An optimistic take on health-care reform

Ezra Klein thinks the stars -- and the forces -- are so far lining up much more promisingly than in 1994:

The opponents of health reform are, at this juncture, entirely isolated. Industry is adopting an attitude of relentless positivity. Republicans are grudgingly attempting to appear cooperative. The only straight opposition is coming, as Maddow and Howard Dean say, from Rick Scott, a disgraced former hospital executive whose company was convicted of defrauding the federal government in the largest ever case of its kind.

You can say, of course, that the traditional opponents of reform will rapidly find their voice when the bill emerges. But they're lagging. The difference between this year and 1994 is that in 1994, it was the opponents of reform who spent the preceding year massing their forces and organizing their grassroots. This year, it's Health Care for America Now and SEIU and MoveOn.org and Obama for America who have spent the last 12 months building out their organizational capabilities. The campaign on behalf of reform, in other words, is significantly farther along than the campaign against reform.