Sizing Up the Final Four

We’ve now got a pretty good view into what the final lap for health care reform in the senate is going to look like — Harry Reid’s high-wire with four moderate and conservative Democrats, Landrieu, Lieberman, Lincoln and Nelson. (The Dems clearly have a mid-alphabet problem.) But each is in the catbird seat for a different reason, each has different needs and demands with different mixes of ego, ideology, self-preservation and cantankerousness. So today, for your late afternoon reading, we’ve put together your TPM Final Four Playbook. Think of it like a program at the ballgame or a playbill at the theater, a run-down of the key data to help you understand the bickering and negotiating we’re likely to see with these four from here on out.