The Risks and Benefits of Fighting the Good Fight

If a fight's worth fighting, then you have to be prepared to lose it, because not every "good fight" is a guaranteed win. Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) says that Barack Obama is prepared to lose the healthcare fight -- and with it, the presidency.

Raw Story:

After a town hall meeting yesterday in Iowa, the Democratic lawmaker quoted Obama to reporters...:

The president (said), ‘I’m not going to kick the can down the road.’ And he said that and I said, ‘Well, that’s something I’m kind of used to from southern Iowa, you know. I know about kicking the can down the road.’ And he said, ‘No, if it makes me a one-term president, I’m going to, we’re going to take it on because the country is in need of us taking this on.’ I respected that very much.

Boswell said the president made his remarks during a recent meeting with the centrist “Blue Dog” Democrats, of which Boswell is a member.

Of course, Obama's "damn the torpedoes" attitude may represent an analysis of risks v. benefits. In an interview with The Economist, former President Bill Clinton spelled out the benefits side of the equation; "I don't care how low they drive support for this with misinformation. The minute the president signs [a health care reform] bill, his approval will go up. Within a year, when the good things begin to happen, and the bad things they're saying will happen don't happen, approval will explode."

I think it's unlikely that no bill will be signed. Whatever bill Obama signs -- no matter how weak -- will be trumpeted far and wide as a huge win for the president. Reform supporters have to make sure that the bill signed is a decent bill.