Health Care Reform Winners and Losers

The winners and losers of the health care reform battle will take years to determine, but Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post has some early choices. The winners:

• President Obama: "He ran on doing big things and now will have health care to show for that pledge when he asks for re-election in November 2012."
• Nancy Pelosi: The speaker "does her best work outside of the public glare. And her best work is remarkably good."

• GOP leadership: John Boehner and Mitch McConnell can now "make the case that Democrats and Democrats alone pushed through a bill that, they will argue, the American people don't want."
• Bart Stupak: "The face of the principled opposition."

Losers:

• Bart Stupak: "Prominent and influential" though he may be, "he also inflamed the liberal left nationally and drew a primary challenge."
• Flip-floppers: "Changing positions in politics is never a good thing but doing so on such a high profile issue is a huge electoral risk."
• Civil discourse: The debate "reinforced the growing sense that the idea of disagreeing without being disagreeable no longer exists within the halls of Congress."

To see the complete list, which includes nuns, Mitt Romney, and Dennis Kucinich, click here.