The Biggest Loser

After last night’s stunning defeat, the Obama White House is likely to blame others first, and ask hard questions later. But in the coming weeks, someone close to the President will pay dearly.

Years ago, Martha Coakley told the Boston Globe that if things didn’t work out with her political career, she would “retire to Martha’s Vineyard and write murder mysteries.” Reason magazine’s Michael C. Moynihan recently quipped that he was looking forward to her literary debut.

Last night’s stunning defeat of a Democratic candidate who once led by 30+ points will have fallout. Of course, the Obama White House is likely to blame others first, and ask hard questions later. Among the early fall guys: the next great novelist from Martha’s Vineyard, much of anyone associated with the Republican Party, and maybe even the underwear bomber.

But in the coming weeks, with such a humiliating loss behind them, someone close to the President will pay dearly.

Here’s my bet: the geek with the charts.

OMB Dir. Peter Orszag is one of the most public faces to President Obama’s efforts to overhaul American healthcare.

He is also the person who’s run out of allies. He’s enraged liberals with his belief that health reform really is about “bending the curve” – to use his trademark expression – changing their moral crusade into a fiscal debate. And, as for the pragmatists in the Obama White House, Mr. Orszag is hopelessly associated now with the biggest domestic policy disaster since Hillary Clinton’s 1994 healthcare debacle.

For weeks, there have been rumors in Washington that the President is thinking about shaking up his economic team. Post-January 19 that may well mean that Mr. Orszag will be deciding to spend more time with his family.