Peter Suderman reacts to Barack Obama's touting of Mitt Romney's mandate-driven health-care reforms in Massachusetts:
Watching Democrats tease Romney like this continues to be amusing. But I wonder if it might not backfire slightly, at least for those who continue to be genuinely happy with the precedent set by the Massachusetts health care overhaul. After all, the more that liberals celebrate RomneyCare, the less appealing he becomes to the conservative base that dominates Republican primaries. Sure, Romney isn't going to come out swinging in favor of ObamaCare, but so long as he doesn't disavow the Massachusetts plan completely—which doesn't seem likely—he's going to be a lot more amenable to mandate-driven state reforms. And in general, he's a lot closer to liberals on health care policy than any other potential GOP candidate. But liberal activist community, aided by the White House, seems intent on taking him out of the running, mostly, I suspect, because they can. No matter what, though, it's pretty fun to watch.
I know this is generally regarded as some kind of brilliant political strategy, but I think Obama hugs Romneycare because the Affordable Care Act, modeled as it was on Massachusetts and an old Republican alternative to the Clinton health-care plan in the 1990s, still failed to get any bipartisan support. Touting Romneycare is about the closest Democrats can get to saying the Affordable Care Act was bipartisan.
