Over at The Plum Line, Greg Sargent interviews an expert who thinks President Obamas chances of enacting health care reform are a lot better than Bill Clinton's were:
It’s gonna be much harder to get the doctors and the business community to come out against reform than it was 14 years ago…The only way they can beat it this time is if they can convince public opinion and enough members of Congress that reforming health care now will cost more jobs than it will save. And I think that’s gonna be a pretty hard sell…
The President’s gonna be on strong ground…The last election showed a cultural shift in America which had been building for a decade, and a rejection of the economic and social policies of not just the eight years of President Bush but the 12 years before me. There’s a willingness to take a fresh look at all this. I believe he should try, I’m glad he’s going to, and I think it’s a better than 50-50 chance he’ll succeed.
What makes this assessment interesting is the source. It's Bill Clinton himself, whom Sargent interviewed. You can read more excerpts here.
--Jonathan Cohn