Let me offer a mildly informed prediction on what U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln is going to do today. She will, in a matter of hours, make a public statement announcing that she will vote tonight to allow Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care bill to proceed to debate on the floor.

She will stress that this hardly means she will vote for the bill later or even to end debate later, because, she will emphasize, this is all about the legislative process, not great artwork.

She will say her whole point is to make the bill better and more acceptable to her Arkansas constituents, and she will say that she has earned certain concessions from Reid in that regard, most recently in a meeting with the leader Friday night.

What those concessions might be — I don’t know. Whether she or he will say — I don’t know.

What will she attempt is to transform being squeezed in the middle to a position of influence for the folks back at home.

This will start happening sometime after the Hogs put Mississippi State away, which is yet another mildly informed protection.

So let us wait to see if I’m 2-0, 1-1 or 0-2.