The danger of ass-u-me-ing, from TPMDC:

“The White House had no contingency plan for health care reform if Democrat Martha Coakley lost the special election in Massachusetts, and officials did not discuss the possibility a Democratic loss would dramatically imperil their legislative efforts, a top adviser said today.

…”There wasn’t much discussion about the implications if the thing went the other way,” he said.

President Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod said there “wasn’t much discussion” about an alternative path to passing health care with just 59 Democrats in the Senate because there was “widespread assumption was that that seat was safe.”

Apparently, there are no former Boy Scouts in the president’s inner circle.