not realistic. Take the following:

Pass healthcare reform, for example. That would be (no pun intended) a huge shot in the arm for Dems of all stripes, demonstrating to skeptical voters that they can indeed govern effectively. Ditto for financial regulation, which is a golden opportunity to harness some populist anger against the financial industry. All Congress has to do is stand up to the finance lobby1 and put some serious constaints on Wall Street's ability to screw people. Think that won't be popular?

When was this written? It is too late to reform the financial sector: the time to do it was back in January when Obama took office. But he timidly punted and also appointed foxes to guard the henhouse. The current healthcare "reform" mandates that individuals buy their own insurance from privaye companies. Up to 50 million new customers will be handed over to the same insurance companies which already take 30% of every private healthcare dollar we spend. That's hundreds of billions annually to middlemen. If we truly wanted to save money, we would have cut them out of the action, not give them 50 million new customers...and penalize those who refuse to buy insurance. That's fascism.

No, I'm not willing to support this so-called reform just because it might temporarily make Democrats look good.