Idealism with Bite

Hard Truths and Half Truths on Health Care - Jonathan Cohn, The New Republic

Jonathan Cohn has an interesting post up at The Plank on Sen. Obama's Illinois Senate record on health care. The gist of the post is that Sen. Obama made several proposals for state-wide health care that eventually ended up as bill mandating universal healthcare in Illinois. Throughout the process Sen. Obama met with some industry lobbyists and made some changes to the bill that proved fruitful for its eventual passage. Cohn reported on the sense of liberals who fought for such a bill. Quote: "As far as they are concerned, Obama's signature inclusiveness was always a means to an end--a way to push the limits of reform rather than accept them. And, they say, it worked"
Now after watching the latest Democratic debate and the attacks both Sen. Edwards and Sen. Clinton leveraged against Sen. Obama for push smaller steps toward universal healthcare I have to say that I believe Sen. Obama's plan has a far greater chance of actually, you know, getting passed than attempting to push a radical plan for universal coverage. This, my friends, is what we call pragmatic idealism, and it does work.