Stopped Clock Is Right Alert

Today's contestant:  Townhall's Conn Carroll, giving the most blunt assessment yet as to why Republicans have no alternative to Obamacare and won't even try until 2016:

1. Democrats Are Dying for a Villain to Run Against. President Obama is at his most effective when he has an opponent to demonize. Right now, he doesn't really have one, other than the insurance companies, and he needs them as allies or Obamacare will completely collapse. 

That is why, as The Washington Post's Greg Sargent reported Wednesday, "the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is set to launch a new campaign designed to refocus the debate on the Republican position on health care, which Dems will widely label as 'Cruz Care.'" 

It doesn't matter what the actual policies in any Republican plan are, Democrats will label whatever Republicans come up with as "Cruz Care." Democrats will then tie Cruz, who is highly unpopular among independents across the country, to every Republican candidate. Why would Republicans want to help Democrats do this? 

2. Congressional Republicans are not Popular. Americans' opinion of Congress has never been lower. That will color any solution congressional Republicans present. If you are a candidate challenging a Democratic incumbent, why would you want to defend a plan created by a body with an 11 percent approval rating? 

3. Obama will veto any Republican plan anyway. Obama has already made it abundantly clear that he will veto any health care law that he believes would undermine Obamacare. The only Obamacare fixes Obama will not veto, are fixes that would expand the size and scope of the federal government. Any Republican plan that could pass the House would have to go in the polar opposite direction, shrinking the size and scope of the federal government.

You know what?  Carroll is completely correct here, which means that the Clown Hall crew is in fact occasionally capable of rational discourse.  The only people who can't run on health care more than the Democrats are congressional Republicans, who have an approval rating somewhere between "Being chained to a desk and forced to write the script for The Hangover Part 4" and "Oh boy, chewy tinfoil for everyone!"

And you know what?  I'm betting that reason number 2 there will prevent any GOP hopefuls in 2016 from presenting any plans then, either.