Robert Kuttner
A Wake Up Call

"But as I wrote in Obama's Challenge, in August 2008, it would be a huge mistake to try to get health care done right out of the box. Obama first needed to get his sea-legs, and focus like a laser on economic recovery. If he got the economy back on track, he would then have earned the chops to undertake more difficult structural reforms like health care."
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"This battle should have been the president and the people versus the interests. Instead more and more voters concluded that it was the president and the interests versus the people."