re: #306 wozzablog

That wouldn’t have mattered to the people who remember “Hilarycare”, namely Republicans on the Hill and in the media. They hated her guts to begin with - viscerally - Obama came in with a clean slate and had to earn the vitriol heaped upon him freshly. It was pre-packaged and ready to go with Hilary.

The Hillarycare parallels are a bit misleading, I think. One reason it failed was that it was actually a more “radical left wing” plan than Obamacare, which is in truth a Republican plan courtesy of people like Dole, Gingrich and Romney. All of which makes the gop opposition to it seem even more mindlessly anti-Obama partisanship.

Another reason Hillarycare failed was that Bill put Hillary in charge of pushing the plan. This made a lot of Dems and Repubs resentful, as in “who the hell is this lady lecturing us?” She’s obviously gained in stature since then.