Jim Cooper, a Democratic congressman from Tennessee . . . is one of the most thoughtful, cordial and well-prepared members of the House. In 1992, he came up with a health care reform plan that would go on to attract wide, bipartisan support. A later version had 58 co-sponsors in the House — 26 Republicans and 32 Democrats. It was sponsored in the Senate by Democrat John Breaux and embraced by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, among others.
But unlike the plan Hillary Clinton came up with then, the Cooper plan did not include employer mandates to force universal coverage. . . . Cooper told [Clinton] that she was getting pulled too far to the left. . . . Hillary Clinton set up a war room to oppose Cooper, who was planning to run for the Senate in 1994. . . . At one meeting in the West Wing, a source told Broder and Johnson, Clinton “kind of got this evil look and said, ‘We’ve got to do something about this Cooper bill. We’ve got to kill it before it goes any further.’ ”
. . . [T]he debate Clinton is having with Barack Obama echoes the debate she had with Cooper 15 years ago. The issue, once again, is over whether to use government to coerce people into getting coverage. The Clintonites argue that without coercion, there will be free-riders on the system. . . . Cooper, who, not surprisingly, supports Barack Obama, believes that Clinton hasn’t changed. “Hillary’s approach is so absolutist, draconian and intolerant, it means a replay of 1993.”
Barack Obama is likely to not fight the way Clinton did. He will find "common ground" with someone like Cooper. Some would call that triangulation. Clearly on health care, Hillary Clinton was no triangulator. Who was right on the merits? I do not know. But SOMEONE was right. And it was to Hillary's credit that she fought for what she thought was right. Will Barack Obama fight the Jim Coopers of the world if he thinks he is right? That is, at best, an open question. The Unity Schtick suggests he will not.
