Health Care Reform Without Kennedy

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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August 26, 2009

Health Care Reform Without Kennedy

Mike Allen: "Though Kennedy was unable to play his customary role of tactician and negotiator, his spirit and advice guided the health care debate as he watched it unfold from Hyannis Port. And there is some hope among health care reform supporters that his passing will renew that spirit of pragmatism and deal making that marked Kennedy's four decades in the Senate. The collective breath Washington and the nation will take to remember Kennedy over the next few days will likely lower the temperature on a debate that has reached a roiling boil over the last month. Operatives on both sides of the debate will have to readjust their strategies and consider how to calibrate their messages so they fit within the Kennedy narrative that is sure to drive coverage for coming days. In short, the landscape has now shifted and everyone is scrambling to understand the new playing field."

Meanwhile, The Hill reports Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) wants the health care reform bill named after Kennedy.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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August 26, 2009