Day: January 19, 2010

The National Moment In my previous post, I said that there is still a way forward to health care reform that is good if not great. Having said all that, there is no question that after Massachusetts, Virginia and New Jersey statewide elections, after a decline in Obama’s popular support and in the Congressional poll numbers (where the Democrats are in a dead heat with Republicans, ten points below where they were a year ago), we Democrats are not doing as well right now as we were a year ago. Why not? There are two leading theories, which lead to two radically different conclusions about what Obama should do now. The right is saying that Obama overreached and is trying to force major changes, and especially health care reform, on a country that did not elect him for that purpose. The left is saying that Obama has compromise too much… Continue reading

Breathe. Take a step back. You need to make sure you don’t get caught up in perhaps the most damaging features of our public life: our inability to look beyond the day’s news and put each day in perspective. The world and American politics did not change dramatically last night. The prospects for health care reform are not all that different than they were yesterday. Continue reading