Hillarysworld

Where were you when you came to the panicky realization that Hillary Clinton was right?

For me, it was while driving to work one recent morning and talking with a colleague about the state of the health legislation. I was explaining how the Obama plan wasn’t really about universal coverage but rather cutting a deal with the insurance industry and then making it look good for liberals.

I paused, realizing that I had just repeated, almost verbatim, the lines that Clinton used to bludgeon  then-Sen. Barack Obama during the Democratic primaries.

As they debated in Cleveland — the nastiest of their one-on-one matchups after John Edwards dropped out to spend more time with his families — Clinton charged that Obama wouldn’t play tough enough and would get rolled by the insurance industry.

Her words came back to me: “Senator Obama’s plan does not cover everyone. It would leave, give or take, 15 million people out.”

I expected to look into the rearview mirror and see her sitting in the back seat cackling and wearing that suit that looked like it had been plucked from the wardrobe trailer of “Star Trek: The Next Generation.”

I shuddered as I did the math. The plan backed by the White House would cover about 94 percent of Americans, leaving about 15 million without coverage. And as an added injury, under the Obama plan, the uninsured will now be paying fines for the offense of not being able to afford what will be more expensive coverage.

Not that Clinton’s plan would have been an idyll of Austrian economics and American self-reliance.

The weight of her mandate would have crushed businesses and young workers with a vengeance, but it would have been real, honest socialism. And everyone would have been covered.

With the mumbling, accidental socialism of Obama, the insurance companies get richer and the middle class gets to pay more for less care. And what the working stiffs don’t pay, senior citizens will sacrifice in the form of Medicare cuts.

That’s why so many liberals are now remembering Clinton’s other line from the Ohio primary of March 2008: “Shame on you, Barack Obama.”

Most conservatives had their moment of regret for Clinton’s loss long ago when they realized that Obama was completely out his depth.

It started during the period of “The Office of the President-Elect” and continued as Google proved better at vetting members of the administration than the transition team.

You're over a year too late, Chris.