I knew better than most, but even I didn’t foresee the ferocious warfare we would endure for more than a year. The struggle eventually did put our country on a new path toward remedying injustice in health care. But thanks to the shrewd and well-funded operatives of the health insurance industry and its allies, not one inch of this ground was gained without political turmoil. Obama’s election in 2008 electrified the nation and much of the world. It left him well positioned to take on the big challenges if he acted quickly, and he wasted no time. Even as he moved into the White House pushing a stimulus bill to counter the economic disaster created by the collapse of investment banks and other financial institutions, his staff geared up for a quick start on health care reform. His opponents portray him as a “socialist” and a “radical,” but in truth Obama is not even a hard-core liberal. He is a moderate centrist who often leans to the left. He may be socially liberal when it comes to reform—he once said that if we could start from scratch, he would support a publicly financed single-payer system—but he is also a pragmatist who understands the political realities of Washington.
