You know that old saying about how even bad PR is good PR? Well, The Nation has a pretty decent argument for its validity. Seems like the more Republicans turn up their messages about the recently passed legislation, the more they’re turning off listeners to their arguments. November will be interesting. That’s for sure.

An interesting poll surfaced yesterday, revealing that – in the days since health reform legislation was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law by President Obama – more Americans have taken a favorable view of the legislation than they did before the vote.

Nearly 50 percent of those polled now say the legislation was “a good first step” that should be followed by more action.

Was the poll showing that more Americans had suddenly come to the realization that the health reform legislation really was a good thing? Nah. We think the poll simply shows that supporters of health reform can finally feel good about wanting change.

We think this poll wasn’t so much a poll as a mood ring.

Before the vote, the legislation’s supporters had been pummeled by the bill’s detractors for months. For every bit of evidence showing that the legislation would help millions of Americans, there was an equal or greater counterattack – saying the legislation would make insurance more expensive, that it would increase taxes, increase the federal deficit, increase the size of government.

And the arguments were not just that the logic behind the bill was unsound. The arguments suggested that anyone who supported the bill was reckless, or stupid, or naive, or preoccupied with a political victory, or unAmerican. The entire debate was the emotional beating that opponents intended it to be.

But we suspect that the passage of the legislation changed the mood of its supporters, including supporters who were beginning to think that the months of political wrangling had ultimately done more harm than good to the legislation.

Their mood had been deflated by months of watching Democrats stalled again and again as they attempted to fine tune legislation in response to each new attack. It was one thing for health reformers to promise that they would look before they leaped. It was another thing entirely for reformers to look before, during and after leaping.

Finally, reformers of health care realized that they’d been right all along – and voted their consciences. They realized that a complete failure to move forward would be more than a huge political liability. It would be a complete letdown for the millions of Americans who trusted Congress to do something to fix the system.

And when the reformers stood their ground, it restored their supporters’ confidence. They believed again. Change, it turns out, is not impossible.

Now, health reform is on track and – like motorists who have been stuck in traffic far too long – supporters are relieved and exhilarated to be moving forward. New scenery. Wind on our faces. The promise of a new and better destination for millions of us.

Our mood ring is decidedly dark blue.

Our statement has nothing to do with the last-minute deal cut between the White House and Rep. Bart Stupak (D- Mich.). Here’s why the historic vote authorizing health insurance reform is the biggest pro-life vote in history:

Fifty-five thousand Americans die every year because of lack of health insurance coverage. Those are deaths that no longer need to happen, thanks to important market reforms the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress bravely passed.

Democrats have been trying to provide health care for all since the days of President Truman. This last attempt took more than 400 days as they worked to allow all members of Congress – including the Republicans across the aisle – to have their say.

That’s a real “pro-life” move to us. And change that we can all believe in.

Bravo President Obama – bravo to all those who voted to make health care available to all. Today, history is made.

Throughout the health care debate, it’s been fascinating to watch opposition responses to each bit of reform-related news. The complete inability of opponents of Democratic reform proposals to see anything positive in the legislation has been simply stunning.

How determined were opponents of reform?

Determined enough to threaten that legislation promising free assistance to those who might need counseling on hospice and other end-of-life issues was – in reality – a plot to kill off our weakest Americans?

Determined enough to charge that the President’s desire for reform is nothing more than an attempt to hijack democracy (Destination: socialism)?

Determined enough to refute every economic forecast that illustrated proponents’ determined attempt to enact reform without further ballooning the deficit (a deficit left as a pillow mint by the previous administration)?

Determined enough to claim that legislative maneuvers to counter the no-holds-barred obstructionism of health reform opponents was unconstitutional – despite the fact that the same tactic had been used repeatedly in the previous administration?

Determined enough to continue promising that the free market will solve our health care problems – even as insurance premiums increase by 10, 20, 30 or 40 percent?

Opponents were determined, no doubt. But despite it all, reform proponents now have the goal line in sight.

By now, we know that despite imminent passage of this legislation, the howling and the threats and the fear mongering will only intensify. Nothing proponents can say will appease opponents. The sides will simply not agree to disagree.

And that will be OK for the millions of Americans who want reform. The noise will be tolerable – tolerable compared to the fear of increasing premiums, or the fear of medical bankruptcy or fears of an increased likelihood of medical disaster or death now faced by the uninsured.

As proponents say “toe-may-toe,” their detractors can say “toe-mah-toe” all they want.

Health reformers are still not calling the whole thing off.

We thought this editorial cartoon in the Kansas City Star was pretty good – and not just because we agree with them on that whole Global Warming thing. We also got a chuckle because it hit so close to home in terms of the ongoing health reform debate.

We’d rewrite the caption to read, “If being cold means there’s no such thing as global warming, does the fact that some folks say they’re happy with their health insurance mean there’s no health care crisis?”

The answer is that the apparent adequacy of employer-sponsored health coverage for millions does not mean that our system is A-OK. Far from it, in fact. The skyrocketing premiums promised for customers of Anthem Blue Cross last week are evidence that those nutty health reformers were really on to something when they said the sky was falling.

And it’s not just Anthem. As health policy experts continue to point out, the individual health insurance market is “fundamentally broken.” Rates are soaring in a growing number of states. Increased insurance costs are hitting small employers. Folks who signed up for private plans through Medicare are facing “sharp increases” in their premiums.

Who’s not in trouble? As much as the industry protests, we’re not convinced it’s hurting – or just getting by – when we see numbers like this.

Now, Democrats AGAIN see an opening. (If they didn’t see it, we’d be sending them to the optometrist post haste.) They’re lining up again to support a public option that would give consumers affordable options to plans that seem destined for luxury status. (It’s bad enough that some folks don’t consider health insurance a right. But should it really be a luxury reserved for Americans with higher incomes?)

President Obama and supporters of his health reform agenda are about to meet (we hope) in a summit with opponents of his proposals. We hope they can have a healthy dialogue, but frankly, we’re not optimistic.

If the two sides can’t find common ground, it’s time for proponents to do whatever it takes – even if it means going it alone – to move forward and get reforms passed.

Because – let’s face it – the sky really IS falling.

We don’t like the phrase, “It’s now or never,” especially when it comes to the health reform battle. If legislation doesn’t succeed now, it doesn’t mean the nation’s health care system can never be improved.

Even with a complete failure by the Democrats, the system could conceivably gradually evolve into something better over time with incremental legislated improvements to the system. But we’re not at all convinced even that will happen, and even if it does, it will surely take another generation or two – or  longer, if the mid-term elections end up bouncing weak-kneed Dems out of office.

When will be there be enough evidence to convince Democrats that reform this year is critical? How much more evidence of our failing system do they need? Even the Wall Street Journal is now saying what is becoming more and more obvious: that our economy won’t be hurt by health reform; it will be hurt without health reform.

As Ezra Klein points out, this really is the Democrats’ window of opportunity. Jonathan Cohn wants to know whether the President will give them the shove they need.

Democratic Sen. Al Franken yesterday told the Administration to get off its butt. Even Sen. Ben Nelson, who has helped delay legislation as much as anyone, says that without reform, the national deficit will swell.

And really: will the Democrats’ legislation ever be good enough for Republicans? Based on compromises Democrats have already made and the fact that Republicans are still threatening to kill the bill, we suspect it’s a game Democrats can’t win.

The message to Congressional Democrats and our Democratic administration? You’re THIS CLOSE to failing. Miserably.

So yeah. It really is now or never.

Conservatives for Patients' Rights declared in a full-page ad today that the public option is dead.

The current status of the health reform legislation in the nation’s capital reminds of us the popular quizzes that challenge players to speculate as to whether celebrities are dead yet.

If you asked opponents of health reform, they’d surely tell you that – like the failed health reform efforts of 1994 – the current Democratic proposals  never really had a chance of survival. But following the recent Massachusetts special election that eliminated the Democrats’ supermajority, opposition was definitely ready to pronounce the legislation dead as a doornail and publish the obit.

Dead.

Today, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, one of the loudest voices against the Democrats’ proposals, did just that. In a full-page ad, the group announced that a key element of the legislation – the controversial public option – is already dead and buried.

It’s not surprising that opposition is delivering “last rites,” but Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi yesterday also agreed that  there’s “no hope” that a public option will be part of any legislation that moves ahead.

Not dead.

The good news is that Pelosi’s statement reasserts her belief that health reform legislation – minus the public option – is still breathing. She’s not alone, of course, with President Obama still optimistic, and still urging his party to “finish the job” on health care.

Democrats do still have a plan to keep their patient alive by working around a promised Republican filibuster. The Republicans, naturally, have their own plan to facilitate a slow, painful death for the legislation.

Will health reform die? We won’t know for sure for a while, since Democrats are currently regrouping to determine the best strategy for moving ahead.

But for now, at least? Definitely not dead yet.

In the days following last week’s special election in Massachusetts, it wasn’t surprising at all to hear opponents of health reform announcing that America had – loudly and clearly – told Congress to start over on health reform.

But here’s the thing: If the Democrats had barely eked out a win, opponents would have said the same thing. If Brown had lost by 10 points, opponents would have gloated that – even in the Democratic stronghold of Massachusetts – voters were giving health reform efforts a big thumbs down. The message would have been the same, regardless of the outcome.

Of course, we’re not buying it. First of all, it was not a national referendum. It was a vote in Massachusetts. Second, there was definitely more on Massachusetts voters’ minds than health reform. Personalities, for instance, were a huge factor.

But more importantly, Americans have, for months, said that they’re ready for health reform. National polls have repeatedly revealed a public that wants health reform. Even a poll of voters for Brown after his election showed that while they wanted Scott Brown, they wanted him to work with the Democrats on health reform.

And groups that have been working with the Obama administration for months STILL want health reform.

Who’s been calling for Democrats to start over on health reform? The same folks who’ve been putting up roadblocks – and not just since the legislation was introduced last year, but for YEARS.

It IS time for our elected proponents of health reform to listen, but not to the pundits who are predicting that the next election will spell their doom. It’s definitely not time to listen to renewed suggestions that less is somehow more. Less is definitely less.

It’s time for legislators to listen to the very words that propelled them to the one-yard line of health reform success, because the rationale they have used for months to support their efforts still holds true: The system is still broken. Millions are still uninsured. People without coverage continue to die every day.

If they do listen to the opposition, we hope they’ll listen closely, because they’ll hear the real message loud and clear:

Starting over will be the beginning of the end of health reform.

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic said today what a lot of liberals have been saying about the Senate bill. Basically, it’s been stretched and pulled like a gob of saltwater taffy as it morphed into something barely acceptable to barely enough Democrats, but also largely disappointing to a large contingent of other liberals (and completely offensive to most conservatives).

But Cohn also asks the important question, which is whether the bill is still a decent bill – even after a kitchen cram-packed with cooks alternately spiced up and watered down the original recipe until it was, in the eyes of many, not fit for consumption.

So he looked at what the Senate bill would do to families. He took calculations from a pointy headed health care expert from MIT named Jonathan Gruber, who based his calculations on CBO official cost estimates. The result was this nifty chart.

And it doesn’t look … ah … not fit for consumption. In fact, in each of the four scenarios (ranging from 150% of the federal poverty line to 350% of the federal poverty line) examined, the annual premium dropped, the annual out-of-pocket max dropped and the total percentage of income used for health care dropped.

Could it be better? Cohn says, yeah, it could. But should the bill be scrapped, as some liberals have charged? Nope. As Cohn concludes, “we should also recognize the Senate bill for what it is: A measure that will make people’s lives significantly better. Surely that’s worth a little enthusiasm.”

You’ve got our enthusiasm, Jonathan.

Another great question is whether the health reform is ultimately going to look completely different from the proposals President Obama envisioned and talked about during his Presidential campaign. And the answer there, too, is “not so much” (we’re paraphrasing), according to health reform pundit Ezra Klein.

Klein actually says this:

But the basic structure of the proposal is remarkably similar. Here’s how it was described in the campaign’s white paper:

The Obama-Biden plan provides new affordable health insurance options by: (1) guaranteeing eligibility for all health insurance plans; (2) creating a National Health Insurance Exchange to help Americans and businesses purchase private health insurance; (3) providing new tax credits to families who can’t afford health insurance and to small businesses with a new Small Business Health Tax Credit; (4) requiring all large employers to contribute towards health coverage for their employees or towards the cost of the public plan; (5) requiring all children have health care coverage; (5) expanding eligibility for the Medicaid and SCHIP programs; and (6) allowing flexibility for state health reform plans.

So if we stay with our food analogy, Colonel Obama’s Original Recipe may be a little more crispy, but it’s still basically got the core herbs and spices.

We still don’t know what ultimately is going to end up on our plate. Opponents feel they need to continue to fight until the bitter end in the Senate. And then, if the legislation survives the Senate, there’s still the challenge of merging it with the House bill.

The cooks aren’t done tinkering with health reform. It could end up a little spicier. It could end up a little more bland. But for now, at least, we haven’t lost our appetite for change.

Anyone who thought passage of a health reform bill in 2009 would be easy, given the Democratic majority in Congress, was deluded. To think that all of Congressional Democrats – and the Independents they court – would vote in lock step was just plain fantasy.

But even Democrats who knew reform legislation would be all about compromise seem to be completely flattened by this week’s impasse with Sen. Joe Lieberman, who just last week forced Democrats to push aside dreams of a robust public option and drove them to create a “Grand Compromise.” Now that compromise, too, is a non-starter for Lieberman, who promised to vote against the bill if it included an expansion of Medicare.

Progressive Democrats and reform proponents are pretty ticked at Lieberman (one blogger calling him the “Worst Person in History of Universe”) who yesterday said that he was optimistic about an even more stripped-down version of the legislation. “Put me down as encouraged in the direction these discussions are going,” he said. No public option? Great. No expanded Medicare? Even better.

Now, Democrats – who seem more and more like the hapless residents of Whoville – appear ready to roll with the latest punch from Joe and to move on with their ravaged bill, worrying out loud that no bill by Christmas could mean no reform bill at all. Not in during this administration, at least.

The question is whether Lieberman is finished – as Ezra Klein said yesterday – “torturing Liberals.” But it’s also, who will torture the Liberals next? If Lieberman finally steps aside, will Sen. Ben Nelson step in?

I guess, in the spirit of the holidays, what we’re really asking here is:

Will the REAL Grinch please stand up?