I'd like to believe, as Joe Klein does, that America's corporations will make this the year that they finally support universal health reform. But I wouldn't bet an extraordinary amount of money on the prospect. For instance: Though the NFIB has been making conciliatory noises, and even talking with Ron Wyden on occasion, they still came out in ferocious opposition to Schwarzenegger's California reforms, which are not dissimilar to the models offered by the national Democrats. Maybe, on the national level, they can be turned. Or maybe, given a president who seems unduly solicitous of their support, they'll force their way to the inside only to scotch the whole thing. Or maybe, if they see it as a fait accompli, and believe they need to simply do their best to protect their members, they'll come to the table. But any president walking into this counting on the support of the corporate community will get their lunch handed to them. This fight is going to take place on many levels, one of which will be conversations with business leaders, and one of which will need to be an aggressive national campaign to mobilize public support and ensure the initial bargaining happens in context of the players believing this a near sure thing that they should try and get some goodies out of, not a reform they have an excellent chance of killing. On some level, the candidate who I think gets both ends of that the best is Hillary Clinton, while Edwards seems most aware of the need for popular mobilization and Obama almost too enamored with the possibility of attracting stakeholder support. For some useful historical perspective on all this, read John Judis's seminal article examining how the business community went from cautious cooperation to lethal opposition during the 1994 reforms.
