Now is Kennedy's Chance for Health Reform

'Stars are better aligned' with friendly president, business community

By Drew Nelles, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 8, 2009 6:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – Recent praise of Ted Kennedy has “the feeling of a grand farewell,” but don't bury the cancer-stricken senator just yet, Eleanor Clift writes in Newsweek. Far from it—the liberal lion is "burning up the phone lines" as the third and best shot at enacting his cherished dream of universal health care comes into view. With business interests on board and a sympathetic president, this is “one of those rare moments in history where something dramatic can be done.”

President Barack Obama wants a health care bill in August, and he’s learned from Hillary Clinton’s failed effort: He’s letting influential senators like Kennedy do the work, and has recast health care for the times as an economic problem. Kennedy’s “mortality is but a small piece in the overall mosaic that portends the possibility of success in achieving universal health care,” Clift writes.

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Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., listens as President Barack Obama speaks at the White House Forum on Health Reform in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Sen. Ted Kennedy arrives for the swearing-in ceremony of President Barack Obama. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, pool)

President Barack Obama speaks with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., at the White House Forum on Health Reform in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, March 5, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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The stars are better aligned for the passage of health-care reform principally because the business community that almost uniformly opposed it in the past now supports it. - Eleanor Clift

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Now is Kennedy's Chance for Health Reform