HCR Countdown: Trench Warfare

Maybe the Somme is a better analogy than Waterloo.

4:29 PM, Mar 19, 2010 • By MATTHEW CONTINETTI

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The health care debate is beginning to resemble trench warfare. You have two camps -- the Yeses and the Nos. They spend most of their time launching artillery attacks on the opposing position. Every so often, though, a soldier traverses No Man's Land as he rushes to join the other side.

A ration party of the Royal Irish Rifles in a communication trench during the Battle of the Somme

Imperial War Museum Collection

So far four Nos have joined the Yeses. But there is a larger, much more undefined, group of Yeses slowly crawling across the barren wasteland toward the No trench.

Fox says Pelosi is one or two votes away from victory. Don't believe it. Jeffrey H. Anderson puts the count at 203-214 and writes: "Don't forget the other wavering representatives, all of whom have yet to cast their votes. Let's make this a triumph of American democracy. Let's make Sunday a day when — at long last — the will of the people, expressed by their representatives, resounds victoriously."

On Sunday the cannons cease. And we find out who's left standing on either side.