Hallejujah! Snowe melts!

In the US Olympia Snowe (R-ME) has said she will vote for the health care reform bill in the Senate Finance Committee today. This is a mega epoch-making event. The Democrats have persuaded a single Republican senator to vote for the bill!

It ought to be noted that Olympia Snowe represents a state which contains 0.43% of the population of the United States. Maine. "Murder she wrote" was based there - remember? They catch a lot of lobster there, too.

In fact, the significance of Snowe's vote is not so much to give the reform plan a sort of "bipartisan" sheen as to help persuade some of the doubting Democrats to get on board.