Obama's Waterloo?

Reading the headlines over the last few days about the critical and historic health care reform battle unfolding in the country, I was reminded of a few of the articles we ran in mid-June and earlier on how the battle lines were going to be drawn.

Flavio Casoy wrote a few prescient articles describing how the Republicans saw the health reform battle as a way to "take down" the Obama presidency.

Casoy, then a medical student and activist for single-payer and health care reform, wrote in

As Congress shapes health care bill, opportunities and dangers for progressives

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/16001/

that the GOP "have chosen health care as the issue to defeat the president and turn the electoral winds in their favor in 2010. Their comeback would make it much more difficult for us to advance a truly worker-friendly legislative agenda.

"Their choice to fight the president’s popularity on health care imbues the issue with a dual nature. On one hand, we are fighting to expand access to quality and affordable care for everyone in America; on the other hand, we are fighting to defend the gains of last November. Success or defeat of the president on health care will determine our success or defeat on many other issues. "

Casoy, like many of the People's World writers, saw the forest for the trees. People's World writers can see the big picture of what is at stake, where are the battle lines, who are potential allies, who is the main oppostion, because our writers are active in the struggles and take a partisan stance. Partisan to what is best for the vast majority of people -- those who have to work in some capacity to live -- partisan to the working class and diversity of the American people.

That why Pete Seeger once said, "You learn something everytime you read the People's World."

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