Clinton plans Tuesday meetings with all Hill Democrats

[karynnj]

84. Nowhere do I not give her credit

She definitely did lead a very thorough effort to get a healthcare bill. I would say that the biggest problem she had - one that might be related to how she deals with the world - is that only a narrow, extremely loyal group of people were listened to by her and Ira Magaziner. Even Senators and Congressmen who were KNOWN to be influential on healthcare - like Ted Kennedy were excluded. This led to a plan that not one Senator then on the Finance committee was in favor of - not even a liberal like Bill Bradley. This is why Bill Clinton never really put the plan out for a vote.

(Schip which did pass was originally Kerry/Kennedy - a 1996 bill designed to copy the plan MA already had. In 1997, Kennedy managed to get Hatch to cosponsor it after significant changes, most importantly letting the states design the program. Kerry and Dodd were cosponsors. Here, Hillary Clinton did two important things : she convinced BC to include funding (beyond the tobacco tax) for it in the budget AND she used her status as First Lady to advocate for it. I wish she would more explicitly use this as an example of learning that letting Congress design the bill (that do things you favor) is more successful than doing it yourself secretly and then asking them to approve it. The former gets advocates in Congress, where the latter might even itself be a turnoff.)