Left, from March. Right, from yesterday. (Left credit: Alex Wong / Staff; right credit: OLIVIER DOULIERY / Contributor)

Yesterday, two things happened. The president sat in a fire truck and pretended to be a fireman—“Where’s the fire?” he asked Vice President Mike Pence, “I’ll put it out!”—and the Republican attempt to repeal Obamacare failed in the Senate. Both of these are causes for celebration, as the Republicans’ replacement healthcare bill was a politically motivated disaster that would’ve left some 22 million Americans without access to healthcare, and also it is funny when the president makes pretend in a truck.


While this is hopefully the death knell of the anti-Obamacare effort, let’s not get too ahead of ourselves. After all, this has happened before, including the thing about the truck.


The first incidence was way back on March 23 when the president’s healthcare bill was dealt its first seemingly mortal blow while still in the House. The president responded then by sitting in a truck, honking a horn. While yesterday’s truck experience occurred before the news of the bill’s death, this appears to be one of those instances in which history cosmically repeats itself, the collapse of the president’s most steadfast campaign promise being accompanied by footage of him sitting in a truck, yelling and honking a horn, like he won a contest.




The point is twofold: The president is an enfeebled man-child capable almost exclusively of engaging with the largest shiny thing in front of him, and this fucking healthcare thing is like the antagonist in a slasher flick and will never die.