THE PRICE THE UR PAID FOR LETTING CONGRESS LEAD HIM:

Health reform's political fallout (PATRICK H. CADDELL & DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN, 1/28/11, Politico)

The opposition to health care turned an election already going south into a political catastrophe. Election studies at Stanford University and the University of Minnesota concluded that at least one-third of the House seats that Democrats lost can be attributed to the electorate’s negative reaction to the health care bill. Election night exit polls found that a near majority (48 percent) of voters favored outright repeal. Independents who favored outright repeal voted for Republicans, 86 percent to 9 percent.

There is one big underlying factor that continues to cause many Americans to oppose the health care bill: Its passage was anti-democratic. If the Republicans’ campaign slogan of 1854 was the “Crime Against Kansas,” in 2010 it would be the “Crime Against Democracy.”

Deals to buy votes in the House and Senate, including extra funding for state projects, all became part of the 2,000-page bill that most representatives never read. These deals deeply affected the American people, making them feel the law was forced on them, despite their opposition.

This fundamental perception of contempt for the American people’s will has sustained the opposition. It is likely to do so until the bill’s anti-democratic stain is expunged.

Having run on nothing, President Obama could ill afford to accept something.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 1, 2011 7:07 AM