McConnell & McCain's famous thumbs-down on the ACA repeal.

[OneBro]

I think it was a ruse. A fake. A con.
I think republicans needed cover for years of promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but they knew it was be costly to abruptly yank healthcare away from people who were finally getting the help they needed.
I don't think McConnell would have called the vote without securing the votes first, and he sure as hell wouldn't have stood in the galley as its poster boy unless he knew he had the votes. No, I don't think Mitch was standing there as some sort of bully to keep his folks in line. I think McCain's thumbs-down and McConnell's dramatic facial expression was all theater. And by all appearances, it worked.

[brooklynite]

1. I don't find McConnell to be that clever.

[OneBro]

2. And yet, Gorsuch is on the US Supreme Court.

There is a cost to underestimating their skills at going lower each time we go higher.

[brooklynite]

4. ...becausee of brute force politics, not clever theater.

[unblock]

8. exactly. thug is pretty much the opposite of clever.

[Bok_Tukalo]

3. 99.999% of the time, what is happening in front of you

... is what, in fact, is happening.

My two cents.

[OneBro]

5. Which reminds me of a Karl Rove quote.

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

[BannonsLiver]

6. I think you're overthinking it.

[OneBro]

7. Maybe. Or is it being underthunk?