BLANCHE LINCOLN, ON THE ROPES? “A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Arkansas shows Lincoln’s support for reelection at 38% or 39% no matter which of four potential Republican challengers she is matched against. . . . The White House and the Democratic leadership have been telling their colleagues that health care is their political salvation, the only way of heading off the coming tidal wave election. But the voters don’t seem to agree.”

UPDATE: Related: Blanche Lincoln Rips Ben Nelson for ObamaCare Kickback. “Is that … a threat to vote no? That’d be an uncharacteristically shrewd move on Lincoln’s part, if so. Instead of being the disloyal Democrat who panicked at crumbling public support for the bill, she could torpedo it, save her own skin in the process, and frame herself as the crusader for good government whose conscience simply won’t permit her to endorse such bribe-taking. The left won’t even hassle her much over it since they hate the bill too. In fact, not only does she have political cover, she has some legal cover as well: Just as I’m writing this, I got a tip that Oklahoma’s Democratic state attorney general is joining the 13 Republican state AGs who want Nelson’s kickback investigated. This is your escape hatch, Blanche!”