Harry and Louise, Meet Elizabeth Edwards

blogs.tnr.com — Political autopsies of the failed campaign for universal health care in the 1990s frequently focus on the activities of special interests who opposed it. Not that many people saw the infamous "Harry and Louise" ads, in which an average-looking couple sat at their dining room table worrying that the Clinton health plan would take away their choice of doctor. But the ads came to symbolize the misleading, and expensive, lobbying campaign waged by small insurance companies, the pharmaceutical industry, and other conservative groups. Perhaps no less important, it gave the opposition to universal coverage a visible and sympathetic face (or, to be more accurate, set of faces).

But it wasn't just the lobbying against the Clinton health care plan that killed it; it was also the lack of lobbying for it. Proponents of reform had hoped that like-minded interest groups would push back against the anti-reform lobbies. But the unions, famously, sat out most of the health care debate because they had spent so much time and money fighting the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993. The AARP, meanwhile, had to hold its fire because leaks about possible Medicare cuts had spooked seniors.