Obama’s arm-twisting works wonders on the little leftist from Ohio:
“In the past week it’s become clear that the vote on the final bill will be very close,” Kucinich, who voted No last time because of the lack of the public option, said at a presser moments ago. He acknowleged that he’d be voting “not on the bill as I would like to see it, but as it is.”
“However, after careful discussions with President Obama, Speaker Pelosi” and others, Kucinich said, “I’ve decided to cast a vote in favor of the legislation.”
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air:
Obviously, having one former no vote swing to yes doesn’t mean Nancy Pelosi can pass the bill. It does, however, create a sense of momentum. Kucinich, as one of the most loony of the progressive caucus, provides cover for those progressives more connected to reality to follow suit and switch their votes to yes.
Campaign for Liberty accuses Kucinich of hypocrisy:
If Kucinich were really as principled as he believes himself to be, he would have cast a “no” vote on this legislation for precisely the same reasons he articulated on ‘Countdown’ last week.
Kucinich had a chance to prove that he “walks the walk” but instead let the intense pressure from the powers that be sway his opinion.
UPDATE: This just in — Dennis Kucinich’s wife is still hot. You got to give the guy credit for that, eh?
Meanwhile, CNN reports “no” votes from five other Democrats whose wives aren’t nearly as hot as Elizabeth Kucinich.
The Nose On Your Face dubs the Kucinich deal the “Klingon Kickback.”
“As Kucinich goes, so goes Uranus.”
UPDATE II: Michelle Malkin damns Kucinich with his own words:
“This bill represents a giveaway to the insurance industry,” Kucinich told MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell. “$70 billion a year, and no guarantees of any control over premiums, forcing people to buy private insurance…I’m sorry, I just don’t see that this bill is the solution.”
Kucinich: He was against the $70 billion giveaway to the insurance industry before he was for it! But don’t worry, nobody on the Left will hold Kucinich accountable. If they weren’t gullible sheep, they wouldn’t be on the Left in the first place.
UPDATE III: From Kucinich’s statement:
I believe health care is a civil right.
Yeah? Well, some people may believe a 6-foot-tall redheaded wife 30 years younger is a civil right, but do the math, Dennis: There’s just not enough to go around.
You can’t conjure up goods and services merely by proclaiming your belief that these things are a “civil right.” This is the basic problem with socialism: Eventually, you run out of other people’s money.
UPDATE IV: The American Spectator‘s health-care ace Philip Klein:
The media will make a lot of noise about this because Kucinich is the first “no” vote to publicly switch to “yes,” but we shouldn’t be surprised that a single-payer advocate would support a bill that’s such a major step toward government-run health care.
As I’ve said all along, the question is not whether, with this one piece of legislation, liberals achieve their dream of a government-run health care system. The important point is that it moves the United States in that direction.
One of the commenters notes that Michelle Obama has enlisted Mrs. Kucinich for her anti-obesity crusade:
Now that Michelle Obama has made curbing childhood obesity the rage, another effort with a similar wow factor is pressing the case for schools to provide healthful foods to replace the sugary and fatty products the first lady wants to send to the principal’s office.
To publicize a bill being dropped Thursday to push school cafeteria veggies, promoters are rolling out dishy actress Scarlett Johansson and redheaded activist Elizabeth Kucinich to talk up the bennies of “plant-based meals.”
“We’re trying to drive healthy eating,” says Kucinich, who’s married to Rep. Dennis Kucinich, the one-time Democratic presidential candidate. She represents the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which is whipping up support for Rep. George Miller’s Healthy School Meals Act of 2010. . . .
Their efforts run in parallel with the first lady’s antiobesity campaign, which comes at the issue from another direction. “We are absolutely working parallel, in tandem,” said Kucinich . . .
Just a coincidence, I’m sure . . .
UPDATE V: Byron York reports that the count is 209 “no,” 204 “yes” and 18 undecided, according to GOP sources. That means the undecideds have to break 2-to-1 “yes” in order to pass the bill. Hot Air says the whip count means Pelosi is in trouble.
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