The race card is being dealt by Democrats faster than hands on a video poker machine right now. Like a 440 lb guy blaming his inability to run 5 miles on his shoes, the reason behind the dealing has little to do with race.

The single greatest thing to happen to progressives in America is that the president who most embraces their ideals also happens to be part black. This gives them a constant rationalization for failure. Already almost completely devoid of self-awareness, the race card ensures that progressives never have to reexamine motives, philosophy or policy. Nice gig if you can get it.

The real nine trillion dollar question that the race card is avoiding is this: With strong control of Congress and a charismatic president who has a virtual hammerlock on the media narrative, why can’t Democrats pass the legislation they tell us everyone truly wants?

This was, after all, supposed to be the Golden Age for the left-of-left in the Democratic party. The new president espoused progressive ideology in his writings and with his few legislative initiatives. The Speaker of the House is from San Francisco and has monster numbers on her side. The Senate Majority Leader is an unimaginative party hack who would eat dog food in a Wal-Mart parking lot if the president told him to. As if kissed by the gods, Reid’s chamber was made filibuster-proof when the courts counted every crayon-scratched vote for a guy from Saturday Night Live and turned him into a senator.

Good times, right?

Almost a year after Barack Obama won the presidency with numbers that made “mandate” the mantra of those on the left, none of what they most wanted has become reality. If given truth serum, they’d all tell you that they were convinced that cap and trade and health care reform would be far beyond done deals by now. There should already have been the time and political capital to close Gitmo, withdraw a zillion troops and begin a full-scale investigation of everything Dick Cheney has done since the onset of puberty.

While all is not lost for them (never underestimate the ability of the GOP to piss away an opportunity), the picnic definitely hasn’t gone as planned.

Fueled by a potent mixture of confusion, hurt and panic, the predominantly emotional Obama faithful are resorting to the race card rather than a look at what’s really going on.

Barack Obama inspired millions to vote for him on the strength of his personality alone. Because of this, many of those millions have a hard time separating the man from the policy. It is, after all, policy initiatives that are failing right now, not the president. If another election was held today, Obama would win again rather easily, no matter who the Republicans threw against him.

A hallmark of the Obama presidency is that one cannot question his policies without his supporters perceiving is as a personal attack on the man himself. This more than anything else is what muddies up the debate and leads to the race card being whipped out.

In reality, the people on the right who are opposed to cap and trade or a public option in health care reform were opposed to these things long before any had heard of Barack Obama.

And we’ve been opposed to outlandish spending and insane deficits for a while now too. Yes, even when George W. Bush was in office. Just because most people on the left didn’t pay attention to us until we complained about Obama doesn’t mean our disgust regarding irresponsible spending didn’t exist during the previous presidency.

But these are tedious facts that interrupt what is supposed to be the sweeping and beautiful Story of Obama.

Other fairy tale ruining facts range from the insane per-household cost of cap and trade to some of the more sobering financial and practical realities of health care reform.

And it’s not just people on the right who are questioning the particulars of some of the legislation that’s being crafted in order to hurry health care reform through congress.

With apologies to E.F. Hutton: When Ron Wyden talks about health-care reform, people should listen. When Ron Wyden balks at a Democratic health-care reform proposal, people should definitely listen.

The Democratic senator from Oregon has been the Energizer Bunny of health reform for the past five years. This week he lobbed a big rhetorical stink bomb. Wyden warned publicly that the package being crafted by the Senate Finance Committee would cost lower-income Americans too much and give many people too little choice of insurance plans.

I wonder if Jimmy Carter thinks Ron Wyden is a racist?

We’re accused of lying and spreading misinformation about the president’s (and Congress’) motives to keep the racist, anti-Obama fever burning.

But we’re not lying, we’re quoting.

Sorry, race-baiters, there are very real, legitimate concerns about the policies President Obama has highly prioritized. These concerns are based on political philosophy, not race. If we were dealing with sound policy that the majority of Americans really wanted, this would be a cakewalk. While being purely reactive and playing the race card ad nauseam you doom yourselves to failure by ignoring the dissension in your own ranks.

So deal the race card until your fingers bleed, it won’t change anything other than the tone of the debate because reality is one persistent bitch.