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Via the Minipundt -- soon to be an American Prospect intern! -- comes this exchange between Barack Obama and Oregon's Willamette Week paper on the Wyden plan:
What do you think of Sen. Wyden's Healthy Americans Act?I think that Ron has done a lot of really smart work in thinking about the issue, and he is somebody I will have at the table as I'm negotiating to bring about a universal health care plan. I have expressed some concerns about the feasibility of shifting so quickly away from the employer-based system to a system in which each individual is responsible for buying their own health care. But I think the idea of portability is one that is important. I'm looking forward to having him as one of the driving forces in the Senate behind getting universal health care.What's interesting about this comment is that Obama makes the exact right criticism of Wyden's plan: That the disruption it entails could be politically problematic. That is, in fact, the weakness of the bill, and one that a president should worry about. It suggests that he's either thinking this through, has good staff on the subject, or, optimally, has been reading all of my coverage very closely. I'm pretty sure it's the latter.What's also interesting about the interview is the insight it gives you on what running for president is like. On the one hand, you need to win the televised debates and garner favorable press coverage, and that takes a lot of focus on national issues like Iraq on health care. On the other hand, you need to win individual states, and that requires positions on timber disputes and county payment systems. Also, you get asked things like, "If you had a tattoo, what would it be and where would you put it?" Dignified!
