The only immutable law of the universe, political as well as
physical, is the law of unintended consequences. History is replete
with examples of leaders heading off in one direction only to find
themselves elsewhere. It's sort of Heisenberg's uncertainty
principle applied to human behavior. Once we form a plan its very
existence changes the facts on which the plan, is based and sends
us sideways.
Witness for example the President's decision to pursue
aggressively healthcare reform in the first months of his first
term. (Yes, Virginia, there will be a second term). This decision
sent Congress home for the summer recess with healthcare the focus
of a fierce blowback against Washington that literally roared into
the town hall meetings of August. It was in the cauldron of those
meetings that the inchoate anger amongst a largely exurban swath of
the American public bubbled up into an organized Tea Party
movement. In the most American manner imaginable, the Tea
