Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

October 13, 2009

How Will Snowe Vote?

With Republicans apparently playing hardball with Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) before's today's Senate Finance Committee vote on health care reform, George Stephanopoulos gives his odds on how she will vote.

• YES: 45% -- "Voting yes keeps Snowe at the table and keeps Dems from moving immediately to reconciliation."
• NO: 40% -- "Snowe is a Republican and she has to think about her base (Closed primaries in Maine)."
• PASS: 15% -- "The best way to keep your options open is to keep your options open."

First Read: "Nothing will put a damper on the expected passage of the Senate Finance Committee health care reform bill other than a result that does NOT include Snowe voting in the affirmative. She's the cover the White House needs, NOT for bipartisanship, but for wooing Democrats like Ben Nelson and Tom Carper and Blanche Lincoln and Evan Bayh. Snowe is today's most powerful politician in Washington when it comes to health care."

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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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