Now that the primary is over and they're not defending against attacks from mandate supporters, the Obama campaign looks to be edging closer to actually adopting an individual mandate for purchasing health insurance. Which makes sense. My hunch on their health care plan was always that they looked at the Edwards plan as the leftmost pole, figured Clinton would come out with something in the center, and they'd be right there in the "responsible liberal" sweetspot. When Hillary came out with a plan almost identical to Edwards', they were caught unprepared, and ended up in an argument about universality that they'd never meant to start. But for all of the campaigns' mailers and fliers and debater's points, some sort of mechanism that pulls folks into the pool is important, and congressional Democrats and health policy experts were always going to work to impress that on an Obama administration. The danger is that they might have gotten their back up about it, but Patel's remarks suggest a pretty open posture.
