Now that we’re all being herded into Soviet gulags because we can see the doctor, there’s trouble afoot. Do you see it? Can you hear it? The foul wind it blows. The clouds chafe, then they scatter. Like the weather. ‘I used to like the weather,’ he thought. A baleful dog barks. It bales. The crow hiccups. ‘Don’t ever tell a Navy man he’s had too much to drink’ it says. She is dying because I loved her too much. I HAD TO KILL HER. The Supreme Court, they said. That’s what they all say.

Noonan: Obama Has a Good Day
But liberty has a bad one.
DECLARATIONS | Wall Street Journal

ObamaCare, including the insurance mandate, was upheld. What would have been a political disaster for President Obama has been averted. He has not been humiliated, and the centerpiece of his efforts the past 3½ years has not been rebuked by the Supreme Court.

And yet. I feel as if there’s something more to this. Something . . else.

The ruling strikes me as very bad for the atmosphere of freedom in our country, the sense of freeness and lazy, sloppy liberty we’ve long maintained with some hiccups along the way. Those hiccups seem to come more and more now, and closer and closer together.

‘She stole my hiccups’ he realized. ‘I should read this crap before I blog it’ he thought. No. It was too late for that.

There will be a downside: The president is left carrying the burden defending a bill nobody likes. It certainly has the worst public reputation of any new government program of my lifetime.

I suppose the War in Iraq wasn’t a program. Nor was Vietnam. And then he remembered Peggy Noonan’s face. Yes, the War of 1812 was fairly popular. Nice try.

Those already insured will find their coverage “more secure and more affordable,” insurance companies will provide “free preventive care like checkups and mammograms,” “seniors” and “young adults” will receive benefits, those with pre-existing conditions will no longer be denied coverage. Also, the insurance companies “won’t be able to charge you more just because you’re a woman.”

It was a targeted base-greaser.

‘Say, are you talking about me?’ he wondered. ‘That’s not my thing.’ He protested. He protested too much. ‘Something’s greased,’ Peggy thought. She knew.

The president had a good day, the first in a long time, in months.

Is it too late for him to change his image to modest and moderate man of the center who’s only trying to do what’s best for America?

Can we bomb Tehran? ‘I think so,’ he replied. They’re still around. We still have bombs.

Because that’s what he’s trying to do. He’s in a perfect position now to tell the leftwardmost parts of his base that he’s given them plenty and suffered for it, it’s time they got in line.

‘That would be good,’ Peggy thought. ‘After giving America tetanus shots, he could balance it. He could go blow up Iran.’ Yes.

‘Very good. Strong, and centrist.’ Her thinker shoulders did ache. She thought way more. To sink in her big chair. And pour a glass. ‘It would be good for him,’ she thought.