Sometime over the summer, it was suggested that the Democrats should aim for decent health-insurance reform, since the Public Option (itself a pre-compromise of Single Payer or Medicare for All) was likely to get twisted out of recognition, if not existence.

Tuesday night’s developments — regarding the Gang of Ten senators, selected by Harry Reid to conjure a 60-vote solution to the healthcare bill, which is on the Senate floor and still needs to survive a filibuster to reach an actual vote, after which it will go to a conference committee to iron out differences with the House bill, and then…

THUMP.

Er, sorry. Could somebody help carry that reader out of the room? Thank you.

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We don’t normally buy into conspiracy theories, but a story breaking Monday is making us reconsider our position:

A safety scare involving the holiday season’s hottest toy cooled off Monday after federal safety regulators quickly put to rest claims that one model of the best-selling Zhu Zhu Pets contained high levels of antimony…

Last week, consumer website GoodGuide said its testing had shown that Mr. Squiggles, one of the Zhu Zhu robotic hamsters that have been selling out at stores nationwide, contained levels of antimony above what the federal government considers acceptable.

For the record, the Nojo Hamster meets all quality standards of the Consumer Blogging Safety Commission. Reports of the Nojo Hamster containing excessive levels of antagonism are unfounded, especially compared to the Michael Moore Bobblehead, which has been known to explode when handled improperly.

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Barack Obama, Tuesday:

these additional American and international troops will allow us to accelerate handing over responsibility to Afghan forces, and allow us to begin the transfer of our forces out of Afghanistan in July of 2011.

Robert Gibbs, Wednesday:

After the briefing, Gibbs went to the president for clarification. Gibbs then called me to his office to relate what the president said. The president told him it IS locked in – there is no flexibility. Troops WILL start coming home in July 2011. Period. It’s etched in stone. Gibbs said he even had the chisel.

Robert Gates, Sunday:

Because we will have a significant — we will have 100,000 forces — troops there. And they are not leaving — in July of 2011. Some handful or some small number or whatever the conditions permit, we’ll begin to withdraw at that time.

Woof.

We hate to let a good idea go to waste, and Pedonator’s inspiration the other night deserves more than languishing in an off-topic comment thread.

So let’s catch up.

Our project is to crowdsource a Sarah Palin biopic. But not just any movie — a musical.

It’s such a fabulous idea, we’re afraid to mention it in public without registering it first with the Writers Guild. Think Sound of Music meets Little Shop of Horrors. Think Gypsy meets Rocky Horror. Think My Fair Talibunny.

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A recurring theme of our recent blathering has been disappointment: Not that Barack Obama isn’t living up to our impossibly high standards (we’ve expressed serious reservations for more than a year), but that we’re finding it increasingly difficult to get excited about anything he does. Symbolically and substantively, it’s one misfire after another.

Yes, we know he’s not John McCain, and we’re grateful for that. Just as the Nobel committee is grateful he’s not George W. Bush. But relief will only take you so far.

We didn’t sign up for that. We signed up for what we hoped would be a refreshing generational change in American politics. Although Sarah Palin quickly disabused us of that fantasy.

Still: Has it really come to this? Is the best we can say about Obama that he’s not one of them?

We’re looking for some help here. What have we overlooked? What about Obama truly represents a force for good, and not just a coffeebreak from evil? What remains to keep us from retreating into comfy cynicism?

And no, Bo doesn’t count.

Tuesday night, Barack Obama announced his decision to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, he did little to explain it.

We read the transcript a few times after watching the speech, thinking that maybe we missed something during the excitement of discovering drinking games. What were we looking for? A reason.

Not just any reason — a good reason. Something meaty, something justifiable, even if we disagreed with it. We understand that a speech can’t be a detailed position paper — but if you’re addressing the nation on matters of life and death (never mind the treasure), you can take the time to make the case. Especially if you’re The Greatest Orator of Our Generation.

And what did we find? Alas, not much:

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Barack Obama is going to give a great speech tonight. That’s what he does. That’s what put him on the national stage. That’s what won him the election.

We like good speeches. It’s been a long time since we could enjoy them in American politics. We were too young to listen to Jack. We were too young to understand Bobby. Teddy could deliver a stemwinder, but his speeches were very Old School, a voice from a dying generation. Nobody younger could get away with that.

But as much as we enjoy Obama’s speeches, it pains us to say we don’t trust them. Not any more. Our immediate response to the healthcare speech was simple and direct: “Great speech. But what happens tomorrow?” Get us excited about high ideals, and that just magnifies the disappointment when the practical policies don’t live up to them.

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