Until the Obamacare nightmare, the Tea Party was headed toward oblivion at the ballot box next year. Now?

As the House passes veto-certain “Keep Your Health Care Plan Act of 2013,” 39 Democrats join the GOP to send a message that reflects their fear for 2014.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough says, “This isn’t about elections. This is about making sure people have affordable health care.”

In today’s Washington it’s always about elections, and even worse looms ahead. If the rollout fiasco is not fixed soon (what are the chances?), terrified Democrats could join in a bipartisan effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act entirely as unaffordable to their job survival. Even the attempt would be damaging to the effort to wrest House control from the Tea Party.

Neither would the Senate be immune. Mitch McConnell must be smiling in his sleep these nights as the iffy prospect of his reelection turns rosier with each day of Obamacare bad news.

If there was any chance that the President’s final two years would be freed from Tea Party obstruction, it is sliding away with each day.

Less than a year from now, voters who were pubescent children when Americans elected their first African-American president will go to the polls for the first time.

MORE.