Cheboygan County drain commissioner Dennis Lennox, who was running for Congress in the district of Bart Stupak, is withdrawing from the race today and endorsing Dan Benishek, a general surgeon whose campaign debuted as a Free Republic post in February.

“I’ve received phone calls and e-mails from party leaders and activists and a member of Congress, all encouraging to me to run, and agreeing that the district needs new representation who won’t sell out for 30 pieces of silver,” Lennox said in a phone interview this afternoon. “But I’m also a realist. This is a congressman who’s been in office since I’ve been in the third grade. This would probably be a campaign where both candidates combined could spent $8 million, and this is a district where the official unemployment rate is 20 percent; once you throw in the part-time workers and discouraged workers, it’s closer to 50 percent. The money just isn’t there in the district to support a bid. I knew what it would take, and like I said, I’m a realist. I’m not going to get into something if I don’t think I can pull it off.”

“Based on the enthusiasm that’s been out there for the past week, Benishek is in a well-heeled position to take on Stupak,” Lennox said. “I lend him my full support look and forward to working with him to defeat Stupak.”

Today, Lennox is taking one for the team, and Michigan Republicans probably ought to remember this decision. He indicated he’s switching to a state house race.

Obamacare forces another company to change its financial outlook, this one in the president’s old backyard.

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) today announced that as a result of certain provisions in the recently enacted Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care program, future Medicare prescription drug subsidies received by the Company for retiree prescription drug coverage will now be taxable.  As a result, the Company expects to record a discrete tax adjustment of $22 million, or 4 cents of diluted income per share from continuing operations, in its 2010 first quarter results to reflect this change in tax treatment.  This discrete tax adjustment was not included in the Company’s March 15, 2010 revised earnings forecast.

At least the congressman who represents the district that includes their headquarters, Republican Mark Kirk, voted against the bill.

Boy, just the endorsement and support you want to tout in South Carolina:

The desperate Congressional campaign of Democrat Rob Miller has enlisted the aid of a very interesting, controversial new ally. Larry Flynt, the infamous publisher of the pornographic magazine “Hustler” and an outspoken left-wing activist, has taken to his personal blog to solicit support and money for Miller.

Somewhere, Rep. Joe Wilson is weeping from laughing so hard.

Howard Fineman buries the lead like it’s Jimmy Hoffa:

A Democratic senator I can’t name, who reluctantly voted for the health-care bill out of loyalty to his party and his admiration for Barack Obama, privately complained to me that the measure was political folly, in part because of the way it goes into effect: some taxes first, most benefits later, and rate hikes by insurance companies in between.

Besides that, this Democrat said, people who already have coverage will feel threatened and resentful about helping to cover the uninsured—an emotion they will sanitize for the polltakers into a concern about federal spending and debt.

On the day the president signed into law the “fix-it” addendum to the massive health-care measure, two new polls show just how fearful and skeptical Americans are about the entire enterprise. If the numbers stay where they are—and it’s not clear why they will change much between now and November—then the Democrats really are in danger of colossal losses at the polls.

So, just to clarify, some Democratic senator admitted to Fineman that he thinks the bill is political suicide, raises premiums for his constituents, and feeds public anger, but voted for it anyway out of personal and party loyalty? Come on, Fineman, spill the goods so we can give this guy his Profile in Courage award.

I see CQ moved the reelection bid of Rep. Suzanne Kosmas (D-The Part of the Space Coast Set To Lose Thousands of Jobs) from “Leans Democratic” to “Toss Up” and think, “Wait, it wasn’t there already?”

Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, the Democrat who represents all of South Dakota in the House, was one of those lawmakers who I figured knew her constituents well enough to avoid any real political risk. She narrowly won a 2004 special election, and then won 53 percent as Tom Daschle was losing his reelection bid for the Senate later in 2004. Her share of the vote was in the high 60s in 2006 and 2008.

She voted against the health-care bill. She supported removing Charlie Rangel from the Ways and Means chairmanship. She voted against cap-and-trade. But she did vote for the stimulus, and perhaps her constituents are realizing that despite Herseth-Sandlin’s dissents from party orthodoxy, her first vote every year is to empower Nancy Pelosi.

Maybe even a carefully voting Democrat’s luck can run out this year: Rasmussen puts her up by only 2 percentage points against Chris Nelson.

I guess we could call this the Demonsheep effect.

Fans of Jerry Brown — California Nurses Association PAC Committee and Faculty for Our University’s Future, a Committee Sponsored by the California Faculty Association — are putting words in the mouth of Republican candidate Meg Whitman, by using a little animated avatar that reminds me of the Spitting Image puppets.

Really? This is how California unions want to play this — using a grotesque CGI caricature to put words in opponents’ mouths? Because their guy is a 71-year-old who used to hang out with Jim “Drink the Kool-Aid” Jones and whose current speech style is generously described as “rambling” and “slightly senile.”

The great Michael Barone suspects that Midwestern Democrats Earl Pomeroy of North Dakota and Leonard Boswell of Iowa are in trouble.

I’d add one note to his analysis; I’m wondering about how the top-of-the-ticket candidates will impact the House races this year.

In both these races, the House Democrats will be swimming against the tide. In North Dakota, Gov. John Hoeven is running for Senate, and currently clings to a 43-percentage-point lead over Tracy Potter. In Iowa, former governor Terry Branstad leads current governor Chet Culver by 16 percentage points.

Sarah Palin endorsed three military veterans running for the House:

Major Vaughn Ward, a fourth-generation Idaho native who grew up on his family’s farm in Shoshone and is running in Idaho’s 1st Congressional District . . . the second veteran is Captain Adam Kinzinger, a decorated special-operations pilot who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan . . . and Lieutenant Colonel Allen West, a decorated war hero who’s served with distinction in combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are three of the GOP’s candidates with the most interesting biographies, and they’re all running on favorable terrain. Democrat Walt Minnick’s win in Idaho in 2008 was by about 4,000 votes, while McCain was winning 62 percent to 36 percent. He’s the first Democrat to represent Idaho in Congress since 1992, and his upset victory owes a lot to the campaign missteps of Republican Bill Sali and $900,000 of his own money.

According to one poll, Kinzinger is up by 6 over Democrat Debbie Halvorson already. Had Republican candidate Tim Baldermann not suddenly dropped out weeks after winning the primary, this Democrat with close ties Rod Blagojevich might not have won in this narrowly GOP-leaning district.

Finally, Allen West lost, 45 percent to 55 percent, in 2008 while getting outspent more than 4-to-1 against Democrat Ron Klein, in a district rated D+1. Obviously, with better funding and a year less favorable to Democrats, West has a decent shot.

These three challengers are aiming to pick relatively low-hanging fruit. Considering the attention and donations that a Palin endorsement can bring to a candidate, there are probably other Republican candidates hoping she looks beyond the obvious choices . . .

UPDATE: I stand corrected; these are House endorsements two, three, and four from Palin. The first was Sean Duffy in Wisconsin, who is taking on David Obey. Duffy’s a strong candidate, but in a district that Kerry carried narrowly and that Obama carried easily, I wouldn’t put this one in the “low-hanging fruit” category.

A brief excerpt from Tuesday morning’s lengthy Morning Jolt:

That’s Funny, The RNC Hold Music is Devo’s “Whip It.”

You know, I had just been thinking that Michael Steele was enjoying a string of good luck, on account of the fact that we haven’t heard from him in several weeks.

But no matter how many degrees of separation Steele himself is away from the original transaction, this is . . . bad: “The Republican who spent $1,946.25 on “meals” at a bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub – and expensed the charges to chairman Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee – is the owner of a marketing firm who recently worked for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in California, The Daily Caller has learned. Erik Brown, who owns Dynamic Marketing Inc. and within the last year charged the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign more than $10,000 for campaign literature and mailings, was reimbursed by the RNC for the almost $2,000 in charges at Voyeur West Hollywood, according to FEC filings and online reports reviewed by The Daily Caller.” The guys at Red County have more details.

Now, even aside from your views on strippers, lesbians, or S&M, who in their right mind thinks that this is an appropriate business expense? What does he think this is, the DNC? (You think I kid. Remember, Rep. Loretta Sanchez wanted to hold a fundraiser at the Playboy mansion.) . . .

. . . Now, look, if the end result of this mess is that the RNC recruits some Mistress Esmeralda to take on West Hollywood Congressman Henry Waxman, and running on a platform of fiscal discipline and whipping our budget into shape, she beats him – er, at the ballot box in a D+18 district, all is forgiven.

The filing deadline for major-party state candidates in Wyoming is May 28, so Democrats have 61 days to find a candidate to run for governor.

Former Casper Mayor Larry Clapp announced Friday that he won’t run for governor . . . Clapp’s decision comes two days after Cheyenne attorney Paul Hickey also announced he wouldn’t seek the governor’s chair. Gov. Dave Freudenthal is prevented by term limits from running again, and he has said he won’t challenge the term limits law to seek a third term.

Meg Whitman already looked like she had a good handle on the GOP primary for governor of California, but now her top rival, Steve Poizner, has this bit of bad luck:

The Republican who spent $1,946.25 on “meals” at a bondage-themed Hollywood nightclub – and expensed the charges to chairman Michael Steele’s Republican National Committee – is the owner of a marketing firm who most recently worked for a Republican gubernatorial candidate in California, The Daily Caller has learned.

Erik Brown, who owns Dynamic Marketing Inc. and most recently charged the Steve Poizner for Governor campaign more than $10,000 for campaign literature and mailings, was reimbursed by the RNC for the almost $2,000 in charges at Voyeur West Hollywood, according to FEC filings and online reports reviewed by The Daily Caller.

Suggested spin: He misunderstood us; we told him to look into spending restraints.

Then-candidate Barack Obama, October 2, 2007:

Instead of retreating from the world, I will personally lead a new chapter of American engagement. It is time to offer the world a message of hope to counter the prophets of hate. My experience has brought me to the hopeless places. As a boy, I lived in Indonesia and played barefoot with children who could not dream the same dreams that I did.

So how’s that “new chapter of American engagement” in the world’s “hopeless places” working out?

Why, it’s almost as if all that talk during the campaign was so much meaningless blather or something.

Boy, what are the odds of getting a poll response from somebody with this name? “

In a follow-up interview, poll respondent John Murtha, 52, of Orlando said: “I think she did good. I think she does what her job is, and that’s to pull together her people, and get it passed. That would’ve been a hard job if she wasn’t a good, effective speaker.”

Patrick Ruffini sends word: “In the week since Stupak’s fateful vote, opponent Dr. Dan Benishek has raised more than $114,000 in his bid to drop Stupak from Congress.”

In South Carolina, the deadline for filing papers for federal office is Tuesday.

In the state’s U.S. Senate race, three Democrats are competing to take on Sen. Jim DeMint; so far, Michael Ruckes leads the trio with $2,295 raised. Let me head off a million e-mails: Chad McGowan has dropped out of the race.

With Rep. Henry Brown retiring, there’s an open-seat race in the state’s 1st district that has attracted a mere 11 GOP candidates. If money were votes, Carol Campbell III would be well ahead. His father was governor from 1987 to 1995.

In the 2nd district, Joe Wilson has a well-funded challenger who will absorb a great deal of money that the Democrats could spend more wisely elsewhere.

In the 3rd district, Rep. James Gresham Barrett* is running for governor, leaving another free-for-all with five Republicans running in a heavily GOP (R+17) district. State representative Rex Rice leads in fundraising.

In the 4th district, there are no Democrats running against Bob Inglis, but he has several Republican primary challengers.

I’m surprised that Democrat John Spratt hasn’t attracted more opposition in the 5th district (R+7). Mick Mulvaney appears to be the most likely candidate to take on Spratt.

I’m a little bit surprised that so far there’s no GOP sacrifical lamb taking on Majority Whip Jim Clyburn in the 6th district; on the other hand, this is a D+12 district and Clyburn has never gotten less than 64 percent of the vote.

Clearly, this state requires me to spend Easter weekend and some time after that with some on-the-spot reporting.

* I initially referred to him as “James Barrett” but he goes by his middle name Gresham.

Bob Shrum, you’re so predictable. His last words on Meet the Press yesterday:

And by the way, Mike’s right about the economy. The next big thing to watch for are the March job numbers which come out in early April. Show significant job creation. Start recalculating the midterm.

Gee, what could make him suddenly think the March jobs numbers would be important? The Cleveland Plain-Dealer lays out some numbers:

800,000: The number of people the Census Bureau anticipates hiring for temporary work in April and May. The Census Bureau in mid-March will mail Census forms to each household in the United States. Forms not returned will result in door-to-door visits by census workers.

0.5 percentage point: The Commerce Department’s estimate (pdf) of the reduction in the nation’s unemployment rate if all 800,000 people hired are from the unemployed ranks. But if just 75 percent were unemployed, 10 percent were taking on second jobs and 15 percent weren’t previously in the labor market, the drop would be 0.4 percentage point.

So the Census Bureau is going to artificially and temporarily lower the unemployment rate by half a percentage point or so, and Bob Shrum hopes none of us notice this, and we consider it to be evidence of a solid recovery.

Most political hacks are transparent, but Bob Shrum actually lets ultraviolet light pass through, too.

By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements . . .

HEALTH-CARE MANDATES

STATEMENT: “We’ve got a philosophical difference, which we’ve debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don’t have it is not because they don’t want it but because they can’t afford it.” Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.

EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.

HEALTH-CARE NEGOTIATIONS ON C-SPAN

STATEMENT: “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the decisions that are being made.” January 20, 2008, and seven other times.

EXPIRATION DATE: Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2009 and 2010; when John McCain asked about it during the health-care summit February 26, Obama dismissed the issue by declaring, “the campaign is over, John.”

RAISING TAXES

STATEMENT: “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” (multiple times on the campaign trail)

EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: “President Barack Obama said he is ‘agnostic’ about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.”

RECESS APPOINTMENTS

STATEMENT: Then-senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is “damaged goods” and has “less credibility” than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.

EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: “If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis.”

BORDER SECURITY

STATEMENT: “We need tougher border security, and a renewed focus on busting up gangs and traffickers crossing our border. . . . That begins at home, with comprehensive immigration reform. That means securing our border and passing tough employer enforcement laws.” Then-candidate Obama, discussing the need for border security, speaking in Miami on May 23, 2008.

EXPIRATION DATE: March 17, 2010: The Obama administration halted new work on a “virtual fence” on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.

GUANTANAMO BAY

STATEMENT: Executive order stating, “The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order.” January 22, 2009.

EXPIRATION DATE:  November 19, 2009: “Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed.”

MILITARY TRIBUNALS

STATEMENT: “Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles.” September 27, 2006

EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. “President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder’s decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.”

RECOVERY.GOV

STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009

EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going . . . The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn’t have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009

Eighteen from his first 100 days:

1. “As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

2. “I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA].“

3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that “labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis.”

4. “Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”

5. “If we see money being misspent, we’re going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it.“

6. “Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off.”

7. “I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper.”

8. “[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell.”

9. “Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online.”

10. “We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress’s seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”

11. “If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime.  I repeat: not one single dime.”

12. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights.”

13. “We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights.”

14. “Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!“

15. “The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result.”

16. “I’ll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we’ll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills.”

17. “Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.” Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.

18. A special one on the 100th day, “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That’s the first thing I’d do.”

And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:

IRAQ

STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that [Obama has] crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”

Also: July 3, 2008: “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I’ve said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe,” Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. “And my guiding approach continues to be that we’ve got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I’m going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold.”

STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign-policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look “complete garbage.”

EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he’s elected president.”

DEBATES

STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: “If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world, that is a conversation I’m happy to have.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day — the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”

IRAN

STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE:  “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny . . . They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008

STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?”

“I would,” Obama answered. July 27, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign-policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”

JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED

STATEMENT: “I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother.”

–Barack Obama, March 18, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, Obama cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “Based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.”

STATEMENT: Obama said on March 18, 2008, that his church, Trinity United, “embodies the black community in its entirety” and was being caricatured.

EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.

JIM JOHNSON

STATEMENT: Criticism of running-mate vetter Jim Johnson’s loan from Countrywide was “a game” and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson’s resignation.

FISA

STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”

NUCLEAR ENERGY

STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007

EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.

NAFTA

STATEMENT:  Tim Russert:: “Senator Obama . . .  Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, ‘This has not worked for us; we are out’?”

Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton’s answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE:  June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “’Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,’ he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA ‘devastating’ and ‘a big mistake,’ despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.

“Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? ‘Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don’t exempt myself,’ he answered.

“‘I’m not a big believer in doing things unilaterally,’ Obama said. ‘I’m a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people.’”

PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”

EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.

WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING

STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I’m the nominee, at the point where it’s appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, Febuary 27.

EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public-financing pledge on June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.

WELFARE REFORM

STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems.” Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997

EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.

GAY MARRIAGE

STATEMENT: “Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states . . . Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club

PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION

STATEMENT: “Now, I don’t think that ‘mental distress’ qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term.” – interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.”  — statement to reporters.

DIVISION OF JERUSALEM

STATEMENT: “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” – speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008

EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: “Jerusalem is a final-status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties” as part of “an agreement that they both can live with.” – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post.

This morning, the Washington Post features a lengthy article on health-care protesters gathering outside the home of Rep. Steve Dreihaus, Ohio Democrat.

Kids don’t choose their parents, and so it’s unfortunate that the Driehaus brood has to hear people chanting outside. Still, the article notes that it’s never more than three at a time, and the local tea parties are saying they discouraged their members from protesting at the congressman’s home.

Having said that, I wonder what, exactly, Driehaus expected. The health-care bill polled abysmally in his district, with 55 percent saying they’re less likely to vote for him if he voted for the bill with its abortion provisions and only 23 percent saying more likely. When you declare that you know better, and you brush off widely and deeply held views like that, you can’t expect your constituents to just shrug their shoulders and declare, “Okey-dokey.”

But then the article includes this gem:

The west Cincinnati neighborhood is predominantly Republican, and Driehaus did not win his precinct when elected two years ago, said his brother-in-law Zeek Childers, who lives a half-mile down the road. Strong support from the more urban part of the congressional district gave him the edge. “It’s bad down here,” Childers said. “This area of Steve’s district is much more conservative. The black community loves him. Labor loves him. The old white guys hate him. You got that out here.”

There’s a racial component to the protesters, alleged the candidate’s brother-in-law.

By the way, Driehaus’s district is 66 percent white and almost 13 percent over age 65.

Two revealing comments from Aetna CEO Ron Williams in an interview with BusinessWeek out now:

Will insurance premiums go up?
The answer is yes, and some of the things that will drive those premiums are significant additional taxes the industry will ultimately have to pay in the first year.

The President said that this bill would not have any impact on people who already had coverage, that it was about the uninsured, that there would be no change. Will this legislation change the coverage of people who are already paying for it?
My perception is, yes, things will change. You might not have a plan that includes the exact same doctors. You might have plans that have richer benefits, and therefore you’re going to pay more for benefits you may or may not want. It would have been a better message to say, we’re going to make certain you maintain your eligibility.

Higher premiums, and your plan may change, even if you like it as it is. Basically, the health-care bill is set to deliver the exact opposite of what President Obama promised.

Everybody, sing along! “All statements from Barack Obama come with an expiration date. All of them.”