wonder what was going through Obama’s mind? Did he think the details wouldn’t matter? Did he expect his party to roll over? Whatever he thought, what is happening is quite different from what he imagined.