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Nov 12 2009, 6:30 am by Chris Good

Question Of The Day: What If Health Care Fails?

If health care reform falls apart, what will the rest of President Obama's presidency look like?

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Comments (5)

rba

Like his party didn't have what it takes to maintain power in Congress.

mesquito66

After ObamaCare falls apart, it will clear the field for failures on Climate and Immigration.

scarpy

GOP will reclaim at least one chamber in 2010 as depressed Dems stay home. If they only get one in 2010, they'll make gains in 2012 too and probably take the White House with Lou Dobbs leading a populist revolt when the economic recovery falters and unemployment rises to 13%. Either way bankers will keep getting multi-million dollar taxpayer-funded bonuses.

If the GOP takes both chambers in 2010 though, Obama will hold on in 2012 as he blames the worsening economy on GOP intransigence.

Of course, all the economic predictions could play out no matter how health care goes; health care's failure will just make dems themselves that much weaker and their voters that much more discouraged.

Deborah

A mess, barring a unifying outside problem to distract attention.

Pineview1997

It would be a disaster for his presidency and barring the nomination of a complete nutter like Sarah Palin, Obama would likely lose in 2012. Obama would be forced into a presidency of small ideas, of midnight basketball and "do not call" lists.

But then, that's not going to happen.

HCR will pass (though it won't be a great or ambitious effort). The economy will continue to recover (though not as fast as if we had had a better and larger stimulus package). By 2011, unemployment will be back around 6-6.5% - an entirely manageable number for reelection. Troops will have largely exited Iraq and will be drawing down in Afghanistan. Seeing these developments, smart GOPers will wait till 2016 to run and the GOP field will be left to the re-treads. Obama wins again roughly 53-47.