I heard David Brooks this evening, on NPR, with his regular (yuck) spot with EJ Dione, that the Republican takeover of the House was "in the bank." Wow, why should I even vote? It's a done deal!

Hey, he's probably right. He's a professional, and they are usually right, huh? But isn't this campaign a bit curious, with the republicans bashing the democrats for cutting medicare? Isn't that usually what the democrats bash the republicans for?

But apparently, one of the most effective attacks on the democrats has been on the cuts to the Medicare Advantage program. I don't really even understand what that is, but what I cipher from the news is that this is a Medicare supplemental program that is good for those that can afford it. Of course, those that can't have to go through something different.

Apparently, and I don't keep up on these medicare things that closely yet cause i'm not at that age, it's a program that is an advantage for those that can purchase it. But what I don't understand, is why we don't just provide health care for everyone equally? We do have a health care system out there, and why shouldn't it be robust enough and equal enough to serve the entire population?

You think that most people would think that. Yet, for some reason, the republicans have hammered the democrats over their health care legislation. But you know why mostly? It's because the new bill doesn't address the ever increasing cost of health insurance, and how that is killing the middle class who are trying to maintain insurance. And then, in the face of increasing premiums that the average person, (like me) can't afford, who wants to be forced to buy overcost insurance, and if you don't buy it, you get penalized substantially? That scares a lot of people, because they don't realize that there are substantial subsidies for people that absolutely can't afford built into the bill.

But what the democrats hadn't properly considered is that there are a lot of people that yeah, they afford to pay more for their government sponsored health care, but it might cut into their boat payment. And that is an inconvenience, cause they like their boats. And when the democrats sold out completely to the big healthcare corporations and did nothing to level premium payments, they blew their credibility with the public that would be asked to sacrifice.

And then, when Rove and Crossroads starting hammering them on the hundreds of billions that would be "cut" from medicare, the dems didn't respond. Whoever made that call should be canned.

I still am standing by my prognostication that the dems will lose less than conventional wisdom is telling us. Maybe Brooks will be right - anything can happen. But I still think when it comes to pulling that lever, that enough people will remember what problems Bush and the republicans got us into. It's still pretty fresh. We'll see.