Hillary understands coalition building; Obama makes it work

President Clinton: Hillary is an Agent of Change

by Lindsay Levin
in
12/11/2007 2:00 PM

President Clinton stopped at the Newton YMCA yesterday to discuss why Hillary is the most qualified candidate to lead our country. The President provides a unique perspective because not only has he been by Hillary's side since law school, but as former president he has first-hand knowledge of what it takes to succeed in the White House.

While the President was pursuing his own political career, he recalled that Hillary doggedly took on issue after issue, fighting for improved education and health care, often working against obstacles and building coalitions to accomplish her goals. Throughout the event, President Clinton admiringly spoke about this lifelong commitment to hard work and service to others.

The President told the audience that he would support Hillary even if they weren't married - her thirty-five years of service and work for children, civil rights, and other important issues have given her the perspective and knowledge to set America on the right track. Not only does Hillary have the most detailed policies for America, she also has the necessary determination and fortitude to be an agent of change.

I know that reforming health care takes a consensus for change. That's what I've been doing -- building that consensus vote by vote, working to bring people together, to get my colleagues from across the aisle to join our cause. Unfortunately back in 1993 and ‘94 too many of our opponents adopted a strategy that allowed them to "just say no." They said no, not just to our health care plan, but any health care plan. And the current administration hasn't even tried. In fact, the President's most newsworthy contribution on health care was his recent threat to veto coverage for low-income children.

Well, today Americans are impatient. We've seen that doing nothing makes the problem worse. We've gone from 39 million uninsured in 1994 to 47 million today. From spending 14% of our Gross Domestic Product for health care to spending 16%. And now we are spending 50% more per person than the next highest spending country in the world, Switzerland, which has high quality and good outcomes for the people there. So today we are spending more money and covering fewer people and too many of our families are paying the price. We know we have to act. And so the question is, if union leaders and employers can come together, that the Mayo Clinic has just done an extensive survey including 400 experts coming to a report urging that we have health care reform, if Democratic and Republican Governors and legislatures can work together on health care, if doctors, nurses, patients, hospital administrators, CEOs, small business owners can all agree that it is time for a change, then why can't Washington?

I believe that together we can change Washington by sticking to our principles and reaching out to find common ground. America faces a choice: continue the status quo as more and more people lose coverage or change our system to cover all of our people. I believe that is America's choice, to do something about health care -- America's choice to tackle problems of cost, quality, and coverage. It should be every American's choice to have the kind of health care that they want. That choice is at the heart of my plan.

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Some people might read the Nunn statement and think it sounds like Barack Obama. But whereas Obama pledges to reach across partisan lines, and outside them as well, to build support for a progressive agenda, he's not talking about abandoning his party and sharing power directly with people who don't share his (or Nunn's) assessment of the challenges facing America, and who would oppose any progressive agenda with every political weapon available. Best I can tell, Obama's offering an extended hand to the GOP that he's willing to make into a fist. And his argument with some in the Democratic Party, most notably John Edwards, over how to enact progressive policies, mainly reflects differences of opinion on how to marshal public opinion to reverse most of the GOP policies of the Bush era.