Goodbye, little buddy.

I’m not Raul Grijalva or Jerry Nadler, but I thought I’d try to respond to TPM reader MD’s “sob story” (as MD called it) because the story illustrates the issues at stake in health care reform.

Meet 51: it’s the new 60.

Harry Reid stands boldly behind Ben Bernanke’s nomination to continue as Fed Chair, with a statement of support issued by his office late on a Friday afternoon. Yeah, that’s a real ringing endorsement. Meanwhile, the FDIC keeps eating banks and the unemployment in NV continues to grow.

Poll results show that Massachusetts voters punished Democrats for neglecting the issue most vital to them: jobs. The message of Massachusetts should be clear: If Democrats want to save their own jobs in the mid-term elections this fall, they must create jobs now.

The push to demonize all those who want the Senate health care reform bill to be fixed is in full swing. But all that demonization won’t counter the very real electoral damage that will be suffered by those Democrats who embrace the Senate HCR bill in its current form — and not just in the House, either, as Martha Coakley showed last week.

I hope everyone is enjoying the year thus far. There has been a lot of pain and adversity for many, but I am trying to remain positive. I have started my bout of trying to lose the rest of my weight and getting healthy. Rashad will be running around soon and I have to be able to catch him.

Featuring new videos from Gil Scott-Heron and Melissa Auf der Maur.

To be honest, the year has not been as solidly unpleasant as that morning—we do have those green shoots, that too-small stimulus package that kept this dreadful recession from diving into a deeper depression, for instance—but it has been just as disappointing. From the inability to close Guantanamo, to the unacceptable decision to continue a policy of indefinite detentions; from the remote-controlled predator war in Pakistan, to the all-too-human escalation in Afghanistan; from the failure to really put the Justice Department back in order, to the revelation that, earlier this month, said DoJ retroactively legalized Bush-era collaborations between telecoms and the FBI that saw thousands of Americans spied upon without justification or court order; and, of course, from the campaign promises of serious health care reform, through all the twists, turns, distractions, and outright lies that have turned what should have been a signature moment into a shameful soap opera, this first year of the Obama Administration has been about misdirection, missed opportunities, and missing leadership.

The polls out of Massachusetts make it pretty clear that the voters there want Obama to be more progressive, not less. Which Democrats have gotten the message, and which ones are still in denial?