Clinton: Whoops, I Thought Health Care Would Be Popular

Long Timeline and GOP Opposition Have Stifled Support
By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 20, 2010 8:44 AM CDT
Bill Clinton Says He Overestimated Popularity of Health Care Reform
Former President Bill Clinton speaks at a rally for Ohio Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2010, in Cleveland. Clinton said Strickland has created an award-winning economic development program for Ohio and should be re-elected.   (AP Photo/Tony Dejak)

Bill Clinton thought that once it was signed into law, Barack Obama's health care reform bill would become amazingly popular. But the polls are in, and now Clinton admits he miscalculated, the Hill reports. "First of all, the benefits of the bill are spread out of three or four years," he told Meet the Press. “And secondly, there has been an enormous and highly effective attack on it.”

With Republican leaders mounting stiff opposition to the reform, Clinton says “they learned from my first two years that, if you just say no, even though people hate it, you get rewarded for it because it discourages the Democrats and it inflames your base.”
(More Bill Clinton stories.)

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