What would FDR do

Peggy Noonan has a clever device in her column this week, she imagines what FDR and Nixon would tell their respective parties if they could come back to this earth and advise them. She has FDR offering Obama his take on healthcare, the first major issue on which Obama has ended up on the wrong side of public opinion. FDR points out to Obama that his problem is that if he, Obama, doesn’t get his bill he looks weak but if he does get it, it won’t work. Then he says: 

“But I have an idea, and hear me out. You already have Medicare, a single-payer national health-care system for those 65 and older. Little Harry Truman was the first American to get a Medicare card in 1965, did you know that? LBJ hauled him in for a ceremony. Anyway, Americans like Medicare. So here’s the plan. From here on in, every day, start talking about it: ‘Medicare this, Medicare that, Medicare.’