Forget GOP, Full Speed Ahead on Health Reform: Clinton

Bill Clinton has a hopeful exhortation for Congressional Democrats trying to push through health care reform. “The president's doing the right thing. It is both morally and politically right,” Clinton tells Esquire. “I wouldn't even worry about the Republicans,” who are just “sitting around waiting for us to mess up,” he says. “I'd worry about executing.” Clinton sees parallels between Obama’s first year and his own, with one caveat.

“It's going to have a different ending,” Clinton says of Obama’s debut. “He's going to get health care reform.” That’s in part because “this electorate has suffered” and is heartened by and supportive of the “cool and intelligent guy who can multitask in a world where they know you’ve got to multitask.” Clinton doesn’t give much credence to GOP attacks, and thinks the general population isn’t far behind. “We've got 9% of all eligible homeowners in America having their mortgages rewritten—9%—and you're talking to me about where Obama was born?” (More Bill Clinton stories.)