1115.org

Hillary Clinton announced her health care reform plan yesterday. Initial reviews are positive:

The short answer is that it’s a very good plan, similar in style and scope to Edwards, substantially better than Obama’s. I’ll have much more soon.

Obama doesn’t think so:

I commend Senator Clinton for her health care proposal. It’s similar to the one I put forth last spring, though my universal health care plan would go further in reducing the punishing cost of health care than any other proposal that’s been offered in this campaign. But the real key to passing any health care reform is the ability to bring people together in an open, transparent process that builds a broad consensus for change. That’s how I was able to pass health care reform in Illinois that covered an additional 150,000 children and their parents, and that’s how we’ll prevent the drug and insurance industry from defeating our reform efforts like they did in 1994.

That’s the whole premise of Obama’s presidential campaign, distilled into one paragraph, and tied with a bow. The specifics of policy proposals don’t matter. It doesn’t really matter who has the better plan. What matters is who’s best at getting legislation passed, who has the ability to bring people together and build a broad consensus for change.

That’s all he’s ever been selling, his ability to forge consensus and bring people together. And to deliver fine speeches, of course, very fine indeed. Hooray for compromise! Hooray for America!