I have to admit, if I were Mitt Romney I'm not exactly sure how I'd be answering questions from Republicans about his Massachusetts health-care reform. On one hand, when he passed it, it was a conservative, market-based alternative to government-provided health insurance, yet now, because of its similarity to the Affordable Care Act, Republicans consider it the model of statist oppression. On the other hand, it has been a tremendous success -- the people of Massachusetts are happy with it, and there are now almost no uninsured in the state. But this doesn't seem to be a very persuasive way out Mitt's quandary:
One thing I learned, is this. That you don't take ideas from a state and try to impose them on a whole nation. Our nation is too diverse, too different to say that what works in Massachusetts is somehow going to be grabbed by the federal government, usurping the power of states and imposing a one-size-fits all plan on the nation.
Isn't that pretty much what every governor who runs for president says? Hey, I was a successful governor, and we can take what I did in my state and apply it to the country. And it isn't as though Mitt's reform was "grabbed" by Obama without any thought about whether it should apply to the country. As I remember it, we had quite a bit of discussion and debate, and the Democrats produced a detailed bill -- so detailed, in fact, that Republicans complained about how many pages it contained.
And as for "imposing a one-size-fits-all plan on the nation," well, I've got news for you, Mitt: That's what the federal government does. It makes laws and sets policies that apply to the nation. I'm guessing Romney has a lot of one-size-fits-all plans he'd like to apply to the whole nation. It's not like he's going to propose lowering federal income tax rates, but only for people in states beginning with "M," or restricting product liability lawsuits, but only in the Midwest.
Presidential campaigns test candidates in many ways: their fortitude, their stamina, their creativity, among other things. But when a candidate goes through a campaign becoming progressively dumber and more craven, what does that say about him? I say that as someone who views Romney mostly with pity these days. He just wants it so bad, and his party has become so crazy. What's he supposed to do?
