Since the Trump insists that we are all divided into winners and losers, it doesn’t seem inappropriate to inquire whether Mitch McConnell emerged from the health care reform fiasco as a winner or a loser.

Mr. McConnell, famous for being the Phoenix on the Potomac, capable of emerging from his splendid corner office waving full-fledged legislative programs generated by himself alone, with no advice from anyone, friend or foe, and with debate or discussion prohibited before he forces a vote, just appeared on TV with a homey yellow figured necktie to stress his hors de combat neutrality and acknowledged the misfires of Republican torpedoes A, B, and C aimed at Obamacare. His usually inscrutable expression was as inscrutable as ever. Was he surrendering or gloating?

My guess is, both. He was publicly surrendering, to satisfy the “fake news” media’s thirst for resolution, but I think behind those coke-bottle glasses he was secretly chortling over a personal victory. In the spirit of “when you’re stuck with a lemon, make lemonade” let us go down the list of what he has accomplished in the last few weeks.

• He has burnished his bones with the Godfather. He did his best to comply with an impossible demand.

• He has donned the approved Republican mantle of victim (of overwhelming Democratic opposition) despite their total lack of power in any branch of government throughout his battle.

• By calling off a roll-call vote he has allowed Senators of his party to avoid the stigma (possibly fatal down the road) of having voted to deprive 22 million people of their health care insurance.

• He has allowed the health care insurance industry to keep its ten percent markup on the new revenue that Obamacare bestowed on them with the addition of millions of new customers (most partly financed from the federal coffers).

• With the unexpected news of John McCain’s surgery he has been able to demonstrate “loyalty” to a colleague (loyalty being the only quality accorded any value in the Trump administration, replacing such old-fashioned virtues as experience, intelligence, and capability).

• He has gained one more opportunity before the summer recess to focus on destroying the tax code, which has always been his primary objective (and that of the Godfather).

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Does all this sound like defeat? He comes away more firmly in control than ever, with his troops more indebted to him than before for taking them off the hook. He has buttressed his defenses against both the First Son-in-Law’s anticipated sabotage and Loose Bannon’s campaign to drain the swamp, and temporarily assuaged the fears of old-style Republicans who came to Washington to legislate, not dismember the Grand Old Party.

I would say this puts him among the winners. The losers? Anyone who had hopes that there was actually a plan to drain the swamp.