Bill Clinton talks in Nashville on health care reform

Whenever a heavy political issue comes up, Bill Clinton is almost always the one that brings the most interesting perspective to it, as chances are he'll be able to recount his direct experience with the very same issue during the 90s when he was president. Yesterday was no different as he made a speech in Nashville mostly on the subject of health care, recounting just how the process worked during the 90s and why reform failed to happen then. A rough transcript of what he said can be seen here if you're not in the mood to watch 40 minutes of video.

It turns out that this long summer break may have actually been a good thing, as the drive for reform is much easier to keep up in the long term than manufactured rage. There is also almost no way to turn up the rhetoric even more after the GOP side jumped the shark by using the term death panels (I wrote about that here two weeks ago). After the initial shock wore off during the first few days the term has become a bit of a running joke.