By James Downie

Well, that whole health care thing is (basically) over. That didn’t take long, did it? Okay, fine, the whole process was a fourteen-month death march for many Democratic partisans. Still, there were still some valuable lessons to draw for the future.

Nancy Pelosi Is A Brilliant Speaker: Many a Democrat seemed ready to give up in despair after Scott Brown’s special election to the Senate. Not Nancy Pelosi. On the eve of Brown’s electon, the speaker told reporters, “”Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will have quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and it will be soon.” Within the week, she was backing reconciliation as a winning strategy, and her work for every last vote this past weekend paid dividends with hours to spare (including Bart Stupak’s better-late-than-never defense of the bill on the House floor, which made for great televison). By the way, while Pelosi comes out of this shining, the weekend didn’t help Rahm “let’s go incremental” Emanuel.

Polls Can Be Deceptive: All through the debate, opponents of health reform pointed to many polls suggesting that a majority of Americans were opposed to the bills. Those stats provided nice GOP talking points, but Democrats shouldn’t worry too much about them, for two reasons. First, as Nate Silver pointed out in December, much of the opposition actually came from the dissatisfied left; this remained true through the weekend. Second, numerous polls that went deeper and actually explained the bill to voters found that support noticeably improved after respondents heard the actual changes. Going into November, Democrats can be confident that voters will respond favorably once their representatives get a chance to explain the reforms.

This Ain’t 1993: Recalling the failure of Bill Clinton’s attempt at health reform, the GOP went all out again in opposition. In retrospect, even a quick look at the differences between 1993 and 2010 makes one wonder why they felt that would be a winning strategy. For starters, Bill Clinton was elected with less than 45% of the vote in a three-way race, and his House majority was tired and corrupt, whereas Barack Obama was coming off of the biggest Democratic victory at the polls since 1964. Conversely, while Obama had much more political strength to draw on, his health care reform is far more moderate than Clinton’s. As Jon Chait outlines over at The New Republic, Obama’s bill not only occupies the middle of the road when one breaks down the polls, but also counts Romneycare in Massachusetts and the 1993 Republican alternative to the Clinton plan among its chief inspirations. Combine those two, and it’s hard to understand why John Boehner and Mitch McConnell thought they could win.