[adventured]

It was his pen, that was his biggest contribution to it. His involvement in crafting the legislation, and getting the necessary votes, was almost non-existent. It was the super majority Democratic Congress that was responsible for making the ACA happen. Both in terms of wrangling the votes together, and reaching the countless compromises necessary to get it through by the slim margin it ultimately passed by.

[vasilipupkin]

You are focused on the mechanics of how it got passed. But it was clearly his major priority and wouldn't have happened without him being in office. So, I apologize, but your statement seems at best completely inaccurate to me

[meragrin]

So Hillary couldn't or wouldn't have done the same thing? Personally, I think it would have sailed through much more easily had she been in office.

[vasilipupkin]

Hmmmm, Hillary tried to do the same thing a long time ago and failed. But more importantly, even if you are correct, that is totally irrelevant to whether or not Obama had anything to do with it.

[ams6110]

Hillary has the political finesse of a bull in a china shop. That's always been the source of her failures.

[vasilipupkin]

not sure what to make of this statements. She seems to be doing pretty well right now

[mikeash]

"A did X" is not refuted by "B would have done X too if B were in A's place."

[meragrin]

How is "wouldn't have happened without him being in office" the same as "A did X"?

[mikeash]

I took that as meaning that either the seat was occupied by a rock, or perhaps by McCain.

[dragonwriter]

> So Hillary couldn't or wouldn't have done the same thing?

Its obviously not demonstrable, but perhaps not; while the attacks that were thrown at the effort Clinton spearheaded as First Lady were largely unjustified, and since the style of plan both Clinton and Obama supported (of which the ACA is an instantiation) isn't much like the effort Clinton spearheaded (and is, in fact, more like what a number of insurers proposed in response to that), there were a lot of political negative associations with Clinton and healthcare that Obama didn't have.

> Personally, I think it would have sailed through much more easily had she been in office.

Based on...what, exactly?

[bruceb]

Why would it have sailed through with her in office?