Ken Berwitz

One of the most interesting scenes in the movie "Working Girl" is where Harrison Ford's character insists on continuing his partneship with Melanie Griffith's character on a major deal, after it has been discovered that she is not a real "player" but an ambitious secretary trying to get ahead.  The businessman they've been negotiating with (played by the wonderful Philip Bosco) asks, with a mixture of sarcasm and incredulity, "are you trying to blow this deal"?

In the movie, thiings worked out just fine.  That's what happens in movies.

But in real life, decisions that appear to be terrible usually are terrible, and the Harrison Ford character usually damages himself and the people around him. 

I couldn't help thinking about that scene when I read the article from the Associated Press, via Fox News, which I have excerpted below:

Obama Hasn't Ruled Out NYC Trial for 9/11 Planner

President said he has not ruled out a New York federal court trial for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Sunday he has not ruled out a New York federal court trial for Sept. 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but he was taking into account the objections of the city's mayor and police commissioner.

The Obama administration has come under withering attack, mainly from Republicans, for a decision by his Justice Department to try the terrorist mastermind in a U.S. court near Ground Zero, site of the attack that destroyed New York's World Trade Center.

Obama said using the traditional judicial method was a "virtue of our system" in which Americans should take pride.

He also defended his decision, noting again that the administration of former President George W. Bush had handled terror suspects arrested in the United States in the same way.

"They prosecuted 190 folks in these Article III courts, got convictions and those folks are in maximum security prisons right now. And there have been no escapes," Obama said. "And it is a virtue of our system we should be proud of."

Later Sunday, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., responded: "Based on the security, logistical and cost concerns raised by the mayor and the police commissioner, it is not feasible to have the trials in New York. The administration should realize that and move on."

In a pre-Super Bowl interview with CBS' Katie Couric, Obama also said that passing health care reform remained the key to bringing down America's skyrocketing budget deficit. He said he was calling Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to a meeting later this month to thoroughly air the issue.

"The biggest thing, the most important thing we can do on deficits ... is to get a health reform package passed," Obama said.

Obama is reaching out again to Republicans on health care reform, despite their unanimous opposition and the election of a new GOP senator who gives the party the necessary votes to block a Senate vote on the overhaul package.

He also said negotiations in Congress that gave special concessions to Democratic Sens. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Ben Nelson of Nebraska in return for their health care votes "did not help. They frustrate me."

"I would have loved nothing better than to have come up with some very elegant, academically approved approach to health care and didn't have any legislative fingerprints on it," he said. "But hey, that's the way democracy works."

The country is telling Barack Obama that it does not want khalid sheikh mohammed tried in civil court.  Even New York politicians who initially supported the decision are begging him not to do it, now that they've seen the polls. 

And as for health care, also known as "ObamaCare"?  Exactly the same situation.  This country has turned emphatically against what the President is selling them. 

But there is that Obama ego.  That immense ego.  To back off on khalid sheikh mohammed, and/or ObamaCare, is to say "I was wrong".  And this is a man who does not like being wrong. 

Look, no one likes to admit mistakes - as our wonderful "neutral" media reminded us almost daily When George Bush was President.  But it seems pretty evident that Barack Obama leaves Mr. Bush in the dust on that score.

Fortunately for Mr. Obama, he can go against the electorate's wishes now and still have three years to pick up the pieces and recoup his popularity.  But most Democrats in the house and senate only have a matter of months.  They do not have the luxury of going against voters' wishes to stoke their egos.

They look at Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, and see themselves, at the end of election day, wishing their Republican opponent well and then making a concession speech instead of the other way around. 

So I picture a chorus of Democratic congresspeople, summoning up all the incredulity and sarcasm they can muster and asking President Obama "are you trying to blow the midterm elections"

But I have bad news for them:  Mr. Obama's actions regarding khalid sheikh mohammed and health care (among other issues) are giving them a pretty emphatic answer to that question.