One year ago, Ted Kennedy faced a crucial choice between two presidential candidates seeking his endorsement.
One of them, Hillary Rodham Clinton, emphasized the necessity of overhauling the nation's healthcare system at every campaign event to such an obsessive extent that she would later be parodied on "Saturday Night Live." Bruised from her earlier healthcare battles, Clinton was loaded for bear this time around. She claimed to have developed a plan that was broadly acceptable and politically bulletproof.
The other candidate, Barack Obama, also mentioned the need for healthcare reform, but much less often, and in the middle of a list of priorities that followed a stirring speech about hope and change.
He portrayed healthcare reform as a political no-brainer - the system was so obviously broken - and seemed a little perplexed as to why Clinton would feel the need to stress it so vigorously: She was clearly exorcising some personal demons.
Kennedy, of course, opted for Obama, and quickly assured his supporters that he had satisfied himself that Obama was serious about a healthcare overhaul, the driving concern of Kennedy's 46-year Senate career.
Now Obama is president and the promised healthcare overhaul has been overshadowed by more immediate economic needs - needs that Obama has been quick to point out were not foreseeable early last year.
But as the president lays out his priorities in a speech before Congress tonight, Kennedy - who is in Florida conserving his strength amid treatment for brain cancer - could receive a strong indication of whether he chose correctly.
There is little doubt that the healthcare fight is at a critical juncture. The public is ready for action, but there are many other priorities competing for attention. Some politicians reasonably believe that the midst of an economic crisis is the wrong time to launch an initiative that would be costly, complicated, and politically difficult in the best of times.
To make matters much worse, Obama's specially chosen advocate for healthcare reform - former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle - was forced to withdraw from his nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services for having failed to pay taxes on a personal car and driver.
Daschle was more than just an expert on healthcare, having written a recent book on the subject. He was an experienced manipulator of the Senate, the prime battleground for any healthcare changes. And as an intense and early supporter of Obama, Daschle could be counted on to wield enough clout with the president to keep Obama focused on the healthcare task.
But Daschle is gone and there is no obvious successor. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, the medical doctor who served as Democratic National Committee chairman, has the energy and can-do spirit, but he may be too abrasive to handle the legislative fight. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is Dean's opposite - a political conciliator from a conservative state who may lack the can-do spirit to get the job done.
And there are real questions about Obama's commitment. He has said that he promised Kennedy he would deliver a national health plan, and, when questioned, has insisted that he will deliver. Obama also has rejected the idea that the economic crisis makes a healthcare overhaul too difficult to contemplate at this moment; he has said the economic crisis only heightens the need for health changes.
Yesterday, he announced a White House healthcare summit next week and said the issue offers "extraordinary promise as well as peril."
But he hasn't yet expended much political capital on the issue, or trumpeted it very loudly. Perhaps Obama believes that a healthcare overhaul would be better achieved with less dire language and more quiet negotiating: The final plan should be seen as the product of a broad national consensus for change, not as the Holy Grail of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
Kennedy may now agree that Obama's unfussed approach is the best way to proceed, though his own attitude has often seemed closer to Clinton's view of healthcare as a Long March toward Valhalla.
Kennedy led the march for many miles, and last year had a chance to pick someone to lead it into the future. He chose Obama. Now he can only hope that he chose wisely.
The other candidate, Barack Obama, also mentioned the need for healthcare reform, but much less often, and in the middle of a list of priorities that followed a stirring speech about hope and change.
He portrayed healthcare reform as a political no-brainer - the system was so obviously broken - and seemed a little perplexed as to why Clinton would feel the need to stress it so vigorously: She was clearly exorcising some personal demons.
Kennedy, of course, opted for Obama, and quickly assured his supporters that he had satisfied himself that Obama was serious about a healthcare overhaul, the driving concern of Kennedy's 46-year Senate career.
Now Obama is president and the promised healthcare overhaul has been overshadowed by more immediate economic needs - needs that Obama has been quick to point out were not foreseeable early last year.
But as the president lays out his priorities in a speech before Congress tonight, Kennedy - who is in Florida conserving his strength amid treatment for brain cancer - could receive a strong indication of whether he chose correctly.
There is little doubt that the healthcare fight is at a critical juncture. The public is ready for action, but there are many other priorities competing for attention. Some politicians reasonably believe that the midst of an economic crisis is the wrong time to launch an initiative that would be costly, complicated, and politically difficult in the best of times.
To make matters much worse, Obama's specially chosen advocate for healthcare reform - former Senate majority leader Tom Daschle - was forced to withdraw from his nomination as secretary of Health and Human Services for having failed to pay taxes on a personal car and driver.
Daschle was more than just an expert on healthcare, having written a recent book on the subject. He was an experienced manipulator of the Senate, the prime battleground for any healthcare changes. And as an intense and early supporter of Obama, Daschle could be counted on to wield enough clout with the president to keep Obama focused on the healthcare task.
But Daschle is gone and there is no obvious successor. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean, the medical doctor who served as Democratic National Committee chairman, has the energy and can-do spirit, but he may be too abrasive to handle the legislative fight. Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius is Dean's opposite - a political conciliator from a conservative state who may lack the can-do spirit to get the job done.
And there are real questions about Obama's commitment. He has said that he promised Kennedy he would deliver a national health plan, and, when questioned, has insisted that he will deliver. Obama also has rejected the idea that the economic crisis makes a healthcare overhaul too difficult to contemplate at this moment; he has said the economic crisis only heightens the need for health changes.
Yesterday, he announced a White House healthcare summit next week and said the issue offers "extraordinary promise as well as peril."
But he hasn't yet expended much political capital on the issue, or trumpeted it very loudly. Perhaps Obama believes that a healthcare overhaul would be better achieved with less dire language and more quiet negotiating: The final plan should be seen as the product of a broad national consensus for change, not as the Holy Grail of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
Kennedy may now agree that Obama's unfussed approach is the best way to proceed, though his own attitude has often seemed closer to Clinton's view of healthcare as a Long March toward Valhalla.
Kennedy led the march for many miles, and last year had a chance to pick someone to lead it into the future. He chose Obama. Now he can only hope that he chose wisely.
Go to:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/02/24/can_obama_deliver_healthcare_overhaul_for_kennedy/
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