Clive Crook, in the Financial Times, conjures up an alternate Republican reality:
Not for the first time, it occurred to me that McCain's biggest mistake in this campaign has been in failing to develop a market-friendly proposal for universal health care. Mitt Romney did it in Massachusetts so do not tell me a Republican cannot go there. That plus Palin would have given him a shot at the base and at independents too. It would have cemented his appeal to middle America, which is much preoccupied with the worsening failure of the US health care system.
Sorry to be the one who has to tell you, sir, but a Republican cannot go there. Mitt Romney may have signed such a bill as governor of a Democratic-dominated state, but as a presidential candidate, he ran from it as far and as fast as he could and made no pretense of supporting universal health care.
So, there's no such thing as a national Republican Party that supports universal health care. Is there such a thing as a "market-friendly approach to universal health care"? Sure, it's called "the Obama plan." Or "the Clinton plan." Both retain all the structures of the private insurance market and rely on market incentives and price signals to control costs and expand access.
This is the dual chimera of thoughtful conservatives like Crook: First, a belief that there is some sort of conservative or "market-friendly" policy out there that is different from and more appealing than that supported by liberals. And, second, a belief that the Republican Party would support such policies if they only knew about them. McCain has been a particular beneficiary of belief in these imaginary policies supported by an imaginary party.
-- Mark Schmitt.
