Faced with a fork in the road, President Obama and the Democrats have decided to take it, trying to do two things at once: rekindle the glow of the 2008 rapture, and recapture the rage of the town halls a year later, and unleash it, this time for their side. Phase one is not going brilliantly, as one can run on Hope and Change only once in one’s lifetime, and after that Change means voting oneself out of office.

Phase two — the hope that the Medicare-cutting plan advanced by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan will kindle the rage-in-reverse that Obamacare once did — may also be problematic.