Winning Counts

Barack Obama considers the vote a strategic victory. The last Democratic President, Bill Clinton, came to grief in 1993-94 on that very issue. The most significant political project of Obama’s first term is now poised on the brink of success, despite the fact that the reforms Congress will allow only partially fulfill his campaign promises. Not all uninsured will now have insurance, but a good fifty percent of them will. There won’t be a public option to compete with private insurers. And in deference to more conservative party members, funding help for abortion will be significantly restricted. But the president can afford to take all that. The closer he comes to the end of his first year in office, the more important it will be that he gets a reform package through in order to demonstrate his capability to lead. The details of what’s in the bill fade into the background; the victory gives him momentum for coming initiatives.

That’s a Christmas present he’ll be able to use for a long time to come.