Most mornings I avoid “Morning Joe”….just a little too much self-righteous camaraderie for three in the a.m. PST; this morning, however, I was lured in by Willie Geist and his way too early show, or too damn early show,or whatever it is as he fought off MB as she walked into the last minutes of his time slot – and so somehow I found myself listening to Joe and the gang dissect the previous evening’s loss of Teddy’s seat or win of the people’s seat– depending upon your point of view.

Surprisingly, I found myself in total agreement with Joe Scarborough when he said the best thing the Dems could do now would be puttogether a short form healthcare bill, get it passed, declare victory and moveon.  Senator-elect Brown’s polling mayshow that terrorism was the number one issue with those who voted for him but,trust me, health care is issue number one and a half followed closely by totaldistaste for politicians and the squiggly things that see the light of day whenthe deal making rock gets kicked over.

The pundits, however, can’t see these things because they’re too busy telling each other how great their reporting was (great should be stricken from any thank you given to a reporter from an anchor, for that matterwhy are the anchors thanking them in the first place?) and doing calisthenics with the facts to make them fit the storyline they had chosen.  Now I’m not going to tell you I saw the Brownupset coming but then I don’t have a political beat and a budget from MSNBC butI did know last summer when the left was getting the Tea Party movement totallywrong that the mid-terms were going to be tough for the Dems.

Yes, there were some crazy ass people showing up at the Tea Party parties but did anyone ever watch a Democratic Convention back in the good old days when they mattered.  Ah those were the days, that great sign someone held up in 1976, “Grits and Fritz give me the Sh…” without the …

What none of the folks who make their living by stirring it up on MSNBC late afternoon seem to understand is that it’s not that people don’t understand the health care plan, it’s that they understand it all too well.  I have voted as a Democrat inevery Presidential election since 1972. Two of the reasons I was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential candidacy were her stand on health care and her gallant health care failure in1993.  I am an older woman who is uninsured; not only that, but I understand the staggering cost that the uninsured place on our hospital system and I fear the risk of my son ever being without insurance should he not be employed.  I get, I really get it – there is a health care crisis.

What I don’t get is how the bill being pushed on the American people by the Democrats offers a coherent, fair, long term solution –and trust me, there are hundreds of thousands of folks who don’t get it either.  However, rather than break out the bill and discuss its pros and cons line by line, the talking-out-of-their-asses heads would rather make up their own story lines – story lines that fit in with the story lines they sold us in the fall of 2008.  Funny thing is, having not fallen for those story lines I am probably one of the people least disappointed by President Obama; in fact, I’m getting kind of attached to him (although the truckrepetition didn’t work out so well and would someone please tell Norah O’Donnell that the “fuel his truck” line was already precious the first time she said it and became increasingly annoying every time she repeated it although Norah,the rest of your reporting is great, really great).

So, let me give the coffee klatch at Joe’s Starbucks a little heads up on the story for the 2010 election season (and by the way, MB, how is it you are too above it all to read a story about Paris Hilton but you have no trouble at all making sure your Starbucks cup is facing logo out and in camera view) – it’s actually one of those Make Your Own Adventure stories – you know the end depends on which page you choose to turn:

Ending One

The Dems follow Joe’s advice (you have to love a guy who gives good advice and calls out Keith O aka MSNBC’s Glenn Beck), craft a simple bill that covers the things that concern most Americans: preexisting conditions, coverage limits, portability, interstate buying ability and get rid of the health insurance companies "get out of monopoly regulation free card";that would be an accomplishment and a foundation on which more comprehensive reform could be built.  It would also be a plan that Republicans would have a hard time voting against (and while we’re at it: put every last minute of the negotiations on CSPAN and publish a list ofevery donor – big pharma, health insurance companies, unions – of every Congressperson and Senator and don’t cut a deal with not one flipping one of them,)

Ending Two

The Democrats and their pundit minions should keep right on thinking we’re all too stupid to understand their message.  They should call everyone who disagrees with them a Teabagger.  They should dissect from now until November whose fault the loss of Teddy’s seat was (sorry, but I kind of have to agree that it’s rather demeaning to the voters to refer to a Senate seat as belonging to anyone unless it’s his/her desk on the Senate floor and he/she is sitting in it).  They should begin their broadcasts by saying they are sick to their stomachs by the results of the Massachusetts elections.  They should be serenely oblivious to the fact that their behaviors differ very little from the behaviors of their predecessors even though their goals may be a little loftier.  Most of all, the elected officials should stay tight with MSNBC because next fall a lot of them are going to be looking for jobs in the media.