Elena LaVictoire's Public Library

This was all ridiculous from the beginning. The '08 election was a historical anomaly. A uniquely charismatic candidate was running at a time of deep war weariness, with an intensely unpopular Republican president, against a politically incompetent opponent, amid the greatest financial collapse since the Great Depression. And still he won by only seven points.

Exactly a year later comes the empirical validation of that skepticism. Virginia -- presumed harbinger of the new realignment, having gone Democratic in '08 for the first time in 44 years -- went red again. With a vengeance. Barack Obama had carried it by six points. The Republican gubernatorial candidate won by 17 -- a 23-point swing. New Jersey went from plus-15 Democratic in 2008 to minus-four in 2009. A 19-point swing.

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What happened? The vaunted Obama realignment vanished. In 2009 in Virginia, the black vote was down by 20 percent; the under-30 vote by 50 percent. And as for independents, the ultimate prize of any realignment, they bolted. In both Virginia and New Jersey they'd gone narrowly for Obama in '08. This year they went Republican by a staggering 33 points in Virginia and by an equally shocking 30 points in New Jersey.

Experts say hospitals typically must have at least 1,000 deliveries a year to break even or profit from their maternity services.

''There was no way for us to get to the number of deliveries we would need to make this a viable opportunity for us,'' Pope said.

Licensed home-based midwives say they’ve seen a slight increase in business in part because their service tends to be less expensive than giving birth in a hospital.

“The fact (that) people are having a lot of financial troubles is causing people to look for alternatives,” said Suzanne Smith, a midwife who said she is taking more calls from people who are uninsured or have high deductibles.

Consulting appointments are also up at BellaNatal, a one-room birth suite in Orem run by Smith.

At the Birth and Family Place, a birth center in Holladay, the number of women touring the center who say they’re attracted by the price has risen to about one-third, according to medical director Rebecca McInnis.

“I don’t think it’s been that high before,” McInnis said.

A hospital-based birth can cost about $8,300, including about $6,000 on average for the hospital charge, according to 2006 estimates by the state health department. Deliveries at home or at a birthing center can be substantially less expensive.

Health care reform should not be used as an opportunity to use federal
funds to pay for elective abortions. Health reform should be an
opportunity to protect human life - not end it.

Unfortunately, Speaker Pelosi’s 2,032-page government
takeover of health care does just that.  On line 17, p. 110, section 222 under “Abortions for which Public Funding is
Allowed” the Health and Human Services Secretary is given the authority to
determine when abortion is allowed under the government-run plan. 
The Speaker’s plan also requires that at least one insurance plan offered
in the Exchange covers abortions.

What is even more alarming is that a monthly abortion premium will be
charged of all enrollees in the government-run plan.  It’s right
there on line 16, page 96, section 213, under “Insurance Rating Rules.”  The
premium will be paid into a U.S. Treasury account - and these federal
funds will be used to pay for the abortion services.

Section 213 describes the process in which the Health Benefits
Commissioner is to assess the monthly premiums that will be used to pay
for elective abortions under the government-run plan.  The
Commissioner must charge at a minimum $1 per enrollee per month.

President Barack Obama has only been in office for just over nine months, but he's already hit the links as much as President Bush did in over two years.

CBS' Mark Knoller — an unofficial documentarian and statistician of all things White House-related — wrote on his Twitter feed that, "Today - Obama ties Pres. Bush in the number of rounds of golf played in office: 24.

Took Bush 2 yrs & 10 months."