What I learned: This hour long Frontline episode focuses less on the mechanics of healthcare and more about the political moves needed to make it happen. It plays on the apparent contradiction of Obama running on a campaign of transparency and being a Washingtion outsider, but promoting back-room deals to get his ambitious healthcare deal pushed through Congress.
A lot of it centered on Rahm Emanuel and his history with healthcare bills. Rahm was an instrumental member of the Clinton administration and worked on the bill for years only to watch it fall apart in Congress. He vowed to return to the issue someday, and had his chance once Obama took office.
No wonder Rahm supports better healthcare; look at his messed up finger!
Obama, for his part, was playing it cool for the start of the public and political debates, believing his staff could handle the criticisms and smear campaigns of Republicans and insurance companies. Eventually Obama realized he had to get involved directly, and that helped the bill get passed.
What I liked: The film painted in-depth and multi-layered portrayals of Obama and his staff, especially Rahm. Rahm is interesting to me; tough as nails, rough around the edges, but he knows how to get things done in Washington. The contrast between him and Obama also intrigues me: Obama is polished and well spoken, but slow and methodical and too inexperienced to see much progress with Congress. Although I'm glad to have Rahm as my mayor I was sad to see him leave the White House.
What I didn't like: Though I didn't expect a simple hour-long episode to cover all the complexity of the enormous healthcare bill, I did expect to gain at least a decent understanding of what it was and what it meant for the average American. But the film focused less on the content of the bill and more on the process of the bill being passed. I will have to do more research on my own I suppose.
Anyway, it was good for what it was and I will always sit through anything Obama-related.
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