Lots of right-wing grave-dancing about the primetime news program that conservatives spent so much time turning into a bogey man.

But was it a flop? According to TV Newser, which knows a lot more about the television biz than Michelle Malkin, the health care special produced ABC's best Wednesday 10 p.m. ratings in nearly two months.

Plus, the follow-up Nightline special on ABC featuring more discussion of Obama's proposed health care reform, catapulted Nightline to a rare ratings win over the late-night comedy shows on CBS (Letterman) and NBC (Conan).

UPDATE: And BTW, why does the Noise Machine even care what the ratings were for the primetime special? Are folks really trying to suggest that because tens of millions of Americans didn't spend a summer night learning about health care that that means Obama's no longer popular? I'm pretty sure that's the right-wing take-away, which is a bizarre way to read television ratings, to say the least.

If people want to know of Obama is popular, read the polls. According to the latest national survey, Obama enjoys a sky-high rating of 65 percent.