• Current Massachusetts law prohibits the governor from appointing a replacement. Ironically it was Kennedy himself who instigated the change while Mitt Romney was governor in order to prevent Romney from appointing a replacement in the event that Kerry won the 2008 Presidential Nomination. Kennedy recently sent a letter urging a change back so that Deval Patrick, the current governor, would be able to appoint Kennedy’s replacement if he died in office. Pretty hypocritical, but that’s politics.
• This issue is very hot and one vote really counts. So much so that the senate is considering the very slippery manuever of reconciliation in order to get around the possibility that the peoples elected Republican Senators and a few “blue dog” democrats might be successful in defeating it.
• The summer recess has demonstrated clearly that an awful lot of vociferous voters are adamantly opposed to obamacare and self-serving politicians want nothing more than to keep there seats and stay in positions of power, influence and free lunches from lobbyists.
• Senator Kennedy was a champion for national healthcare. In fact, you could say he was the face of healthcare. Without his indefatigable support and tremendous political influence some senators who might otherwise have reluctantly been on board with it may waiver in their support.

Logically, to me anyway, the above factors put an end (for now) to obamacare. Lets watch and see if I’m correct.