Michael Barbaro

And so you were always going to have this ugly ending, as people have described it to me, the fear of how it was going to end was going to be bad, even if, in all these unlikely ways, they were actually doing okay in public polling about the issue.

And so...

Who actually voted to end the shutdown, I think, is really revealing.

And the people who voted to actually end the shutdown are the people furthest removed from facing any real backlash because none of those eight Democratic senators, Democratic-aligned senators, are on the ballot next year.

They're all either retiring or on the ballot in 2028 or 2030.

The Senate has these staggered terms, and this is something you can do in Washington.

Try to keep your most vulnerable people out

of having to cast the toughest votes.

Interesting.

You're saying that the Democrats, to the degree that this is any kind of organized strategy, which I guess we're not entirely sure, put the safest Democratic senators, furthest from election,

out to do the quote unquote dirty work here of reopening the government without fulfilling the promise of improving healthcare?

Yes.

So I think the yes votes here are really revealing.

But there's one no vote that I found especially interesting.

Who?

John Ossoff.

He is the most vulnerable senator up for election next year.

So he will face the voters.

And he's running in Georgia.

and really focused on his general election, right?