Before posting the article here, I submitted it to, and was posted at, The American Thinker. It’s a conservative-leaning site with good opinion pieces. Check it out.

House Speaker Pelosi has been named “the most powerful woman in American history,” and others are congratulating Pelosi for her win with Health Care Reform (HCR).

After thinking back how HCR came about on the legislative side, we may need to conclude that the REAL winner is Senate majority leader Harry Reid . Here’s why:

Having sixty out of hundred seats in the Senate is certainly a large majority, but considering that sixty votes were needed to block a Republican HCR filibuster, it was a master piece of work on Reid’s part to get each and every duck in line to vote for Reform! He didn’t have one vote to lose and indeed he secured them all!

Pelosi on the other hand, has now a 37-seat majority, yet HCR passed in the House by a slim margin of only four votes. When her bill passed a few months ago, she had a larger majority in the House, but there again it passed by only a handful of votes. We can all be certain that the least competent Speaker with a sweeping majority can get enough members to vote for anything he/she wants.

If 216 votes are needed to pass a bill, it is not called “getting your House in line” and it is not big shtick when you secure only 219 votes while having 253 to your disposal, and when the Transportation Department sends grants – on the eve of the vote – to the district of a Congressman who ties up ten votes against you.

Furthermore, Pelosi said time and again that the final bill will have the Public Option, and other things that the Leftist House wanted and passed in their original version. At the end of the day, however, Pelosi passed Reid’s bill; not her own. Pelosi caved to Reid; she did NOT get the things she promised herself that she will get.

Finally, to those who think that Pelosi secured her place in positive history with this reform, let me ask you two things: 1) Do you know who the Speaker of the House was when Social Security passed? 2) Do you know who the Speaker of the House was when Medicare/Medicaid passed? You don’t know, and neither do most Americans know! In fact, approximately 40% Americans in a poll released this week have not heard enough about Pelosi to have an opinion on her!

All in all, if anyone showed leadership, and if anyone had a success with this Reform, it is Reid, not Pelosi.

Whichever way the final Health Care Reform bill shapes up to be, the Democrats are doomed.

If it has a full scale public option, it cannot get 60 votes to end debate in The Senate due to a few moderates. If it does not have the public option, the conference bill won’t pass the House due to a few dozen liberals.

Now let’s move to politics: if the bill passes, the Republicans will campaign the next twelve months that starting in ’10, the legislation cuts too much from Medicare, raises too much tax despite that the HCR benefits start only a few years later. If President Obama does not sign the bill, the base on the Left will be mad like hell, and this likely translate into trouble for the Dems come November.

All this is directly the fault of Obama, Ried and Pelosi who did zero-to-nothing to have real bipartisan support on this issue. Now it is time that they eat their own.

Are you buying Gold these days? I mean really, can you go by listening to a talk show host, flipping an advertisement magazine, or have a talk with friends without the Gold issue (and the need to buy it) being mentioned?

Considering that the US dollar is plunging, I think Gold is indeed a valued commodity, but if you don’t have money, i.e. U.S. dollars to cover your weekly and monthly bills, why would you stash up on Gold? To be protected for doomsday? You don’t have money as is, so why does it make a difference to you if the dollar slides even more and Gold rises to $1,400 an ounce? Furthermore, Gold is an investment, so as long you don’t have money to buy stocks, or whatever thing you dream of investing, you should not be carried away by the talk of GOLD. It is just not made for you. End of discussion.

My point here is, that if you are a poor man out there with no extra money, the Gold Rush is not cut out for you, regardless in what context it is: If you look at it as a safety reserve for a doomed era, you will be better off stacking up on food, drinks and medications, or perhaps going on with life as is and wait for Pelosi to help you. If you look at Gold as a rising investment, you had and still have a better chance of doubling and tripling your money faster by jumping into a few good stocks available on Wall St, rather than buying Gold.

All in all I am saying, If you are an average earner, do yourself a favor and let the Gold rise or fall without your participation, just as the price of AIG shares went this year from $22 to $9, before rising again to above $37 a piece without your participation. Ouch, I just killed you: The AIG stock doubled and quadrupled at a time when Gold didn’t even do half as good.

Following the election results a few days ago, November third, Speaker Pelosi said ‘we won’?  You remember how the Republicans mocked her for this statement?

well wel well, Pelosi did indeed win that night – she won the Health Care Reform bill. Had the Republicans won on Tuesday the two open congressional seats, the final HCR vote would have failed in a 218-217 vote. Here is how:

The current bill passed in a 220-215 vote. Among the Ayes, were Dem Representative Bill Owens who won Tuesday NY’s 23 congressional seat, held until now by a Republican. Also voting Aye was Dem Rep. John Garamendi, who won an open seat in California, held until now by a Democrat. Had Republicans (or Conservatives in NY-23) won these two seats, the Dems HCR tally would have been cut to 218 votes, and the Republicans’ would have gone to 217.

Then there is the Aye vote by Joseph Cao, a freshman Republican from Louisiana. If you noticed, he only voted for the bill, once the score board showed that the Dems anyway had the 218 votes, which means, if not for that, one might conclude that he would have not given the Dems the deciding vote. Instead, he would have voted with the Repubs giving them 218, leaving the Dems with 217.

Good point. Right? Yes it is, but let me destroy it: A handful of Dems voted against the bill, but only after they saw the 218 mark on the screen. Which means, if not for that, maybe one or two of them would have not given their vote on the NO side. Instead they would voted Aye handing Pelosi the current 220 win. After all, as of 8:45 Eastern, it was reported that 34 Dems (not 39 as it was in final) will vote against the bill.

Go figure. But seeing how Owens, Garamendi and Cao voted, you can’t help but admit that Pelosi did indeed win last week Tuesday night.