Health Care Lessons

The old saw about generals who err by fighting the last war instead of the present one may offer the best explanation for the peculiar inability of a surprising number of Democrats—including, it seems, President Obama and his top advisors—to heed the message that the people don’t want them to continue to push for health care reform.

A great many liberal pundits (who, conveniently, don’t have to run for reelection) are in agreement that the health care reform bills should not be allowed to die a quiet death. The New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg calls for passage, and Paul Krugman makes the argument that dropping the push for the bills at this point would be to “fail the test of history.”