Chatter in the Blogosphere

Why Romney's Mormon Speech Isn't Like JFK's Posted: 04 Dec 2007 07:47 AM CST With his campaign in trouble, Mitt Romney has finally decided to give a so-called "Mormon speech" to explain his religion to an allegedly skeptical GOP electorate. It's troubling that a candidate...

New Gallup Poll: GOP and Democratic Posted: 03 Dec 2007 05:21 PM CST New Gallup Poll on the Republican and Democratic races (Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, 425 Republicans or Republican leaners, and 494 Democrats or Democrat leaners, MoE +/- 5%) showing Rudy and Hillary losing...

The PM Line Posted: 03 Dec 2007 03:22 PM CST Is Iran pursuing a nuclear program? A new assessment says no. President Bush wasn't all that welcoming to Congress returning from its Thanksgiving break -- yes, it was still on vacation. To...

Annoying Rudy Posted: 03 Dec 2007 03:15 PM CST What's up with the Ron Paul supporters and the way they treat Rudy Giuliani? First, there was the "taunting incident" on the Mackinac Island Ferry (which the campaign denied, by the way), now...

Hillary Attacks! Posted: 03 Dec 2007 02:21 PM CST Sounds like a bad '50s horror movie, but it's actually the new site Barack Obama's campaign just launched, without the exclamation point of course. It might have had something to do with Anne...

A Pro-Huck Outfit Outed Posted: 03 Dec 2007 01:23 PM CST Jonathan Martin has the goods on a pro-Huckabee outfit making push polling calls in Iowa attacking the other GOP candidates. Reports Martin: "Trust Huckabee," whose website went live last week, was...

GM's Blues Posted: 03 Dec 2007 01:21 PM CST Breaking news from the Wall Street Journal: "GM reports an 11% drop in U.S. light-vehicle sales for November, amid soft market demand."...

New Edwards Ad Posted: 03 Dec 2007 11:35 AM CST This one is running New Hampshire, where Edwards trails Clinton by 15 points:...

AP/Pew Research Early State Poll Posted: 03 Dec 2007 09:33 AM CST A new AP/Pew Research survey of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The poll, which was conducted between November 7 and November 25, yielded the following results: Iowa Clinton 31 Obama 25...

Sager vs. Paulites Posted: 03 Dec 2007 09:19 AM CST If you missed Ryan Sager's New York Post column on Saturday, "Crackpot Revolution," it's worth a read, since it's one of the strongest condemnations of the Ron Paul "revolution" from a libertarian...

McCain on Face the Nation Posted: 03 Dec 2007 09:14 AM CST Fresh from Sunday's New Hampshire Union-Leader's endorsement, John McCain talks with Bob Schieffer: Part 1 Part 2 More videos, including one showing Hillary getting booed at Iowa's Heartland Forum,...

Live Free or Die Posted: 03 Dec 2007 08:54 AM CST As we were discussing the results of the new Des Moines Register poll on Beyond the Beltway last night, Bruce DuMont put the following question to me: if Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton both lose in...

The Daily 2008 Posted: 03 Dec 2007 06:55 AM CST Happy Monday, otherwise known as "One Month Away From Iowa Caucuses Day." On this day in 1818 Illinois became the 21st state. On to today's top election stories: "Losing Ground In Iowa, Clinton...

Chatter in the Blogosphere Posted: 03 Dec 2007 06:32 AM CST Check out today's headlines at RealClearBlogs, and get yourself caught up on all the blog debates and discussions you missed over the weekend: Hugo Loss: Is Hugo Chavez losing power in Venezuela?...

Hot Off the Wire

'Now the Fun Part Starts' in Iowa Posted: 04 Dec 2007 10:55 AM CST Chicago Tribune

Mormonism Not Focus of Romney Speech Posted: 04 Dec 2007 10:51 AM CST Los Angeles Times

Huckabee Chafes at 'Front-Runner' Label Posted: 04 Dec 2007 10:50 AM CST Washington Post

Vulnerable Democrats See Fates Tied to Clinton Posted: 04 Dec 2007 10:47 AM CST New York Times

Why conservatives oppose universal healthcare

Posted December 3rd, 2007 at 11:10 am

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In a recent issue of National Review, Ramesh Ponnuru and Rich Lowry explained how Republicans can avert electoral disaster and get back on track. Conservative writers offer advice columns like these periodically, but this one included a concession we usually don’t see in print.

The plain truth is that the [Republican] party faces a cataclysm, a rout that would give Democrats control of the White House and enhanced majorities in the House and the Senate. That defeat would, in turn, guarantee the confirmation of a couple of young, liberal Supreme Court nominees, putting the goal of moving the Court in a more constitutionalist direction out of reach for another generation. It would probably also mean a national health-insurance program that would irrevocably expand government involvement in the economy and American life, and itself make voters less likely to turn toward conservatism in the future. (emphasis added)

This apparently, is the principal fear. Not just that Democrats will win, but also that they’ll implement a policy agenda. And it’s not just that the agenda is liberal, it’s that the agenda will discourage Americans from embracing a conservative agenda in the future.

Paul Krugman, responding to the Ponnuru/Lowry piece, noted:

I think that sentence contains a grim truth for progressives: the right will fight any health reform tooth and nail. They believe — and so do I — that the implications of universal coverage would extend far beyond health care, that it would revitalize the New Deal idea. And so they’ll do anything to stop it.

This isn’t an entirely new point, but it’s worth rehashing once in a while: the right will resist universal healthcare with all its might because, as a matter of electoral strategy, conservatives don’t have a choice.

It’s largely faded from the political world’s memory, but I’d argue the most important moment in the debate over the Clinton healthcare plan in the early 1990s came when Bill Kristol distributed a memo to congressional Republicans — exactly 14 years ago yesterday.

Leading conservative operative William Kristol privately circulates a strategy document to Republicans in Congress. Kristol writes that congressional Republicans should work to “kill” — not amend — the Clinton plan because it presents a real danger to the Republican future: Its passage will give the Democrats a lock on the crucial middle-class vote and revive the reputation of the party. Nearly a full year before Republicans will unite behind the “Contract With America,” Kristol has provided the rationale and the steel for them to achieve their aims of winning control of Congress and becoming America’s majority party. Killing health care will serve both ends. The timing of the memo dovetails with a growing private consensus among Republicans that all-out opposition to the Clinton plan is in their best political interest. (emphasis added)

It wasn’t about the quality of the policy, necessarily; it was about political survival. If Dems could deliver on a universal, national healthcare system, Dems would be positioned to win over a generation of voters. Killing the bill undermined the needs of millions, but it also meant blocking Dems from a historic victory.

As far as the Republican Party and its allied hacks like Kristol were concerned, the choice was obvious.

And it still is. If a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress can finish what Bill Clinton started in 1993, Ponnuru and Lowry said, Americans will be “discouraged…from embracing a conservative agenda in the future.” If that means tens of millions of Americans without access to healthcare, so be it.

We saw a helpful reminder of this during the S-CHIP debate over the summer.

[W]hy should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further “federalization” of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It’s not because he thinks the plans wouldn’t work. It’s because he’s afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can’t do the same for adults.

And there you have the core of Mr. Bush’s philosophy. He wants the public to believe that government is always the problem, never the solution. But it’s hard to convince people that government is always bad when they see it doing good things. So his philosophy says that the government must be prevented from solving problems, even if it can. In fact, the more good a proposed government program would do, the more fiercely it must be opposed.

As Brian Beutler added, “The fear for conservatives is that it’ll work so well that people will begin to realize that it might be worth paying for broader reforms with broader taxes, and so would blossom a vastly improved health care system in this country at the expense of a few very powerful interests.”

And we really can’t have that.

Lasted Happenings

The Rise of the Outsider Posted: 03 Dec 2007 06:00 AM CST Michael Barone has a timely piece this morning, chronicling how Iowa voters may be ready to upset the conventional wisdom. It's all of a piece with what may be this campaign's first major... Quote of the Day Posted: 03 Dec 2007 05:38 AM CST "Not much has changed. Dick Cheney is still a war criminal, Hillary Clinton is still Satan and I'm back on the radio!" - Don Imus this morning.... About Those Aspirations Posted: 03 Dec 2007 04:59 AM CST First Clinton attacks Obama over fund raising ethics, and now the woman who is rumored to have had a "secret pact of ambition" with her husband is slamming her opponent for apparently denying some... Romney Giving "The Speech" Posted: 02 Dec 2007 07:28 PM CST Mormonism is a touchy subject with the Mitt Romney campaign. Whether or not the candidate should deliver a speech explaining his widely misunderstood faith, a la John Kennedy, has been a... Losing Ground In Iowa, Clinton Assails Obama Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:55 AM CST Washington Post

Pressed, Romney to Speak on His Mormonism Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:54 AM CST Boston Globe

Obama's Gains Show Volatility of Iowa Contest Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:50 AM CST Wall Street Journal

Lonely No More, Huckabee Faces Hurdles Posted: 03 Dec 2007 10:47 AM CST New York Times