Last September, just as public opinion was beginning to turn against Obamacare in a serious way, Bill Clinton made a bold prediction. “The minute health care reform passed,” he said in a policy forum in New York City, “President Obama’s approval ratings would go up 10 points.” Clinton’s prediction reflected the wishful assumption of many wishful liberal-leaning pundits and think tank analysts, as well as the strategy of Obama’s political advisers. They viewed the rising public clamor against Obamacare as a temporary aberration, not as a lasting problem that could potentially undo his presidency. When Obamacare passed, they confidently reasoned, the public would suddenly appreciate its virtues and acquiesce to federal control over nearly every aspect of health care.
This notion consoled them in the following months as Republicans shockingly captured the governorships of New Jersey and Virginia, then the Senate seat held for more than four decades by Ted Kennedy in deepest blue Massachusetts. But despite these unmistakable electoral manifestations of deepening voter displeasure, Obama and congressional Democrats soldiered on, often resorting to desperation tactics, until they finally secured a victory that put Obamacare on the books as the law of the land.
