Obama's Handling of Healthcare Reform Issue: Same as Bank Bailout?

Arianna Huffington's article "Has Obama's Handling of the Bank Bailout Undermined Health Care Reform?" illuminates the impact that one major political issue can have on another. Unfortunately, it's true and sad that Obama's handling of the financial crisis has diluted the realistic need for reform down into a vague idealistic want.

However, unlike the financial crisis, most Americans have no realistic frame of reference for the healthcare crisis. No personal experience with the healthcare system itself. The financial meltdown touched virtually everyone, sick and healthy. From those with a few bucks to those who lost millions. But the shortcomings and injustices of healthcare seem to touch only those who use it. Considering the huge number of people who never see a doctor, the remainder's a pretty small basis for real support.

No wonder support for Obama has been so elusive. The strongest base he mobilized during the presidential campaign is comprised of mostly young, healthy people. There's no group whose lives are touched less by healthcare issues. For them, healthcare reform is, at best, ideological, unless they get sick and, even then, only gravely so.

Support from the young and healthy for reform of a system that seems to affect only the older and sickly, will require the same effort the Civil Rights movement needed in the 60's. Support from those who were not personally touched by racism grew only after the true injustices and inequality of the system were exposed. People today will respond to and mobilize around healthcare reform, but the administration and its supporters must expose the suffering that’s going on and stop waffling behind rhetoric.

Isn’t that how Ted Kennedy used to do it?