This Will Hurt: Bush takes on Medicare

A poll in January asked registered voters whether they wanted a drug benefit and Medicare reform, or just a drug benefit. The no-reform, yes-to-benefits option won by 27 points. (So much for the idea that this president is poll-driven.) And while Republicans won the 2002 elections, the winning candidates didn't talk about Medicare reform. The GOP won no mandate for reform, and the Democrats know it-just as in 1995.

The 2002 campaign made prospects for Medicare reform worse in another way, too. A lot of Democrats played up their votes for President Bush's overall agenda. They still lost. The remaining Democrats have concluded that they're better off tending to their left-wing base than working with President Bush. They're in no mood to be statesmen. Get ready for Mediscare II.

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