The tone he struck calibrated the absolute fact that we are “at war.” The magnitude of his message must not be lost. He called out the CIA and others who had failed to “connect the dots” to the terrorist who had been trained in Yemen.

In essence, the power to enact significant legislation has passed to a few Senators (e.g. Joe Lieberman), whose swing votes were garnered by making major concessions to important provisions within the bill. A lasting legacy of the 2009 health care reform debate will most likely be anger among partisans on both sides of the aisle.